Week in Review: Nov 30th - Dec 6th 2009

Day 37

The Platis family had quite a busy week. Or at least it certainly felt like it.

Last Monday night Grandma Platis came over to watch the New Orleans Saints put a beat down on the New England Patriots. She also treated us to Coasta Vida, such a yummy place. It is the only place where I always get the salad. She also played around with Logan and found out what he wanted for Christmas. It was a fun evening, so much fun that we invited Grandma to come over Thursday night.

I also had a small article about my novel writing published in the Herald Journal. It was a good article although I am not sure I like my first quote. But it was nice to get some exposure and to get the NaNoWrMo some exposure. Speaking of NaNoWrMo, I got my code so I can publish my book within the next six months. I did a little editing but now I am thinking of expanding the novel in some parts.



Last Thursday was Kristy's birthday. I took her out to dinner that night, Grandma Platis came over to watch Logan. We were thinking of going to Cafe Sabora but decided at the last minute to go to the Bluebird. The Bluebird is a fantastic local restaurant that has some yummy food at low prices. This is where Kristy and I had our wedding breakfast. We both got the same thing, the Chicken Louie. That is a breaded breast of chicken covered with crab meat, a few shrimp, cheese and a TON of Hollandais sauce. I got my usual home brewed Ironports sodas (probably the best I have had in a long time). After we stuffed ourselves we hit the town and finished our shopping. After a stop to get some Alvey's chocolates of course.

Friday night we had an impromptu meet-up with Kristy's brother and his family. We all talked about getting together for dinner sometime and we thought (at the very last minute) that this Friday would be the best one. Most of our weekends are already taken. So we called them and we met at the Layton Hills Mall. We didn't tell Logan we were going down, we wanted to surprise him. I don't think he was a fan of that, he acted very nervous and strange. But quickly warmed up when he discovered we were going out to eat with Steven, Andrea and Addy. We couldn't decide where to go so we hit the usual spot (what we did last time) and ate at Red Robin. I had the Cholesterol Clogger burger. After a nice dinner we went back to the mall and got some ice cream at DQ. We sat and visited for a long time. They are great to hang out with. I never feel that I have to entertain or anything, I could be completely laid back (LAZY) and still feel comfortable with them. Thanks guys! It was a lot of fun.

Logan and Addy playing at Red Robin. They look like they could be brother and sister.

Saturday, Kristy went shopping with my sister and mom and Logan and I stayed home. I am glad that my family takes Kristy out and that they can do stuff on their own. They had a great time and got some neat stuff. That night we had a special visitor. For the last couple of years we have had a fake tree. The more we have it, the less of a fan I am of it. So to my surprise, Lynn and Darryl and Jessica came over and brought us a tree from Wyoming. They cut one down for us so now we have a real tree! It is still undecorated but that will change shortly. That was real awesome of them to do that for my family. Logan was sure surprised. It is nice to come downstairs and smell a hint of real tree.

Yesterday I had a headache that wouldn't leave. I had it most of the day Saturday but it was real bad yesterday. Luckily I was able to just sit and relax while watching a full day's worth of football.

It was such a nice week. It started with football and ended with football.

Sunday Confessional: My 2nd Biggest Addiction

Day 36

A couple of Sundays ago I revealed that I am addicted to comics. This Sunday I am admitting to another addiction that goes pretty much hand-in-hand with comic books.

Whenever I get my monthly shipment of comics (I order them online) I like to have something to drink while I am flipping through my new books. There rarely is a day when I don't have one. And I have been known to drink quite a few of them in a day too. My 2nd biggest addiction is soda.

And I don't call it pop either. Ever since I came home from New York, I call it soda. I will never forget trying to order an orange pop at a pizza place in Brooklyn. It took forever for us to understand each other, so soda it is!

I remember back in the 9th grade. I was locker pals with a kid named named Gregg and we drank Mountain Dew ALL day. We would have one before school, during school, at lunch and probably one on the way home. We kept all of our cans at the bottom of the locker and we spilt some one day and never cleaned it up. It solidified into a half-inch layer of Dew. I don't know how we passed locker inspections at the end of the year, I think I threw a backpack on it to cover it up.

Now I try to limit my consumption. I am trying to do one a day. I know that may seem like that is still quite a lot but I think one a day is good enough. Except on Sundays when football is on, I may sneak two in that day.

So what are my favorite sodas? I drink pretty much anything but if I could have my choice of soda, RIGHT NOW, I would pick the following.

1) Lime Crush
This was my favorite soda all growing up. It was not like Sprite or other Lemon-Lime sodas, it had its own flavor. It had a rich Lime flavor that tasted sour crossed with a green Lifesaver. Sadly, this is only available in Canada and even sadder then that it has been discontinued. If I could find the stuff, I would order me a case. The closest thing that I have found that tastes like it is Tiger Wood's Lime Gatorade.



2) Stewart's Cherry Cream Soda
My friend Joel turned me on to these soda makers. I first tried the Key Lime soda (hoping it was like Lime Crush) and it was pretty good. But then I tried the Cherry Cream and that instantly became my favorite. It is extremely sweet, it is not a soda that I can guzzle. You have to sip this soda. It has a sweet Cherry flavor, that kind of reminds me of cough syrup. Sadly, this soda is not available in my area as it used to be. I can find all the other flavors but this one.

3) Mountain Dew Livewire
I love Mountain Dew in all its forms but the best one that I have ever tasted is its Livewire. It is a mix of Sunkist Orange Soda and Mountain Dew. This came out as a promotion and I bought tons of it. Now it is part of the Mountain Dew family and is available everywhere. But Cache Valley. Sadly, (notice the trend here?) I have to travel a few hours out of the valley to snag some of this awesome soda. At least I can still get it. My mother-in-law will get me this soda for my birthday or other special occasions.

4) Ironport
Ironport is an old-fashioned soda that was served in the early 20th century locally. It can still be found in parts of the West, mostly in Utah. It tastes a little like champagne cola or Inca cola but a lot toned down. I can never find it bottled (although I found a picture of one here) but I can find it at two of my favorite restaurants where I live. Whenever I hit Juniper Takeout or the Bluebird, I always get an Ironport. You can also get a Cherry Ironport too. Kristy and I went out last night to the Bluebird for her birthday and I had two excellent glasses of Ironport.

5) Freshly Brewed Ginger Ale
I thought I liked Ginger Ale, Canada Dry is fantastic stuff but then I went to a local steakhouse and they home brewed their own Ginger Ale. It was unbelievable, the place was known for its steaks but it will forever be known for me as the place to get Ginger Ale. Sadly, I have gone back twice to eat there and each time they are not brewing it anymore. I have tried numerous gourmet Ginger Ale sodas but nothing matches it. Let me know if you have any suggestions. Until then, Canada Dry it is.

Now I'm thirsty.

There was a soda that I was not a fan of that I eventually really began to like. I was on my LDS mission in New York. One of the guys I lived with was very proud of being an Inca. So he would buy this awful soda and my companion and I would sneak drinks out of it. It would drive him nuts, he would get so mad about it. So one day we went to the local bodega to grab some snacks and Reese (my companion) and I thought it would be funny to buy some Inca Cola. Pena (the Inca) was always accusing us of drinking his Inca Cola (which we were because I didn't like him all that much and I was starting to acquire a taste for it) and so we thought it would be funny to get some of our own to mock him. He came home and we showed him that we bought our own 2-liter Inca Cola and he was ecstatic. He wanted to get a picture of all of us drinking it. He ran to get his camera and I whispered to Reese that we should turn our backs and moon the camera. Pena came back all excited and Phil (our other roommate) took the picture. Both Reese and I turned our backs and we mooned the camera without Pena knowing. Phil lost it and Pena thought he was just excited like he was. Boy, was he mad when he developed the pictures and saw a couple of full moons.


I had to edit the original pic for more sensitive readers!

Pic of the Week: My Grandma Anhder

Day 35

My mom kept her pictures in this orange cardboard crates (the ones that Mandarin Oranges used to come in) and I loved looking through all the pictures. That old box has now been replaced by a large red bin. The box may not look and feel the same but it still contains the pictures I loved to look at as a kid. Getting this bin of pictures has been great, especially for this blog.

This is a picture of my Grandma Anhder and I when I was very little. I don't remember this at all but that is okay. I have a ton of other great memories of my Grandma. Today would be my Grandma's birthday. Even though she passed away years ago, I still have fond memories of my Grandma.



-Playing Racco and other card games.

-Eating her delicious Chicken Casserole.

-Hearing her tell her favorite joke
How can you tell a happy motorist? They have tons of bugs in their teeth.

-When her and Grandpa came to Edmonton for Christmas. I still have those two Star Wars figures she gave me.

-Visiting her with Kristy and Logan and eating from Big J's.


-Watching the Jazz play basketball and hear her complain about the refs and the other team. But she complained more about Mark Eaton and how he always brought the ball down too low.

-Making her so happy when I would compile a list of NFL players that were from Utah.

-The awesome huge quilt she made for Kristy and I for our wedding. She was always quilting.

-The Black Cap Jam and the Pickled Beets. She was so awesome for making them and sharing them with me.

Grandma was such a neat lady. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to live with her and my Grandpa. It was something that I would never trade for anything. I had the greatest Grandparents.

List-Mania: Musicians/Music Bands

Day 34

List-Mania! I am beginning to have a love/hate relationship with these columns. I love putting things in lists but I am starting to hate putting them together. It just takes a lot of time and effort.

I love music, I love many types of music but I like rock music the best. But even my tastes in rock music differs from each other, as you will see from this list. So here are my Top Ten Favorite Bands. I listen to these guys more than any other artists.

10) AC/DC
Much of my middle school/junior high years were spent listening to this band. They are very simple. Opening riff on the guitar with pounding drums added in and you have an AC/DC song. Very catchy riffs.
FAVORITE ALBUM: Back in Black




9) AUDIOSLAVE
I never was into Soundgarden but when I heard "Like a Stone" I was taken by it. I am a latecomer, it has been only recently that I have collected and listened to thier material. Chris Cornell has the voice I wish I had. So rock and roll. Sadly, they are no more but at least I have three fantastic albums I can listen to anytime. Thier songs cover everything, they have some really rocking songs to more quiet, makes-you-think songs.
FAVORITE ALBUM: Audioslave (self-titled)

8) BELINDA CARLISLE
I know what you are thinking. Belinda Carlisle? Rock music? Well, she is my guilty pleasure. I never liked her that much when she was the lead singer of the Go-Go's but when she came out with her solo stuff, I paid attention. Of course I was sixteen at the time and I thought she was pretty hot. I still like her music, sure it very pop but I think she has a rocking voice. That is why she makes the list.
FAVORITE ALBUM: Runaway Horses

7) BEATLES
The Beatles changed the way I thought about old-fogies's music. They are older than me but when I heard them the first time, they felt fresh. Especially thier later stuff. I like the Beatles because I liked how they grew together as musicians. They tried new things and brought a lot of new innovations to music, each next album refined thier sound.
FAVORITE ALBUM: Revolver


6) ROB ZOMBIE
I wish I was Rob Zombie. He gets to do every thing that I would love to do. He writes and sings in a rock band, he writes and directs movies and he writes comic books too. You may not like him but you have to admit he is pretty creative. In fact, when I am in a writing slump I watch some of his videos and it reignites my creative drive. I also like that his songs are tinged with horror and creepiness. When I am feeling down I listen to him for a kickstart.
FAVORITE ALBUM: The Sinister Urge

5) FLEETWOOD MAC
I must have listened to this band a ton of times when I was a kid. My parents owned the album "Rumors" and I must have heard it enough times for it to be engraved on my brain. They made a comeback in the later '80s and that is when I discovered them. Then I remembered all the great music that came before. I like them because they do not have one main lead singer. They share the role and that makes them a unique listening experience. And Stevie Nicks, she has such an awesome sexy and raspy voice.
FAVORITE ALBUM: Tango in the Night

4) THE OFFSPRING
It took one song for me to become a fan of them. "Self Esteem" was a rocking song that had very clever lyrics. So I got the album and I have got them all since. What I like about them is thier lyrics. They can sing about very poignant things, serious matters to the other extreme. They have some absolute fun songs to some that make you think about life. They can ryhme like nothing else.
FAVORITE ALBUM: Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace

3) TOM PETTY
I don't know what it is exactly about Tom Petty but I sure enjoy his music. He can do it on his own with his solo stuff but his collabartions with the Heartbreakers, The Traveling Wilbury's or Mudcrutch, I love his music. He proves you do not have to have a great voice to be a fantastic musician.
FAVORITE ALBUM: Full Moon Fever


2) U2
I liked U2 when they first came out but I was not wowed until they released "Actung Baby". Then thier next album "Zooropa" really won me over. The one thing that I like about U2, and it will be hard to explain, but it seems to me that they do not waste any space or sound on thier songs. Each song feels "full".
FAVORITE ALBUM: Zooropa


1) QUEEN
I love Queen. My first exposure to Queen came from the unlikelest sources, my sister's boyfriend. When I first met Dave, he gave me a birthday present that changed my life. He was transitioning from cassettes to CDs and he gave me two of his old tapes. He gave me Def Leppard's Hysteria and Queen's Greatest Hits. After a few listens to Queen, I was enamored with the vocals and lyrics. I felt like I was listening to a soundtrack and not a collection of singles. I went and bought thier newest Greatest Hits and I quickly collected all their back material. What I love about Queen is that they hit every musical genre. Opera? Check. Heavy Metal? Check. Pop? Check. They have it all for me. Whatever mood I may be in, there is a song for that. I could go on and on but I'll stop. They can have a column all to thier own sometime.
FAVORITE ALBUM: A Day at the Races (this does change often)

Fair warning. Sometime during the course of the year, I will post (in weekly segments) my all-time favorite songs.

Happy Birthday Kristy!

Day 33

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTY!

As you can tell, it is my wife's birthday today. We plan on celebrating by going out to dinner and to do some shopping. And of course get our usual chocolates at Alvey's.

To celebrate on the blog and in true blog fashion (meaning I stole the idea from Andrea) I am listing twelve things I love about her. Why twelve? Just to be different.


I love that Kristy is funny. That was one of the first things that attracted me to her. She has a wonderful sense of humor. Now that we have been married almost twelve years, all it takes it just a look and we both know what she is thinking. And usually it is funny.

I love that Kristy loves her family. She loves and supports her family and loves to be around them. That is important to me.

I love that Kristy loves MY family. I absolutely love that she has taken in my family. There have been times where I have been sick for my family get-togethers and she just goes by herself. She will do stuff with my sister or mom (mostly both) without me.

I love how dedicated she is. Whether it is her own business or with her work with the youth in our Church. She will do everything she can. She takes her responsibilities very seriously. Which is great, it keeps me in line. When we were first were dating she was part of USU's Cross Country team. So she is a runner and loves to run.


I love that she is active. She tries her hardest at eating right and exercising. She is quite an athlete and I love that she is willing to play sports. She can get pretty competitive too. But I find that hot.

I love that she loves the Simpsons. There are a lot of people who think the Simpsons are awful and that you shouldn't watch them. I am not like that at all. I love the Simpsons. I was a bit worried when we married that my Simpsons-watching days were over. But they are not. We can watch them anytime. For those that know us really well, we quote it ALL the time. We will hear something and it will make us both think of the Simpsons. All we have to do is make eye contact and we both know what we were thinking. It is pretty scary.

I love that she supports me no matter what. From quitting my job to collecting comics, Kristy has always supported me. She makes sure I have time to myself when I blog and write my novels. She has helped and supported me many times.


I love that she will try to like what I like. For those that know me well, you know that comics are a major point. She still won't read them like I do but she has read some comics. And she will go to any comic book movie with me, on opening night too. She is thankful that I introduced her to Hugh Jackman. And going to see concerts I want to see.

I love that she is an excellent cook. I knew this early on. But she can certainly cook. And she will try new things too! She makes the best homemade Carmel (and I am not a huge fan of Carmel) and turtles. I am quite happy that she is not one of those wives that manage to burn water.

I love that she is a good mom. She takes time to play games with Logan. She takes time to read with him. She is always complaining that she doesn't do this enough but she does.

I love that she is good with money. Now she will claim she is not but she is very good with money. She can run a tight ship when needed. I am constantly amazed how she can save and spend with coupons. I never buy anything full price anymore. I will never pay cover price for my comics now. She taught me to work hard for a good deal.

I love that she has a sweet tooth. Whether it is runs for ice cream right after we put Logan down for bed, or her making four different types of sweets for Christmas, I am one happy camper. I don't have a sweet tooth, I have a whole mouth of them! And she can make and run for treats anytime.

Okay that is twelve. But I left the last and most obvious one out. She is smoking HOT! And she keeps getting hotter. Which is sad since I am heading the wrong direction. Look at this recent picture, she just gets more and more hot!



Thanks Kristy! I love you very much.

School Daze: The Rock Fight

Day 32

I hated my 7th grade at Killarney so much but things unfortunately did not get any better. My parents divorced and I moved to Richmond, Utah with my mom, we moved in with my grandparents in time for my 8th grade year at North Cache.

My 8th grade year was slightly better than my previous year at Killarney. I was picked on and bullied for much of my time here. And the worst of it came during gym time. Oh man I hated gym class.

My teacher had these fingers that were dislocated and broken from playing football but now they were hardened and unbending. He used to jab these fingers right in your chest when you did something stupid or wrong. He would line us all up to take roll and he would stop and ask each student. "Clean or dirty?" He was referring to our jock straps. You would have to pull out the strap so he could see that you were actually wearing a jock and not faking it. Only the stupid students would say "dirty". If you did he would jab those fingers right in your chest so hard it would leave a bruise. But he was not the worst of it. My class was full of all the buttholes that would torment and bully me. And gym class was just another excuse to bully me. Funny thing is that I could really tell some embarrassing stories of what went on in the gym locker room. I could name names but I think I would be too embarrassed to actually say what went on in there. Especially to the jock that thought he was really all that.

I didn't mind running around and playing games but I am not totally competitive. Especially competitive to wanna-be-jocks. They irritated me the most and I would throw games and act stupid just to piss them off. And I know I pissed one off specifically. He was much larger than me but half as smart. The best part is now he is totally fat. I would love to run into him someday and say, "Wow, you really got fat didn't you." I knew I would get picked on more for throwing basketball games but it was worth it so piss him off.


But that is not the story I want to tell. One day we had a substitute teacher named Mr. Forsgren. We met out on the running track made of rocks and I was out there waiting for the rest of the class to get out on the track. I was kicking some of the rocks and I wasn't looking where I was kicking. Some of the rocks hit him and he says "You wanna have a rock fight huh?" No I didn't, I didn't even know what a rock fight was! He picked up a ton of small rocks and chucked them at me. So the fight was on. I looked down and picked up a large rock, one that would be good for skipping and I threw it at him. KERPLOP! He hit the ground.

I didn't know that throwing bigger rocks in a rock fight was a no-no. The rock I threw cracked him right behind the ear and he was on the ground. I panicked. I killed the sub! One of my fellow classmates saw the whole thing and started to laugh. I thought I was dead. Mr. Forsgren got up and was majorly ticked off, he ran right after me. I took off thinking I would just keep running until I got home. But he was not running after me. He was running after the kid that was laughing at him. He tackled him swearing at him. "You think that was *BLEEP* funny?" He was on top of my classmate yelling.

I felt bad so I yelled at the teacher (I was keeping my distance) and told him I was the one that hit him. Maybe he thought Brent was the kid that threw the rock at him. Mr. Forsgren yelled back, "I know it wasn't *BLEEP* him! You got me, pure and simple. You *BLEEP* won!" He made Brent run laps all during gym. I hit Forsgren so hard with the rock that it knocked him out for a second. I could see the blood all over his neck and left shoulder. Surprisingly, he didn't get mad at me. I won the Rock Fight after all.

The Write Stuff: The Epilogue

Day 31

The month of November flew right on by, I cannot believe that it is December already. I hate to sound cliche but time flies when you are having fun.

This has been a fun month. I didn't ruin Thanksgiving this year and my creative juices have been at an all time high. This blog has been very rewarding, it is hard to believe that this is my 31st official entry. This challenge has been not only so much fun to write but also to read. I am following quite a few other people that have taken the challenge and it has been neat to get to know them and see how creative they have been so far. I appreciate the ideas I have stolen.

As I have blogged about many, many times already, this month was also NaNoWrMo. And not only did I complete the 50,000 word challenge, I also have completed my novel.

Yes, I got to write the words The End. I named my novel, "THE VESSEL" and the final word count is 65,817.

I am pretty proud of this achievement. Here is a short sypnosis of the novel:

A young girl holds the key to saving a parallel universe. Only she doesn't know it yet and every one is out to get her. The only person that is trying to save her is her basketball coach. Or was he the janitor at the hospital when she was born? Or perhaps the fellow church-goer when she was in elementary school? There seems to be more to her coach than it seems.

But this is not the reason for today's column. I wanted to take some time to write about some of my favorite comic book authors and how they influenced me. Each of the writers I have chosen have something that I think they are the best at and something that I try to emulate. I have included links to Amazon at the end so you can check out other reviews. I suggest if you are trying comics out for the first time, you should check out Orbiter or Brian K. Vaughan's Y-The Last Man.

WARREN ELLIS:
Master of the Imaginative Details
My favorite writer is Warren Ellis. Ellis does the small things that make things more memorable. With one written line of dialouge he can breathe life and create a memorable character. It is the attention to detail that makes Ellis a favorite of mine. He also has a crazy imagination that really inspires me to rethink things and think beyond the box. He can do it all too, he has written superhero books that are inspiring, horror comics that creep into your mind when it is dark, comics about crime that make you feel helpless and science fiction that makes you think of what lies beyond the stars. He is one of the few comic authors that I will follow anywhere.
FAVORITE WORKS: Orbiter, Scars, Planetary

GEOFF JOHNS:
Master of Continuity
He is known for his superhero work. Comic book writers either love him or hate him, I fall into the "love" camp more than anything. What I appreciate about this writer is his obvious love for continuity. He can take any storyline from the past, no matter how good or bad it is and rework it. He does not ignore continuity, he embraces it. His run on the comic Green Lantern is the best example. I hated that the original Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, was being brought back and I was against reading it but after years and years have gone by, I tried it out. And he made it work, he didn't ignore what had gone on before with Hal Jordan, he used it to further his story.
FAVORITE WORKS: JSA, Green Lantern

CHRIS CLAREMONT:
Master of the Subplots
When I was a kid I had read a ton of comics but none of the impacted me as much as Claremont's work on the Uncanny X-Men did. His first run on that title remains my all-time favorite run. A lot of readers do not care for his work, claiming that it is outdated and has too many subplots. It seems like today's audience wants stories that are told and ended, no various plotlines but I am not like that. I love subplots, it is what keeps me buying the books. I love subplots and I think he is the best at it. His later work is not as strong as his older stuff but I will still check his stuff out.
FAVORITE WORKS: Uncanny X-Men, WildC.A.T.S/Cyberforce, Wolverine

BRIAN K. VAUGHAN:
Master of the Cliffhanger
I like comics because I like the monthly serial. You can read Vaughan's stuff when they are collected but I think you miss out a bit with his monthly cliffhangers. BKV is a fantastic writer, his dialogue is very belivable and his stories are full of imagination. But his cliffhangers are the best. The first issues of Ex Machina and Y-The Last Man are perfect cliffhangers.
FAVORITE WORKS: Y-The Last Man, Ex Machina, Pride of Baghdad

There are other comic book writers that I like too. Alan Moore, Christos Gage, Jeff Smith and Alan Davis come to mind. But these are the ones that stick out to me the most.