From the Soapbox: Apples to Limes

Day 256

I don't care for apples. I hate apple juice, I don't like apple sauce. I don't eat raw apples very often either. And I don't care for apple flavored candy at all. In fact I despise apple candy.

So I just avoid apples, it is as simple as that. But what really drives me insane is that slowly apples are replacing other candy fruit flavors, in particular lime flavored candies. And the list just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

• One of my favorite candies are SweetTarts. In 2001, Nestlé replaced the original lime with green apple.
• The original lineup of Runts included banana, orange, cherry, strawberry, and lime. In the late nineties, the lime was removed and replaced by apple.
• Bottlecaps used to have a lemon-lime flavor that was more lime than lemon. But it was phased out as well. Thank goodness it was replaced by cherry. But the lime-hate continues!
• Starbursts used to have a lime candy and then was combined with lemon to make lemon-lime. I cannot prove that those were replaced by apple like the other two but let the record show that apple-flavored Starbursts are available and lime ones are not.
• Skittles still have a lime flavored candy but I don't know how long that will last. Green apple replaced lime in the United States for a brief time in 2001, as part of a promotion. In some other varieties of Skittles, apple is found to be plentiful but lime gets the shaft.
• Lifesavors had a fantastic green lime flavor that was discontinued in 2003. Lemon, orange and lime lifesavors were replaced in the United States by raspberry, watermelon, and blackberry. At least lime was not replaced by apples but still. Eventually orange made a comeback but where is the lime?
• TicTac's have a nice lime flavor mixed with orange TicTac's. I just visited their website looking for more information about them and was going to pimp them out as one of my favorite lime candies and guess what? Lime is no longer listed as a flavor. But take a wild guess at what new flavor has been announced. APPLE TICTAC'S!

Lime is an outsider. No one wants it.

So what is wrong with lime?  Why does the candy world in particular hate lime?

Lime or Apple Candy?

So I will let my audience decide. Do you like Lime or Apple candy?

There is still one candy that has not changed yet. Mike and Ike's still have lime included in their candy. They also have a variety that includes green apple.

So this candy has learned to co-exist with each other. Why can't all candy learn to do that? Isn't there room for both apples and limes?

World Cup Review

Day 255

Sarah, a friend of mine from England poised the question "So has the World Cup made any of you not interested in football before more interested?"

I think that it helped that we had a friendly competition by drafting teams and facing off with friends. It definitely made me pay more attention than I normally would have. For the dumb picks that I made, (next time I will pay more attention to my picks) I didn't think I did too bad. And it was fun to watch some of the matches. I didn't catch all the games I wanted and I have to admit that I wasn't feeling it during the England/US game. I liked the heavy drama but the ending seemed very anti-climatic. It just seems to me that for the last 5 minutes or so all the players were playing for the tie. There just didn't seem any attitude or determination to go for the win.

I didn't do that bad. In fact my friend predicted that I would take 8th overall

But the next few games were more exciting and I can see why people get such a kick (bad pun fully intended) out of the World Cup.

GOOOOAAAAAALLLLLL!

Next time the World Cup comes around I am sure I will catch a few matches even if I am not part of some competition pool. I still consider myself to be more of a casual fan than a hardcore fan but it is still early and that may change. I have family (and fellow bloggers) that are soccer fans and they go to Real Salt Lake games and now I am more libel to go to one of those too.

So the answer is yes. I am more interested in soccer and that will continue to grow. I don't think it will ever replace my obsession with football or hockey but I can definitely see it getting stronger.

The Video Date

Day 254

I had a lot of fun dating in high school. I rarely dated the same person and my friend Damond and I would always try to plan creative dates.

For this date I was super excited. Damond was dating a fun girl named Brenea and I was going on my first date with this cute blond named Valerie. Interesting side note, both Damond and I were dating older women. Well, they were only a year older than us but we thought we were living dangerously.

We didn't have much planned for this evening. We were planning on making some treats and then playing DumbDamondGames(tm). For those that don't know, DDG was just a series of silly nonsense games. Usually these games would somehow get us closer to our dates physically. It was all part of the master plan!

Instead Damond and I had a flash of brilliance. Let's make a music video! We dug out an old video camera and we found an even older tape player. This tape player had reels it was so old.

And we found the perfect song to do. "One Bad Apple" by the Osmond Brothers. We also found some old clothes to dress up in and we found what we wanted to use as musical instruments. I guess I should have noticed it then but I dressed up to be a bass player. I used a yard stick and wore a baseball hat with a scarf tucked in so it looked like I had long hair. I don't remember what the girls wore but I do remember that Damond had a helmet on and used a wood gold club. He would sing the lead and the rest of us would sing backup. We only mouthed the words of course. Damond one time swung his "mike stand" (golf club) and about smacked me in the groin. We would do the whole song and then we would watch them after and make plans for new videos. We laughed and laughed when we saw that Damond almost permanently neutered me but what really made us laugh was you could audibly hear me go "Whoa". We made three different videos and had a real hoot doing them.

After the date was over and we took the girls home Damond and I would stay up into the wee hours of the morning watching our videos and we would talk about what we thought of our dates. We had so much fun on this date that after our LDS Missions we did it again with a different set of girls. I even reprised my role as the long-haired bass player. It was still a lot of fun to do but unfortunately it just wasn't as magical as it was that first time.

I wish I had a copy of that tape. Sadly, Damond's dad taped over it all. If I would have known he was going to do that, I would have bought him some new tapes!

Random Ramblings

Day 253

Last night my family and I spent the evening at Merlin Olsen Park with some of our neighbors. We grilled up steaks, hot dogs and chicken and it was so nice and relaxing. The weather was perfect and the food was great. I grilled the chicken and I must say that I did an excellent job. It was so juicy, I really should invest in getting a grill so I can cook it more often.

Awhile ago I mentioned doing an NFL blog for the upcoming season. I was thinking and planning some of it the other day. My first initial thought was to spotlight a different division every week and then have some playoff predictions. So I counted how many weeks I would need and then took a peak at the calendar to see when I need to start. I was shocked to find out that I will need to start this week! Which means we only have nine weeks until the season starts. Part of me is excited but part of me is feeling a bit overwhelmed since sometime this week I need to blog about it. I think I will debut it this Thursday since the NFL season officially starts on a Thursday. That will give me sometime to figure it all out.

I did whip up a graphic for my column and I think I have a name for it. I am not completely satisfied with the lettering and how it looks but I think that might be good enough for now. I am calling the column Upon Further Review as a play on what the referees say after they have reviewed a play on instant replay. That might change too but I kind of doubt it since I am a little pressed for time.

I did one of my New Year's Resolutions the other day. I got out my bass guitar and played it both the day before yesterday and yesterday and my fingers are killing me.

It even hurts to type. So either I need to practice more so my fingers callus up and get used to it or just give up the bass completely. I thought I did pretty well with it. I taught myself a couple of Tom Petty songs that I can play decently. My goal for this next week is to learn Dragon Attack by Queen. It has a cool bass line which will be difficult to learn but will be absolutely fun to play.

This week I am also starting my new book Driven which is the autobiography on the late owner of the Utah Jazz. I may not have seen eye-to-eye with this man and his decisions but I will say that I respect him for all his hard work. I am very interested to learn more about him and see why he made the decisions he made.

Happy Birthday Jeremy!

Day 252

I am in awe of those bloggers that try to cover every one's birthday on their blogs. I thought about doing that since I would have something to blog about the majority of the time but then I thought of the workload and I remembered that I don't remember occasions like these. And I would feel incredibly stupid if I accidentally missed someone. I am horrible at remembering birthdays and stuff like that. So I decided against covering all the birthdays aside from my own family.

But I have made a special case (Get it? Case - case?) for my fellow bloggers. One of the biggest advantages of blogging with my fellow bloggers is that you will not miss their birthday. And really, I have only a few extra blogs to cover and they don't come for awhile. And I would be carrying some extra guilt since they wrote about me on my birthday. (wink, wink)

And today is a special day, it is my cousin and fellow newbie blogger Jeremy's birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

As he mentioned on his blog Jeremy are close. Maybe it was because our birthdays are so close to each other, personally I think it is because we knew each other in Heaven before this life. And we saw what crazy families we would be apart of and we vowed to try to strengthen and keep ourselves sane. (Only kidding folks... out families are not that crazy)

I guess I was the exhibisionist of the family eh?

I love this picture of us with Grandpa. Who would have thought that we would both have the same hairstyle now?

We have a lot of similarities. We both like to write and he is perhaps the biggest influence on my writing. I started this blog because I wanted to have some sort of record of my life. I regret that I never kept a journal like Jeremy has. I am in awe, I mean I am completely jealous of his tenacious ability to write and keep a journal. Jeremy also has a beautiful way with words. And not only can he creatively write, he has the best penmanship! Seriously, I wish I could write cursive the way he does.

Now I just need him to sit down and crank out that great American novel! I know he has it in him. I am looking in your direction this November Jeremy!

I hope you don't mind me sharing this. This was one of the novel ideas he had that he shared with me. Maybe this November you should write a rough draft or add another chapter? ;)

I actually created a character based directly on Jeremy. Remember Jetstream?

There are many things that Jeremy knows about me but no one else does. He was very instrumental while I was serving my LDS mission to New York. He inspired me to keep a daily journal (which I did) of those two years. I have shared with him parts of that journal so he knows stuff that I have never shared with anyone else. He also wrote me regularly while I was in New York. His letters were always so uplifting and full of creativity. What I enjoyed most of his letters was his honesty. Not only did we share what we thought and felt, we also shared writing ideas. On my P-Days (the one day of the week you had off while on the mission) I would write and plot stories and then send them to Jeremy. I would get some valuable feedback but he would also send me his story ideas and I fed off of that energy. Thanks Jeremy! You helped me through many difficult times on my mission.  I believe it was during this time that we coined the phrase "Soul Cousins".

I still have all your old letters from the mission field. I love that you sent me a Star Wars card. We must have asked to be sent to Earth so we could see Star Wars while growing up.

 I have some fond memories of spending time with Jeremy and all the CaseClan. I was lucky that I had a cousin my age (remember, I am still older than you!) that I could hang out with. You have been through so much and I have never heard you complain or utter a word of despair and I admire that. I am so glad that you have taken this blogging challenge. I think I will continue past my time to keep you company during this year-long adventure.

I hope you have a great birthday. And may the Force be with you!

List-Mania: Killer Cereals

Day 251

I was thinking this morning while eating cereal about what I should blog about. I have not done a List-Mania in a couple of weeks because I am running out of ideas. I also find that these columns are the most difficult columns to do. I have three or four List-Mania columns half done.

Then it came to me, literally. As I was about to chomp down on some cereal, I thought of an idea that would be quick and fun to blog about. Cereal!  I love cereal and I could eat cereal every day. Which is funny considering I am not much of a milk drinker. So here are my Top 5 Favorite Cereals!

5) Count Chocula

I love the way this cereal makes the the leftover milk all chocolaty and I love all the marshmallows. So why isn't this my favorite? The reason it ranks last in my Top 5 is two-fold. The first is that I cannot get it anytime I want. It is only available during the Halloween season, at least in my area anyway. I would eat it a lot more if I could but I can't. And the other reason is the Chewing Roaches incident I had while living in New York. But I will save that story for another blog!

4) Fruity Pebbles

Barney is so right. This cereal is so good. When I want something sweet and a little fruity, I grab this cereal. This cereal also makes the BEST Rice Krispie squares. Obviously, you use this cereal instead of Rice Krispies.

3) Frosted Mini Wheats

I prefer the frosted variety but I do like those large plain ones that you crush up. But of course I heap spoonfuls of sugar on top of the plain ones. Is it me or does it seem like cereal companies are putting less and less frosting on them?

2) Cracklin Oat Bran

I read somewhere that this cereal is one of the worst cereals that you can eat. No wonder it tastes so darn good. It has to be the best cereal that you can allow to get soggy.

1) Lucky Charms

I just finished a bowl of cereal and I could totally pour myself a bowl of Lucky Charms right now if I had some. Back in my day, there only used to be "pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars, green clovers and blue diamonds." They introduced purple horseshoes when I was a kid. Back then that was a lot of marshmallows but now they have a ton of them. What is up with blue moons? I want the originals back!


I have tried the Marshmallow Mateys the cheap brand and they do not compare to the original. And for good reason, they're magically delicious!

From the Soap Box: Terrible Tuesdays

Day 250

Most people hate Mondays with a passion. I don't mind Mondays at all. I usually am pretty productive on Mondays. I am a little more refreshed from the weekend and the time usually goes by quickly.

And then Tuesday comes...

Ugh, Tuesday. My most hated day of the week. I have never liked Tuesdays at all. In the Greek world, Tuesday (the day of the week of the Fall of Constantinople) is considered an unlucky day.

No kidding.

Tuesdays are horrible, horrible days. Tuesdays to me are what Mondays are to most people. It is the day that goes by the longest, it is the days that insane people come out of the woodwork. It is the worst day of the week!

In both school and work days, Tuesdays dragged and dragged and dragged. Rarely would you have a Tuesday day off. It seems like you would rarely have Tuesdays off on a holiday.

Tuesdays officially became my most hated day while serving my LDS mission to New York. As soon as my plane landed in Queens, Tuesdays began to mock and spite me. If you look through my journal you will find that most of my Tuesdays became Jukedays. Jukes are when you would set up appointments to see people and you go over and they don't show up. My Tuesdays in the mission field were filled with Jukedays. The worst Tuesdays was when we dropped people or when they would drop us. What that means is you would have a nice relationship going with some people and suddenly, for no apparent reason, they were not your friends anymore and wanted nothing to do with you.

When I got home from my mission I was hoping that Tuesdays would just go away. The drops and jukes certainly did but they were replaced by idiots. In all my jobs since, Tuesdays were known for the days when I would have to deal with all the idiots of the world. All my arch-enemies would somehow get in touch with me to ruin my days. These Schmidthead's never called my on other days. They waited until a Tuesday would come and then ruin the rest of my day. You remember me blogging about that stupid trucker guy? The one that kept poking me until I about snapped his finger? I was working for Action trucks and we only worked those trucks one day a week. Can you guess what day that was? Yup. A stupid Tuesday.

Just so you know, I usually don't answer the phone on Tuesdays. Call me superstitious if you want. I don't have to worry about the burden of proof. I have years of it. Now you know why I hide under a rock and never answer the phone on a Tuesday. 

Ugh... Tuesday is right behind the corner.