Random Ramblings: Memorial Day Weekend

Listening: It is the 40th Anniversary of Queen and to celebrate they are re-releasing their albums 5 at a time with a bonus disc of extra material. And thankfully iTunes has allowed us to buy just those songs instead of it being the dreaded Album Only. The new "Beeb" renditions of Nevermore and Teo Torriatte are spectacular.

Scaring: Last Sunday we helped out some friends of ours by watching their kids while they went to Salt Lake to pick up a relative from the airport. We first took them back to our house for some lunch and then we headed to their house to play while we waited for their parents. They were happily playing with Logan and then it was time to eat lunch. I snuck up the corner of our stairs to scare the next person who came down the stairs which was unfortunate for Shelby. I scared that poor girl good! Afterwards we took them back to their house and played by the river in their backyard. The girls showed me two large duck nests that were full of eggs. And then we played Fish until their parents came home.

Logan, Cassiday and Shelby

Their house was right on the river. Logan is at the bottom of the stairs leading to their backyard, which is now the Logan River.

Cooking: The morning of Memorial Day we had a neighborhood breakfast at the park. I was partly in charge of cooking up the French Toast. We had a real good showing and it was fun to spend the morning with my great neighbors. I cooked for the first hour and a half (with help from Kristy) and then went inside to socialize with everyone and play basketball with the Young Men and Women.

Freezing: I cannot believe that we woke up Monday to snow! It was not a lot of snow but I did have to scrape it off the car!

Really? Snow?

Riding: Yesterday for Memorial Day we took a road trip with my mom and visited a couple of cemeteries (Wellsville, Logan, Hyrum and Richmond) and looked at some of our deceased relatives. It was a beautiful day for the most part. It got sunny and warm and then cold and rainy. The weather made every cemetery clean and green. It was so awesome to see all the flowers and flags. Visiting these gravesides always puts me in a sober and reflective mood. But I am glad that I was able to do it. It is fun hanging out with my mom and driving around. It takes me back to our road trips to Idaho and Colorado. We stopped for some dinner at Big J's and had a nice drive back to Logan.

I cannot believe that it has been 7 years since my grandparents passed away.

Feeling Strange: We dropped by the USU Trailer Court (where Kristy and I lived right after we got married) and our trailer is gone! And so is every trailer that was on our block. The whole trailer park was stripped with only a few trailers remaining. It was like a tornado cleared it out. Both Kristy and I felt strange. A part of our early married life is gone forever. All that remained was a few bricks that Kristy put in for a flower bed.

Logan is standing where the bathroom used to be.

Riding Part II: I rode my bike to my dad's house today for work. 4.13 miles is not to shabby. But I can already tell that my butt is going to be sore.

Tempting: You know I just might have to go see X-Men: First Class at midnight Thursday by myself.

SMASH!

I did something today that I have never done before. I have seen it done but I never was the one that did it.

It was my serve and I smashed the ball and it the wall with a thud and came back with a strange spin. I didn't know I made the ball explode until my friend Joseph tried to return it.

I totally killed it.

30 Day Song Challenge: The Conclusion

I'm kinda sad that this is ending. I hate coming up with new topics.

Day 26 - A Song That You Can Play On An Instrument

Vertigo - U2

I love the bass line of this song that I had to learn it. It was a little more complex (and fast!) than I am used to but after much time and practice, I think I have it down. Now if I could just sing the song along with playing the bass which is a lot harder to do than you think.

Day 27 - A Song That You Wish You Could Play

Dragon Attack - Queen

If I could play this on the bass guitar, I could play ANY Queen song on the bass guitar. I was never a huge fan of this song until I heard it live. The bass guitar was just so loud and thumping, you could feel it in your chest. The song was so awesome live that it made me a huge fan of this song.

Day 28 - A Song That Makes You Feel Guilty

Lit Up - Buckcherry

I love, LOVE this song. The guitars, the raspy voice, the pounding drums. This song has everything. The only drawback is it is all about cocaine. And there is a rather large f-bomb smack plum in the middle of the song. I have a copy of the radio edit which does not have the f-bomb in it but I couldn't find one to share here. If you have iTunes you can sample a copy of the radio version there. I know I shouldn't like it (which is why I feel a tiny bit guilty when I listen to it) but I absolutely love it.

Day 29 - A Song From Your Childhood

Total Eclipse of the Heart - Bonnie Tyler

Yeah, I really liked the theatrical feel of this song and I still like it because of that grand, sweeping feeling. The video I remember being a little strange and weird (hey, it was the 80's). Now some very clever people have remade the song so it matches the video in a literal sense. You totally need to see this video. I laugh every time I even think about this video.

Total Eclipse of the Heart - Literal Video Version by BalloDaSballo

Day 30 - Your Favorite Song At This Time Last Year

The Other Side - Pendulum

My British friend Tim introduced me to this band awhile ago (it might have been longer than a year) and I really like a few of their songs. It has a driving drum and bass line (see the trend here?) that appeals to me.

Guns

I have seen this blimp on my way to my dad's for work for the past six months or so.

It does make me a little curious to see what this is all about.

Nuff' said.

Random Ramblings: Bottoms Up!

Eating: Our family was invited to a birthday BBQ for our neighbor yesterday. The food was wonderful, and the company was even better. My family and I are blessed to have such awesome neighbors. I thought it was cute that Kara told Logan that he needs to kick Kristy and I out so she can babysit him again.
 

This was thier backyard. The river is pretty full, last year when we were here, the water was nowhere near this level.

Drinking: Mountain Dew Livewire. Not only had it finally returned to Cache Valley, the 12-pack has also returned!

Drinking II: So I was at the store picking up some Livewire when I found another soda that I used to love. Tahitian Treat! This was one of the best fruit punch sodas ever! I thought it was only available in Canada but I did find some limited quantities in New York. But I have not had one since then. And then I found a 12-pack so I had to have it. And it tastes just like I remembered.

Listening: To a fun mix of the 80's. Bangles, Rick Springfield, the Spoons... ...I definitely grew up in the BEST decade!

Eating II: I ate way too much last Saturday. Saturday was Richmond's annual Black and White Days. So we headed up to Richmond to watch the parade. We first picked up Kristy's sister Lynn and her daughter Jessica since their jeep was on the fritz. We headed up and dropped off some chairs at my mom's house and then went to Big J's (a local burger joint) and got an early dinner. Then we headed up to watch the parade. The parade was nice but not as good as it has been in years past. Funny thing is that we see a couple of our neighbors in the parade. Logan did get a bunch of candy and it was nice to see Jennifer and her family as well. After the parade we waited for Justin to come back (he was leading the parade in his cop car) and headed back to Big J's and got some ice cream. I got a large (and I really shouldn't have) Rice Krispie Treat shake and it was awesome!

Waiting for candy...

I told Logan that he needs to wave cutely to the cute girls. Here he is awarded a candy from one of the girls. Logan should trust me on this.

Our neighbor Sister Weeks playing the bass drum.

Winning: Kara's little brother Justin has been wanting to kick my trash in Madden. Finally last Saturday we had a showdown. It was close for a little while and then I pulled away and won the game. I guess I should feel bad for beating a 10-11 year old but he was a huge Steelers fan so it was deserved. The winner had to make cookies and so he made his sister Kara make me a plate of delicious cookies. Don't worry, I will pay them both back with a batch of cookies sometime this week.

Itching: Last week Logan was at a basketball camp for three days and he came home with a case of Athlete's Foot!

Reading: I am still a kid. I just finished a comic trade paperback G.I. Joe: Cobra and it was absolutely enthralling. This is not your daddy's G.I. Joe!

His name is Chuckles. He's the Joes' top undercover agent. And he's just infiltrated a top secret, highly organized terrorist organization... one the Joes aren't familiar with... one with a snake motif. As Chuckles is pulled deeper and deeper into the dark underbelly of Cobra, where one misstep means death, can he pull off the ultimate deception and bring them down from within?

I am very surprised (and pleased) that Hasbro (the toy company that owns G.I. Joe) would allow a book like this to be published. This is a very dark book with a couple of surprising twists. This is nothing like the old cartoon, it is a much more serious look at America's top fighting force taking on a dangerous terrorist group. There are two more volumes in print that I definitely want to track down.

From the Soapbox: R-E-S-P-E-C-T

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Find out what it means to me

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Take care ... TCB

Sing it Aretha!

Respect is a big deal to me. If you search my blog you will see that I mention the word "respect" in about 40 of my blogs. One thing that I cannot stand is a lack of respect. That doesn't mean you have to like everything but you still need to have a decorum of decency and be respectful.

Everyone has their own foibles. Everyone is different and I understand that. I am sure that what I do and what I am interested in grates some people the wrong way. And I am sure that my sense of humor can be discerning and rub people wrong too. But at least I can claim that I try my best to be respectful. Everyone deserves respect and everyone needs respect. The world would be a much better place if everyone tried their hardest to be respectful. And it is the right thing to do.

So I am sitting in my dad's office watching the charts when suddenly the lights are turned off with no words being said. Now you might think that someone may have accidentally turned the lights off. But this is no mistake since this is not the first time that this has happened. Now it is not like we are completely in the dark here, there is some light but there isn't enough light to read. I would consider it dark but that is just me.

There is someone in this household that is very anal when it comes to saving energy by turning off lights. I can understand that and I can respect that as well. What I don't get is how this person goes around and completes this mission. They just go about doing it without any regard or respect for anyone.

This irritates me because it is showing my dad and I a lack of respect. Even if you are fanatical about lights you still should respect others and what they feel. Even though I do not understand why someone would be so driven to do this and that it irritated me beyond belief, I didn't say a word. I could have easily said something, and I really could have said something extremely rude but I took the high road and said nothing. And I did this out of respect even though I turned the light back on and shut the door.

I wouldn't have been so ticked off if this person would have simply asked. Sure, I still would have been puzzled since I couldn't see any good reason for the light in the office to be shut off but I would have at least humored this person and complied. 

All it would have took was just a couple of words and I wouldn't have felt like I was disrespected. It seems that something so small and simple is now just being skipped altogether. It is a sad trend in society.

30 Day Song Challenge: Part V

Some of these songs were really easy to come by but I have found that this set has been much more difficult for me to figure out. 

Day 22 - A Song That You Listen To When You’re Sad

Overkill - Colin Hay

There are a few songs that I listen to that make me sad/reflective but I don't think there is a song that I desire to listen to when I am sad. This was a hard one to pick out but I think I have found a song that I really, really like that does make me a bit somber. I prefer the acoustic version of this song but the original Men at Work version is just as good. The guitar on the acoustic version is such fantastic.

Day 23 - A Song That You Want To Play At Your Wedding

 Another One Bites The Dust - Queen

I guess if I had to get married again, I would go for this song. Kristy and I played the Wyclef Jean version of this song at her sister's wedding and she was less than thrilled. But I would want it played at my wedding especially if I was going to get married a second time.

Day 24 - A Song That You Want To Play At Your Funeral

The Imperial Theme - John Williams

I could have chosen the same song to play at my funeral as I did for my wedding. But if I am going to go out, I want to go out in style! Since I was recently at a funeral I have put some thought into this and I think I have made the right decision.

Day 25 - A Song That Makes You Laugh

Dead Puppies - Ogden Edsl

Didja know that I won a Ms. America pageant for singing this song as my talent? Will I go to hell for laughing at this? I hope none of you are offended by this song and if you are, you really need to rethink your (lack of) sense of humor.

Welcome To My Nightmare

No, I am not talking about the Alice Cooper song even though the title definitely fits this blog. A few months ago a friend of mine decided to keep what is called a Dream Journal. Every time he had a dream he would write it down as fast as he could upon waking before it faded away. I was kinda enthralled with that idea. I know that I have a lot of memorable dreams (at least those that I remember right?) and I would love to revisit them.

Now I don't believe that dreams have much meaning, if any. I am sure that we can learn about ourselves from our dreams and that dreams can help us get through things but I just think that they have any special meaning or have special tokens. But I do know that if I ever was in a tornado, I would know EXACTLY what to do since I have survived most of the tornadoes that I have dreamt about. Keeping a Dream Journal would be interesting to see the patterns. I know I dream about tornadoes a lot (just last Friday night) but if I kept a journal I would know how frequent they were. My dreams range from the downright scary (just last week I dreamt that I was attacked by the Devil himself) to the absolute cool (I dreamt I was an X-Man!) and to the absurd. And I also die in my dreams, I have been shot, stabbed, crushed and beaten to death in my dreams. Kristy does not like to hear about my dreams.

The other night I had a dream that felt and seemed so real. And it has been a dream that has stuck with me since. I think about it often and it is starting to drive me nuts. I dreamt about someone here in the neighborhood that I am friends with. I don't want to name names here since there is an outside chance he/she might see this and I don't want to embarrass them or creep them out that I had a dream about them.

The dream was normal enough. No flying pigs, tornadoes or anything like that. I had run into them while walking around the neighborhood and they had called me over. I walked over and this person asked a question that caught me off guard in my dream and still rests on my mind.

"Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure. What's up?"
"Why do you care?"
"About what?"
"Why do you care about me?"

I remember that I was taken back and didn't know what to say. I thought about how I knew them and the many times I have served them and how they have served me. But I just didn't know exactly what to say.

Then I woke up.

I don't get why this has bugged me and I certainly don't know why I cannot simply forget about this dream. It has been four days since that dream and I still think about it. I have tried to make sense of this and I have come to a couple of conclusions of why it bugs me.

1. I think it bugs because this person should know darn well why I care about them. It should be pretty obvious. This person has served my family and I and has been a huge example to all of us. I have told this person many times how much I appreciate them and I look for ways to serve them. They should know that I love them.
2. It also bugs me that I didn't have a chance to say anything to them when I was dreaming. They asked and I never answered. It was like I failed.
3. Maybe I don't mean anything to them like they do to me. Maybe I am just off my rocker. I hope that is not the case but there is this small nagging doubt.

So why in the heck would I dream about something like this? And why am I still thinking about it? This is not the first time that a dream has made such an impact on me and stayed with me for days.

All I know is that my next dream better be one of my superhero ones. I don't think I could take another one of these serious drama dreams.

Random Ramblings: Really?

Hurting: I am a little sore today. My biceps are quite tender and they feel like they could fall off at any moment. Last Friday I did a workout and then Saturday I played racquetball (on an already sore arm) and then I went and helped sandbag.

Flooding: I only live about two blocks away from the Logan River and it looks like we are in for some flooding here in a couple of weeks. The Blacksmith Fork River is already past flood stage (and I only live a few miles away from that river) and it looks like it may get even worse. I went up the canyon and helped sandbag one of the cabins that my neighbor owns. Man, those sandbags are incredibly heavy!

Loving: A few days ago I was asked if I would go back into the Primary for a couple of weeks at church. Yesterday was my first day back and I really missed it. I was helping teach the 5-year olds and it is really Comedy Central. I am looking forward to staying there for a couple of weeks and I am lobbying hard to make it official!

Loving Part II: Ever since I went and saw Thor last week I have been in a God of Thunder mood. I dug out a few old trade paperbacks of Thor that I had and I have been re-reading them. I have not read these for years and I am getting a kick out of them. I am reading and in the middle of the fantastic Walter Simonson run (Thor issues #337-382 along with the Balder the Brave #1-4) and I just finished one of my all-time favorite issues of that run (Thor #362) where the Executioner makes his valiant stand against the hordes of Hel. My favorite quote from the comic is when someone asked how the Executioner would be remembered.

"He stood alone at Gjallerbru. And that answer is enough."

Smiling: Last Thursday I got a nice package of comics in the mail. For the last couple of years I have been trimming down my massive comic collection. I am running out of room to handle them all but the real reason I am doing this is because I want a comic collection that is all stuff that I love. So I have been going through my collection and re-reading a ton of books and purging those books that just no longer cut the mustard. So far I have sold over 1,000 comics. One of the sites that I sell comics back to gives me double store credit and I trade comics for comics. Last Thursday I got a set of books that I am really looking forward to. But the one that I was excited for the most turned out to be quite the embarrassment for Marvel.

Shaking: Shaking my head and wagging my finger at Marvel Comics. There was a storyline running in Captain America that I really liked. It involved this character named Scourge who was going around and killing villains. He was shrouded in mystery and he appeared and killed villains in a ton of other Marvel comics like the Amazing Spider-Man, the Avengers and so forth. I wanted to get every single issue he appeared in when I was younger but I never got the chance. Fast forward twenty some odd years later and Marvel has collected all of Scourge's appearance along with all his killings from other books in one handy volume called Captain America: Scourge of the Underworld. And I was giddy with excitement!

Take a closer peek at the cover.

Really Marvel?

Yeah, they spelled Underworld wrong. How in the blue heck do you spell that wrong in the age of Spellcheck? Not only is it spelled wrong on the cover but also on the spine. How was it that this book was still published? How embarrassing and unprofessional for Marvel. You would think that they would be able to catch such an obvious mistake especially with Disney's deep pockets now backing them up. But then I still bought it and it is a beautiful reprint. So I guess it wasn't that* bad.


*yes it was.

Getting Old...

Hey!  Blogger is back! I wish this outage would have happened last week when I was not in the mood to blog instead of when I had a couple of blogs ready to go. Oh well...

Man am I getting old! My little brother Nathan is graduating from high school. HIGH SCHOOL! And not just any high school but the same one I attended and graduated from 19 years ago.

All this old talk has worked me up. I better grab my cane and limp to the bathroom so I can take my pills.

Random Ramblings: Where Ya Been?

Stuttering: It has been a long time since I last blogged. I think it has been the longest amount of time between blogs since I started blogging over a year ago. I just don't know what to blog about anymore. And if I can't think of a topic to blog about, I just bag it and put it off till the next day. Yeah, we see how well that has turned out.

Angry Blogging: Now I did have a topic that I really wanted to blog about these last couple of days but as you can see I have not yet published it. I have something that I really want to blurt out and fire back at but I don't think it will do any good. Aside from the brief moment of getting revenge I guess. It goes back to my blog a few weeks ago that dealt with backbiting. I want to "bite" back at some mud that was slung at my family. But it won't do any good, it will just feed the flames. If that is what they think and reap, that is what they will sow.

I'll eventually catch up to you!

Reading: I have started the autobiography of President Monson, To The Rescue. So far it has been enjoyable and I am sure I will learn something from it. Now applying what I learn... ...well, that is another story. I will have to crank this hefty book out pretty quick if I want this done by the quarter.

Procrastinating: My cousin Josh updated his blog with how he is doing with his New Year's Resolutions. I know I should do the same thing but I am a bit afraid of what I may find.

Celebrating: Finally!  Mountain Dew Livewire has returned to Cache Valley! Now I don't have to go to Salt Lake anymore to find my favorite Dew!

Listening: I don't know about you but I seem to swing from band to band for months at a time. I would listen to U2 for months and then go somewhere completely different. I am now back to listening to Queen and I feel like I am back with some old friends. 

Hammering: I went and saw Thor yesterday and I have to admit that I was pretty impressed with it. The acting was fantastic. Both Thor and his brother Loki exceeded my expectations. And it was loaded with a ton of geek moments for the hardcore comic book fan. I think my favorite cameo was one of the best Thor artists Walt Simonson. He was sitting at the table with the other Asgardians celebrating near the end of the movie. That must have been such a surreal and fantastic moment for him. I am totally looking forward to the Avengers next year. 

I am not a huge Thor fan and I only have a smattering of comics. But Walt Simonson's run on Thor is one of the all-time greats of ANY comic. Watching the movie made me dig out that run and start over again from scratch.

Rubbing: I have been rubbing my poor legs today and last night. I have not played racquetball for about a week due to me being sick. Yesterday I played for the first time in over a week and I am sore! I am looking forward to defending my belt tomorrow morning in what may be the last time. Both our schedules change and we cannot play so early in the morning anymore. I am going to go out like a winner though!

Wishing: All the Mothers a belated Happy Mother's Day. There are a ton of them out there. Logan made a nice card along with a book of gift certificates that Kristy could use.

Logan the Wolf

When of the neat things about being a parent is seeing what kind of strange and funny things our kids can create using their imagination.

This is why Logan doesn't watch scary movies at home. We cannot have a full grown wolf running around the house.

30 Day Song Challenge: Part IV

Ugh... I have been under the weather for the last couple of days. I slept through most of yesterday and most of today. I am feeling a bit better but still plenty blah. But I am able to crank out another set of songs.

Day 17 - A Song That You Hear Often On The Radio

Sharp Dressed Man - ZZ Top

I drive to my dad's for work almost every day and it seems like no matter what the time is I will always hear this song either on the way there or on the way back. It doesn't matter if I leave early or if I am running late. I do think this is ZZ Top's best song so I guess I shouldn't complain!

Day 18 - A Song That You Wish You Heard On The Radio

Waiting for Tonight - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

It is no secret that I love Tom Petty. One of his best songs unfortunately never made it on to an album (except for Anthology; a greatest hits album) and therefore never made it to the radio. This song is typical Tom Petty but he also has the Bangles singing the background lyrics. I really think this could have become one of the Tom Petty's top songs if it would have made it to the radio. Oh well, at least I have it on my iPod.

Day 19 - A Song From Your Favorite Album

Dirty Day - U2

I have a lot of favorite albums but the only one that I will listen to as an album is U2's Zooropa. I rarely just play one track from that album. I usually have to play the whole thing. Dirty Day is one of my favorite tracks but I found that this remix (Bitter Kiss Mix) is so much better than the original. This song has nothing to do with the movie Departed. You don't have to watch the video, just listen to the music.

Day 20 - A Song That You Listen To When You’re Angry

Come Out Swinging - The Offspring

At my last job, when I was having a rough day I would play my Offspring playlist. Usually after listening to them I would be in a better mood. I don't know if it was the clever lyrics or the hard guitar riffs but I would end up smiling. Maybe it was because they are one of my favorite bands. This song was usually the first one that I would listen too. If you are going to fight me you better come out swinging!

Day 21 - A Song That You Listen To When You’re Happy

Paperback Writer - Beatles

I don't think there is a particular song that I listen to when I am happy. But when I am in the mood to sing (and that usually means I am in some sort of good mood) I will always crank out some Beatles. And when I play the Beatles, I always play thier awesome album Revolver. I just love this song, maybe it is because I want to be a paperback writer.

Random Ramblings: Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon

Sick: Wasn't I just getting over some strange stomach flu just last week? Now my allergies are kicking my rear. I am so congested and itchy.

Listening: Black Sheep by the Evil Exes. I love this song!

Lazing: Yesterday was such a nice day. Early in the morning we took a road trip down to Salt Lake for Stella's baby blessing. For those that don't know, in the LDS faith, fathers have the opportunity to bless their baby during church and it serves a couple of purposes. The main purpose is to give the infant a name which it will be known on the church records and then the father can give the infant a blessing. I really appreciated Andrea for going out of her way to make sure I meet Stella before the service began. I feel kinda bad that this was the first time I met my beautiful new niece. Steven (Stella's father) asked me if I would assist and I was happy to do it. It was a beautiful blessing and it was a wonderful church service. It was also nice to see some of my fellow bloggers even if I was not able to chat with them. But it was nice to be remembered. Afterwards we went to Kristy's mom house for some lunch and to relax. It was a nice and relaxing visit.

Giddy: So Steven and I were talking (about football of course) and he mentioned that he would really like to catch the Detroit Lions (his favorite team) when they play the Denver Broncos. He just doesn't have anyone to go with. Now I have been to Denver a few times and I would love to go to a cold weather game in Denver! The game is October 30th. Wheels are in motion!

Winning: I completed my 100 page ScriptFrenzy project! There were times that I didn't think I would make it but I persevered and made it! The next time I do it I will be better prepared and plot things out. It was still a learning experience and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND any wanna-be-writer to give this a whirl. You won't regret the time and hard work you put into it.