Three's Company Roadtrip (Day 1)

Well, it was that time again...my friends and I did our annual road trip. The first year it was Mel, "Sauerkraut" and me. That year was so convenient because Mel was at BYU, S-Kraut was living in SLC and I was in Logan. As time has passed Mel moved to Portland, S-Kraut lives in Pocatello, and I am here so this trip is a nice way for us all to stay in touch and make some good memories along the way. I was calling it "White Trash Road Trip" but Mel affectionatly named it "Three's Company Roadtrip '09" and the name has stuck....here is day 1.

I met my two travel companions in Pocatello and headed to our first stop, the booming Blackfoot metro area. Here we went to the Idaho Potato Museum. It was interesting to say the least, but I got free hasbrowns and a potato sack, so it was worth the stop. Did I mention the worlds biggest potato chip?

Next we went to a small town called Arco, ID. This town was the first town to be powered by Nuclear power. The point of this stop, other than driving through the TERRIBLE Arco desert, was to see a submarine. Mel planned the stops and when she told me we were going to see a submarine in the desert I was so excited, my excitment faded when I saw the submarine. It was still cool to stop at a roadside stop most people just fly past without giving it a second glance. Oh and the reason for the submarine? It was the first submarine powered by nuclear power, so it's final resting place is here.

After eating at Pickle's Place, I ate the Atomic Burger, we cut across Idaho to Boise. Along the way we had one more stop, Craters of the Moon.

I don't know the history of this place, but I am assuming it was once an active range of volcano's. We hiked around for a few hours. Just a quick note: We went in the evening so it was cool and quite pleasant. There would be no worse Hell than this place in direct sunlight in the summer. The rocks are all black, the paved trails are black, and there are no trees. Camp in a trailer with AC and go in the evening. Below is an action photo of me walking up a hill....I look very pleased.


After Craters of the Moon we did the final stretch of our drive to Boise. We went through the Boise National Forrest, which I hear is very pretty in the day time, at night...just a lot of dark. As we drove through the winding canyon we started to see a lot of shooting stars, because the roadtrip really had no defined beginning or end we had the luxury of stopping whenever, wherever we wanted, and we wanted to see the shooting stars. It turns out we were watching the peak of a meteor shower, in the middle of a canyon with no lights at all...we sat on the roof of the Blazer for about an hour just oohing and ahhing at the show.

When we got to Boise we exchanged pajamas, I bought for S-Kraut who bought for Mel, who made me my pajamas. She used womens stretch pants as the pattern for my pants...so they were a bit tight. The fabric says "I Love Grandma." I wore them every night except one.

A few random notes from this day...The Atomic City is not a destination. Riding a bike on hotel beds looks easy, but is apparently hard.Mel will lick a bar of soap in a museum gift shop for a dollar. And if you ever think of staying in Boise, I can't recommend the Best Western Vista Inn enough...great hotel with even better shampoo.

Tomorrow Day 2: I lose my muffler, a bike is strapped to my roof and I stay in a TeePee...but can't stay in the Beagle Hotel.

Strange childhood memories

I first must point out this post is a true labor of love. Yesterday I didn't go to bed because I have to work at Bed Bath and Beyond tonight, I deprived myself of sleep so right when I got home from the P. Farm this morning I would pass out and would be able to sleep all day.

As I was lying in bed I started to think about some childhood memories, some are thoughts I had in my head, that started to make me laugh. So I got out of bed to blog about them.

1) When I was little, probably 6 years old, I thought that the songs played on the radio were performed at the radio station. I grasped the concept of radio being broadcast from a radio station to my house, but I guess I didn't understand they were just playing a recording.

2) I used to call in to "Power 99" and request songs like "I am a Child of God" and "Give Said the Little Stream."

3) When I was 4, and I remember this very vividly, I was in the dining room in the first house in Farmington and I called Scott the "P-word" (think male anatomy.) Mom washed my mouth out with soap. I didn't understand what the word meant or why it was bad, but I remember reminding myself "Dr. Snow can say it, I can't."

4) Laurel told me a story about the "Laotian burglars" and from that day on that was my biggest fear. I must have been 20 before I realized Laotians are people from the country of Laos. I am convinced it is because of this story my biggest fear is encountering a burglar.

5) One night Stephanie was babysitting, I was probably 7 because we were sitting in the gold shag carpet of the second house in Farmington, and she told me "punks" were sacrificing cats in the Rice's field. I NEVER went into the field...not once. I carried buckets of corn in the corn field, but I never went to the field below the house.

6) Nana had a "boys bathroom" and a "girls bathroom" and I hated it. One night I had to go to the bathroom, and I had been putting it off as long as possible because Nana's house scared me at night, I am sure it had something to do with Laotians. Finally I had to pee so bad I couldn't hold it any longer, so I went running up stairs in the dark and went to the bathroom. When I was done I wanted to get back to the TV room as fast as possible so I came running around her banister and was taking the long flight of stairs two at a time when I encountered Stephanie sitting in the stairs with one of Nana's creepy Eskimo masks on. All I remember is staring to cry and clawing my way back up the stairs while Stephanie followed me screaming.

7) I loved staying up late watching TV with Scott, the problem was I always fell asleep first so I would wake up alone in the Family Room. I hated running to my room in the dark so I would make a trail of lights. I would turn on the Family room lights and the hall lights, turn off the Family room lights and turn on the office lights, then turn off the hall lights then turn on the bedroom lights, turn off the office lights, then memorize all the junk on the floor in my bedroom, turn off the bedroom lights and sprint to my bed. The panic of the Laotian Burglars really set in here. These nights were even worse when Scott would make me watch a scary movie...one comes to mind, "Angel of Death." I was terrified of this movie but I watched it because Scott was watching it and I really had two options. Option 1) watch the scary movie and walk to the bedroom with Scott; or Option 2) not watch the scary movie and have to go to bed alone. I always made the wrong choice...I would watch the movie, be scared out of my mind and fall asleep right at the end and would run to bed alone anyway.

Anyway, now that these charming childhood tales are out of my head I might be able to get to sleep.

Peace

Wow, I haven't posted in 3 months!

This blog is like Moon Shoes and weight benchs...I have to have it, I will use it all the time, please can I have one!?! Please, Please, PULEEEZZE!?! Well, I almost broke my ankle on the moon shoes, I could barely lift the bar on the weight set, and I never update this blog.

Several topics of discussion for today, and to keep them all straight I will label each section.

NEIGHBORS

A few weeks back I was cleaning the house. It was about 8 pm on a Saturday night, it was hot in my house, I was sweating, my breathe stunk and I was dirty from a full day of deep cleaning. I usually clean to loud music as it keeps my energy high, so I didn't hear the knock at the door, but I could hear Buddy barking like crazy so I knew someone was there. So I turned off my music, picked up the dog and went to see who it was. It was someone I had never seen before so I put Buddy in the bathroom before I opened the door knowing if the dog had his way he would go for the throat. I opened the door and was greeted with a friendly "Hello I am your neighbor, how long have you lived here?" I told him more than four years. He was shocked that we had never met, he went on how he lives a few blocks away and has always wanted to come fishing in my backyard but he is so busy with work, church and the kids free time is a luxury. He went on about how the neighborhood used to be so young, and now it is all old people but there are a surprising amount of young people moving in. He went on and on for a few minutes then said, "The mail lady dropped some of your mail in front of my house, normally I would have just put return to sender on the postcard and would have sent it back, but I assume you need to pay this bill." Yeah he was holding a disconnect notice for my electricity.

I have a neighbor across the street, I know this guy and he is okay. His mom is an alcoholic, he is on disability for a work injury and always waves to me as I drive by. I have had a few bbq's with his family, and they are pretty nice. Yesterday I was looking for Buddy, as he developed a taste for the wanderlust, and this neighbor stopped me. He asked if I could do him a small favor. His puppy had died and he is moving and wanted to bury him by the river and asked if he could put him in the ground in my yard. I was a bit hesitant and told him my yard is probably a bad idea, but maybe behind my neighbors house would be a more suitable location. He responded "Well I need to get him in the ground soon, he has been in the freezer for almost six months."

The Pets

I was raking some crap up from the storms last month. Just random twigs and leaves and some weeds I had pulled and dropped in the yard. I had a main pile and a smaller pile. That is when I saw Whitey running across my neighbors yard, he scaled a 6 foot chain link fence, and jumped on the big pile of junk and took a big ol' Duke on the top of the pile. He was shaking and looked quite worried. I stood there shocked and somewhat concerned for his health as he did his business. About 30 seconds later he took off running to the river bank and weaved his way through the Day Lillie's and Iris's and again scaled the 6 foot fence and tore across the neighbors yard and sat under a tree and stared me down. I have no idea what that was about.

Most of you know about my Magpies. They sit on the carport in front of my house and wait for Buddy to come out to do his business. As soon as Buddy is done they swoop in and take his poo, I am assuming to their nest. The vet said there might be nutritional value in Buddy's crap, I'm not so sure, but I do like that 90% of the dog doo is cleaned up for me. Well Buddy has become wise to the birds tricks. He has now become very protective of his craps. As soon as he is done with his business he walks away nonchalantly and sits on the porch, when the birds swoop in Buddy explodes in frantic barking and yelping. He jumps as high as he can and snaps at them, it is a confusing sight. When the birds give up and fly away he calmly picks up his poo and brings it inside for safe keeping, nice.

The Contest

Thank you to my 4 readers for entering my contest, I have to admit I was pretty excited to know I have 4 people reading this blog....so after 3 months of waiting, the fabulous gifts and prizes go to......TRACI! EDIT: (After a quick re-read of the guesses I assume Scott was the My e.r. visit came to $2562.41. Look forward to some wonderful Pepperidge Farm treats delivered to your door.

Ok, that is all, I am hungry and it is 11:15 a.m, which is my new bedtime.

No free rides!

I know it has been a while since I posted, so my 3 readers will enjoy this, a new post! And what is more fun than a new post? A new post that contains a contest!

In a previous post I talked about my trip to the E.R. well today the bill arrived, so here comes the contest. In the comment section guess how much my bill was, and the person who is closest to the actual cost of my E.R. visit will get a wonderful assortment of P. Farm goodies delivered directly to your door. Oh, and this is the total cost, not the portion I am responsible for.

That is all.

Woot OFF!!!

Oh mi gosh, Oh mi gosh, Oh mi gosh....it's a woot off!!! Go to www.woot.com NOW. A new product is posted right after the previous one sells out. I am not going to bed tonight...I need to see all the woots! Oh mi gosh!

Quick Blog

My cat wants me dead...I fear for my life. After work I fell asleep on the couch and was just awakened by his Talons De La Muerte in my chest...he may have won the battle, but I am the one that gives the fatty his food, we'll see who wins the war.

Night!

Jeff

It's a love hate thing

Logan that is.

I love Logan for the easy commutes, the small town feeling, the feeling of safety the community exudes.

I look forward to the Saturday morning Farmers Market where locals walk their dogs to the park to buy produce and crafty things people have brought to sell. Last year I found out about the Gallery Walk. This event is held on Main Street in the Spring and local artists display their works in the little shops on Main. Some stores have refreshments and live music playing to entice you into their store. Last Spring it was held on the perfect Saturday evening, the city felt so alive and full of energy.

My favorite summer festival is the Cruise In. It is one of the biggest car shows West of the Mississippi. Hundreds of restored cars are displayed on the fair grounds. It is always held on the Fourth of July weekend and it is HOT. Every year I say I wont get fried crispy by the sun, but every year I get scorched. The best part of the Cruise In is the raffle. Each year they give away a fully restored car. One year it was a Nova, one year a Camaro, and they had an old Ford truck a few years ago. After the raffle everyone races to their spot on Main Street to watch as the cars that were at the fairgrounds are driven up and down Main Street in the best parade ever. People bring out trailers with couches to watch the parade from, some bring barbeque's, and I have even seen a few hot tubs loaded with people.

I love that Logan doesn't get to hot in the summer, I love that I can drive 5 minutes and be in the middle of no where....but even while writing this I want to move, because the bad parts are BAD.

The winters are cold and last forever. The Cache Valley is isolated from anything and everything. And the thing I hate most about Logan...is when you drive to the store in your pajamas to buy shampoo at 1 a.m. and you see no fewer than 6 people you know. Some days you just want to fly under the RADAR, but in Logan those days are few and far between.

Weekend Update

Sorry SNL, that was the only title I could think of.

Friday evening I was at work and began feeling ill. I had been sick a few weeks prior and went to Insta - Care and had yet another bladder infection, but this one had painful consequences. Without getting too graphic, a certain body part was swelling, which is why I went to the doctor so quickly. Generally with a bladder infection I have a sore throat, swollen glands, my skin hurts and I get nauseous, but this time there were no symptoms, except for the swelling.

The doctor at the Insta-Care put me on antibiotics for 2 weeks, gave me some pain killers and I was on my way. It must be said that I am a fanatic about my pills. I take them at the exact same time everyday, I take them exactly how it says to, with water, without food, with dairy, not before operating heavy machinery etc... So imagine my surprise when the swelling came back on Friday. I was frustrated because I can't afford to get sick, I firmly believe that time is money, and anytime spent recuperating is time taken from working, last week I worked more than 70 hours, and was pretty sure I could get that many hours this week as well. I also know how sick I can get if I put off seeing the doctor, so I got home from work, went straight to bed and set my alarm for 7:30am so I could be at the Insta-Care at 8.

I woke up at 2:30am shaking violently. I was shaking so bad the dog and cat jumped off my bed and were staring at me from the floor. This is how I found out that Buddy will never be the hero dog on the news that will dial 9-1-1, nope not Buddy he will just stare at me like I am the idiot, even though he is the one that barks when a doorbell rings on TV. So I tried to calm myself down and tell myself just to sleep it off, I thought maybe I was just cold and got another blanket, I thought if I slept in a different position I could fall asleep, I just wanted to wait until morning. I could not. My back was on fire, my abdomen felt like I was being kicked, my "swollen area" felt like it was being stabbed by knives and I didn't know what to do. I called a few friends, no one woke up, I texted some friends and one texted back.....from Portland, yeah some help she was. Then I decided I needed to be a big boy and drive to the E.R. So I put on my slippers, an old hoodie and some pajama pants and off I hobbled to the car. Buddy thought we were going for a drive and jumped up, and put his paw on my "swollen area." I almost passed out.

When I got the ER the guy at the front counter asks cheerily "How are you today?" To which I replied, oh wait I didn't reply, I was in so much pain I couldn't even talk. I sat down on the floor and gave him my insurance card. Within 30 seconds I am in a wheel chair being pushed to a little white room, within 2 minutes I had an IV in one arm, a bandage on the other because he missed the vein and was answering thousands upon thousands of questions. "Are you allergic to anything?" "What is your address?" "Who is your emergency contact?" and on and on and on. I started to cry. I don't know why, I am not a crier, but I was just sobbing, and I felt bad because I had stinky breath and my hoodie had cat hair on it, and I was wearing slippers that had paint on them and I felt like I was bothering the nurses by asking them for blankets, I just felt like crap, then I passed out from hyperventilating. It wasn't for very long though, they told me I needed to stop breathing so much, I was trying to do Lamaze, the kind you see on tv, the "He He Hew" kind, FYI, DO NOT DO IT, YOU WILL DIE.

Long story short, I am alive, but am still in pain. THEN as I am going to get my prescription filled at Smith's yesterday, wearing the same clothes I had been wearing for 24 hours, with both arms in bandages, and a medical bracelet on my wrist, I was scammed into buying Girl Scout Cookies. Most people know I have a hard time saying "no" to kids; which is why when I saw that little girl I pulled out my cell phone and pretended to talk on it, but she was not convinced. I was about four feet away from her and we locked eyes, and she said "Sir can you buy some cookies?" WHAT? Are you kidding me? Of course I CAN buy some, but the question is DO I want to buy some. I asked her what kinds there were, and honestly they all sounded gross, normally I would like them, but I was fresh out of the hospital, I was sweaty and smelly and wanted to throw up, so I asked her "What kind is your favorite?" I now own 3 boxes of Thin Mints, not 1 but 3, I know I should have bought a variety but honestly time was a factor and I wasn't in the mood to browse her selection.

So that is my weekend, it was somewhat exciting, but not in the way I liked. Maybe next weekend I can get audited!

Jeff

P.S.

I have to add one more website to my previous list....

http://www.pgeverydaysolutions.com - This website sends you free samples of Proctor & Gamble products. I am getting a trial sample of heartburn medication, which I will save until I am 50 and will need it, and I am getting free Crest Strips! The catch is you only get one free offer per offer period. This means I wont be able to get my 2-year supply of Prilosec for free. Oh and since they are opening a factory in Tremonton we should buy more P&G products and boycott La-Z-Boy who closed up shop and moved to Mexico.

Oh, and never say "Hey are you working hard, or hardly working?" If you do I will stop respecting you. And if you see someone getting a big drink of water and you say "Hey, save some for the fish!" Expect to be smote right on the spot. Both phrases were said to me today.

That's all.

Websites I check daily. And you should too.

There are a lot of websites I go to daily. Here are my favorites I check daily.

ksl.com - Utah News
hjnews.com - Logan News (more like Logan Gossip)
usu.edu - Type in Surplus Sales in the search box and you will see why.

Woot.com - Many people know about this website and for good reason. Everynight at midnight CST, they post a new item at a really good price (sometimes). Sometimes the items they post are crappy or are old technology, like this week they had a 20 piece ratchet set for, I think, $9.99 with $5 shipping, at Wal -Mart it sells for $17, but since it was on Tuesday you get 2 for the price of one. So you get 2 ratchet sets for about $15. The item sucked though, it was to small to really use for big jobs. Anyway at woot they have 1 item each day and if the item sells out before midnight? Well you get to wait till midnight before they post a new item. Sometimes they have "Bags of Crap." The BOC is $3 and it can come with dollar store items or flat screen TV's , that is the fun, you don't know what you will get but the value is always more than the $3 you spend, they always sell out quick, so if you see a BOC BUY IT!!!!!!! I have bought a Bluetooth dongle for $1, a 2 gig MP3 player for $9.99 and something else...but I forget.

http://www.1saleaday.com/ - This website is similar to woot. They have one sale a day, and at 10:00 MST they post their new item. The good about this website is they have FREE items all the time, all you do is pay for shipping. I have seen USB drives for free with $5 shipping, FREE 10-in-1 card readers and what not....VERY COOL. This website also has a tab for only wireless items, the deals are just as good. They have bluetooth items, wireless headphones and much more.

www.shopping.yahoo.com - Scroll to the bottom of the main screen to see the sale item. Again, this website is like woot and 1sale. I have never bought from this website before, because the items are much more expensive, relatively speaking. Today they have an 8.2 mega pixel camera for $69.99 so if I needed a digital camera, this is a good deal.

Anyway I just thought I would give a heads up on all the websites I go to everyday.

Oh, I will also start making this blog a little prettier with pictures and whatnot, but I have to say blogging is a lot of work and I really don't have time right now (I'm lazy) to put up pics and what not.

Jeff

Sparkles of DEATH

I sleep a lot, A LOT. People ask how I have so much time to sleep, I tell them I have mad time management skills, and yes this is all going somewhere. Because I sleep a lot I find that I save money, how do you spend money while you sleep? Yeah you don't.

I generally get up around 11am, do laundry, clean, eat, try to do homework then go to work at 2pm. (Tues and Thurs I go to school at noon and go into work late.) I get home from work at midnight and try to look at my homework, feed the freeloading animals and usually pass out on the couch at 1am. The animals think I am a human bean bag and spend most of the night trying to get comfortable on me. At about 4am I wake up with animals smothering the life out of me then go to bed.

On days when I feel like being a big spender me and a few coworkers go to Rancharitos....IT WILL ALWAYS BE BETO'S TO ME. While at Beto's a coworker, who broke his collar bone while picking up a bookcase, told me he was training to be a cage fighter. Lucky for him the California Burrito I nearly choked on while laughing didn't kill me. This kid is like 6'3" MAYBE 140lbs, and he wants to be a cage fighter, whatever. My friends though I would be more ridiculous than him as a cage fighter. They said I would be dancing around giggling and my opponent would most likely become my friend and feel bad for putting me in an arm bar. I told them that was insane. But if I do become a cage fighter my name would be "Sparkles." Do you think you could hit a guy named "Sparkles?" And if "Sparkles" just destroyed you physically, wouldn't he also have emotionally damaged you when his friends find out he was beat by a guy named "Sparkles?" Yeah I am going to be Sparkles the cage fighter...or so I thought. My friend Claudia is bilingual, I asked her how to say "Sparkles" in Spanish, I was informed it is Beyontes. I am now BEYONTES DE LA MUERTE! (Sparkles of Death.)

I lied, I have no idea what me sleeping a lot has to do with any of this. Oh and can you believe that when I went to create a google account for this blog the email address airvent1@gmail.com was taken? Seriously that is soooo my email address.

That's all.