Still No Luck

I haven't been able to figure out what the problem is with the vacation pictures. I can't get them to upload. So I don't think I'll be posting any cruise pictures. Sorry! You'll just have to imagine it. Think: wet, cold, and, in the case of Mexico, dirty. Other than that, it's just some silly pictures of Zak and me. If anyone is really dying to see pictures, email me and I'll see if I can't get a few to work as attachments to an email.
Zak and I are finally feeling all better after our December of Sickness. Hooray!! We both had colds and I think we each had some sort of flu as well, but we are both feeling okay again. Now if we can just survive the winter in Logan with no more colds, we'll be doing great! We have had a lot of snow this weekend. Zak cleared the path behind our house that leads to the driveway three times yesterday. I don't know exactly how much snow we received, but it seems like at least 12 inches.
Today is Zak's first day of the semester. He has two days of orientation seminars, at which we hope he finds out for sure if his teaching assignment has been changed to Preston High instead of North Cache Middle School. If so, it's possible he may be teaching there as soon as Wednesday. That's a little detail that the SecEd Dept. saw fit to omit from any information dispersed to student teachers for the Spring 2008 semester -- when does the student teaching actually begin? No one knows. But maybe Zak will after his meeting today. Also, never mind that the orientation seminars began today -- Zak didn't get an email about them (stating when and where) until last Thursday. Some one in that department is not on the ball... or possibly many someones. We are both looking forward to May when we no longer have to deal with that stuff anymore!
I am hanging out at work, thanking my lucky stars that the slower season has finally begun. It helps that I no longer have to do any pre-funding or funding and am just back to my normal loan officer duties. I am truly grateful to be able to focus on my primary job again, since that's what I like anyway!

Our Mexican Cruise

For Christmas this year, Zak and I decided to give each other the gift of a cruise. We left from Los Angeles on December 17th and made our first stop in San Diego on the 18th. The second stop was Catalina Island on the 19th, and the third stop was Ensenada in Mexico on the 20th.
On the first night of the cruise, we got into an elevator with several other people. A kid also got in who was breathing really hard. A lady in the elevator said, “Oh, you must be in a hurry.” And he said, “No, I’m just really excited!” This piqued Zak’s interest and he decided we should follow him to find out what had excited him so – after all, we wanted to be excited, too. We followed him surreptitiously but not with any degree of success. He just sort of hovered by the (empty) pool on one of the top decks, so we abandoned the attempt shortly after that. We saw him a few more times that evening around various lounges, but didn’t ever figure out what he was sooo excited about. We think it’s possible that he was going to a rendezvous with someone... ooh la la. Or maybe he just realized we were following him and didn’t want to let us in on the secret. The phrase “I’m just really excited” was used frequently by us over the course of the cruise. It’s still funny to Zak and me, but it’s okay if no one else thinks it’s funny.
Some of the highlights from the trip were going to the San Diego Maritime Museum and getting to walk around on a pirate ship and a Russian submarine. The pirate ship is the HMS Surprise, and its claim to fame is that the movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World was filmed aboard it. I learned that pirate ships don’t have cannon, they have guns. Even though they are actually cannon, at least in my mind. I guess they’re only called cannon when they’re on the land. We read a sample of a pirate’s code and lots of other interesting stuff.
The Russian submarine, the b39, was pretty interesting, too. It was so cramped and claustrophobic and there was a ton of equipment shoved into such a relatively small amount of space; I don’t know how anyone survived while it was at sea! It was neat to crawl through and see what tight quarters the sailors lived in. They didn’t get to shower, but the doctor on the submarine made sure that each sailor got a hot wash cloth each day to wipe off with. I guess this was to help fight the spread of germs or something. Uh, hand sanitizer, anyone? The bathrooms were SO small. I don’t really know how you can be comfortable doing what you need to do in such an incredibly small space.
We also went aboard the Star of India, which was originally called the Euterpe (the Greek goddess of music). It was much larger than the Surprise and is one of the oldest iron-hulled ships still active.
Our favorite thing about Catalina Island was its laid back atmosphere. Zak has decided he wants to move there when he’s done with school next May. I guess we’ll see how things work out, but for now I think that idea falls into the “possibly maybe someday” category. It was rainy and misty on the day we were there, and we walked some of the residential streets away from the touristy areas. We found a little pet cemetery. That was a little weird, but I guess people do love their pets. Zak got a few pictures of some of the more creative headstones. The beach was pretty small, at least in the area where we were, but it was still fun to walk along it and go underneath the pier.
Ensenada was also really interesting. It was extremely dirty and there were little kids with big, sad eyes who walked right up to everyone with their hands outstretched. It would’ve been nice to help them, but there were signs in a few of the shops that said not to give the kids money, because they would have to give it to their parent or caretaker who would use it for whatever they wanted, and it wouldn’t really benefit the kids. So that was sad. We enjoyed walking around and seeing all the shops. The pharmacies were especially strange. Apparently they have all kinds of things for sale in those pharmacies. The funniest thing about them is that the proprietors walk around with these white coats on like it makes them actual pharmacists. Nice. We did end up doing a little bargaining with some of the people selling their wares on the street and in shops and brought home a few souvenirs. It was fun to just walk around and see what the city was like.
There were some pretty fun things to do on the boat as well. On the first night, we were wandering around and came across a little arcade where the games were all set to be free for the evening. We played a little Ms. Pacman, some Beach Head 2000, SportShooter, and Centipede. We also found a lounge where brave souls were doing karaoke and sat and listened to that for a little while. We ended up back there two nights later and discovered that many of the people were repeat karaoke-ers, if that’s a word. I guess a lot of the same people got up to sing each night, and in the case of one woman, she even sang the same song – Cher’s “Believe.” It was very entertaining, but the one who topped them all was an older guy named Mike who sang Tom Jones’ “Delilah” with such verve and enthusiasm that we had to leave after he was done. We knew that no one would be as good as he was, so we left the karaoke lounge on a high note. Pun intended, as Zak would say.
The food was really good in the dining room, which, sadly, we only made it to three times out of the eight times available. The first night we were watching the boat leave LA when dinner was served at 5:30, and then another night we were taking a nap and didn’t wake up until after 7:00, so it was much too late to go. We only made it there for breakfast once. On our first night at dinner, Zak tried escargot (I tried one, too) and said it was pretty good, considering what it was. He also tried duck for the first time. I was somewhat tamer in my choices and only had roast beef and turkey for my dinners. The food was okay in the Windjammer Café (pretty much the only other place to eat on the boat when the dining room was closed), it was just always buffet style. Zak really liked the pizza.
The first night we went to the dining room we met our tablemates and it turned out that one of the couples were LDS newlyweds from Oregon. The other couple was from Canada and was also close to our age. That made it more fun to talk to each other, and despite our fears about having to make conversation with total strangers when all we really wanted to do was eat our food, we actually really enjoyed meeting and conversing with all four of them.
We ended up watching a few movies on the boat that neither of us had seen before: Stardust, Shrek 3, No Reservations, White Christmas, Dark Passage, and then just snippets of other shows like A Christmas Story and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. We also watched some cartoons. I don’t get cartoons these days. I really like the old Merrie Melodies cartoons with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and company, and the Hanna Barbera cartoons. And all the old Disney cartoons, too, of course. These new cartoons are weird, Yugi-Oh, game-playing cartoons. Of course the basic premises rarely change much, but the format is strange to me. I guess it’s just one more sign that middle age is approaching…
One of the other things Zak really enjoyed doing on the boat was walking around the upper deck in the evenings. I thought it was fun too, but it was nearly always overcast so the stars weren’t really visible. The first night we found Orion and what Zak calls the Baby Dipper. It’s even smaller than the Little Dipper. All the nights after, though, were too cloudy to see any stars. I was glad that I had brought a few jackets, a hat, scarf, and gloves. I used them every night for those upper deck walks!
On the last night on the boat, we went to a show in the Sound of Music lounge and enjoyed it much more than we thought we would. It was put on by the Royal Caribbean singers/dancers, and one of the male singers and one of the female singers were exceptionally good. The only downside was that you could feel every single wave in that lounge. Ew. And we were really moving, so there were lots of waves to feel.
After we got off the boat, we headed north to see San Francisco, since I had never been before. We only spent a short time walking around Union Square before we got on the streetcar line and took it out to Chinatown. We got a picture by the gates of Chinatown and that was pretty much all I wanted to see there. It was really dirty; reminiscent of Ensenada, actually. Then we rode over to Lombard Street and saw the most crooked street in the world. It was actually a really beautiful street, all brick, and the landscaping on the sides of the road was really nice. From there, we rode to Ghirardelli Square and sampled some chocolate. From there, we walked along the waterfront area, which was all paved over. We could see Angel Island and Alcatraz from where we were, so that was cool since we had decided not to take the ferry out to the island. One of our favorite parts of waiting for the streetcar to take us back to Union Square was the performers who entertained us as we waited in line. One guy was sitting on a bench, strumming a guitar and making up rhymes. You could tell he’d been doing that gig for a long time; he had a rhyme for everything. It was pretty entertaining to listen to, so Zak threw some change in his guitar case. His rhyme for that was, “Thanks for dough! Come back later and throw some mo’!” There was another guy who played guitar and sang. He was pretty decent. Then there was Escape Man. Zak remembered him from his trip four years ago, and Zak’s sister Nikkol remembered him from her trip ten years ago when we told her about him. So I guess he’s sort of an institution there at Ghirardelli Square. He had his buddy put a straightjacket on him and then wrap some chains around him. Then he proceeded to tell the crowd how he was going to get out of his chains and straightjacket in two minutes or less. He lay down on the ground and proceeded to do just that. He wallowed around for a couple of minutes and was able to get free with all his thrashing about. Then he walked around with his Santa hat so people could make donations to Escape Man’s College Fund. While we’re completely sure that Escape Man has no immediate plans for college, as he was at least on the declining end of middle age, it was still very entertaining.
After we left San Francisco, we drove to Bodega Bay which is northwest of SF. Zak visited this spot with his brother Rhett on their SF trip a few years prior and he wanted to go back and see it again (this time in the daylight). We got there just as the sun was setting and got some great pictures. It was really beautiful. Zak climbed up on a big rock that jutted out into the ocean a little and while there, collected some rocks, shells, and two starfish that he thought were dead. It wasn’t until later that someone explained to him that the only time they’re dead is when they’re floating in the water. Since he had to pry them off the rock, they were probably quite alive at the time, which is not fun to think about. Poor things. Anyway, I’m pretty sure they have since expired and am not really sure what Zak is going to do with them, if anything. I think they’re languishing in our cold basement currently.
After it was completely dark and very, very cold, we drove from Bodega Bay to Napa where Zak’s great aunt Hazel lives. We visited with her and her roommate Sheila for a little while before hitting the road again, this time to begin the drive home. We were both ready to get back and so we took turns driving while the other slept. It worked out pretty well and we were able to get home by 9 on Sunday morning.
I forgot to put something in that Zak wanted me to be sure to include. One of the times we left our room the first night of the cruise, we decided to keep going down the hall in the opposite direction of the stairs and elevators, just to see what was down there. There were only more cabins, so that wasn’t particularly exciting.
Zak decided to play a little joke on me (as he is prone to do) as we walked back to the stairs and elevators in the lobby. As we passed some of the cabins on our way out to the elevator/stairs, he knocked on the one of the doors (same idea as a doorbell ditch, I guess) and then said, “Run, Sarah! Run!” So I turn around and give him a horrified look and start to take off running down the hall. It was a natural reaction. I mean, there is nowhere to hide in those halls with all the cabins. Your only safe bet is to get to the lobby where the stairs and elevators are, otherwise you’re going to get caught by whoever you’re doorbell ditching. He let me go for a second or two, but then I heard him laughing his brains out, so I stopped to see what the deal was. The door he had knocked on was our own cabin, 2116, and he could hardly stand up he was laughing so hard at my reaction. He is a jokester, through and through. It was pretty funny, I have to admit now.
It was a great trip, lots of fun, lots of memories. Something that astounded us time after time was the total inability of some of the boat’s inhabitants to effectively operate the elevators. They are simple machines. Most everyone has ridden on an elevator at least once in their life, if not hundreds of times. Yet it was like the first time, every time, for many of the people we encountered. So strange.
Something else we absolutely could not understand were the joggers who were jogging on the top deck every morning before 8 am. Uh, aren’t you on vacation? Why do you need to make everyone who’s pigging out on doughnuts and pastries from the breakfast buffet feel like losers? Lame, guys. Very lame.
We had a great time on our cruise! Sorry for the extremely long post. I'll put some pictures up in the next one.

Thanksgiving

This post is for Zak. He has been asking me to post for a few weeks now... We celebrated Thanksgiving with Zak's family in Millville and had a great meal and nice, relaxing afternoon. The highlight of the post-meal antics was a dare Zak made to Corey. We had turkey and ham, and there were some really fatty pieces on the edges of the ham.
Zak dared Corey to eat one of the fatty pieces for money. I don't remember what the initial amount was. There was a little bantering back and forth and other family members said how much they'd be willing to throw in if Corey ate this piece of fat. I think the grand total came to about $10, give or take. Then Kurt upped the ante by saying that he'd give a certain amount ($5 maybe?) if Corey let Zak lick the ham fat before Corey ate it. You get the idea -- lots of manly posturing, etc.
Finally Corey agreed to do it for the price they agreed on (whatever it was). He ate the ham fat that Zak licked. (Insert exclamation of disgust here.) I thought it was really gross, as did everyone else. I don't know where these things come from...Zak has an interesting mind.
Other than that, we've been up to our usual activities of work and school. The semester is finishing up this week and next. We'll be taking off a week from Friday for my sister's wedding in Provo and then going on a cruise to Mexico for a few days. I am looking forward to some time off!
We got our Christmas tree put up this past Saturday. We still don't have lots of ornaments after 3 1/2 years, but I think it's a pretty respectable little tree, considering. Also, the Festivus sign went up the same day and is now lit nightly. Zak is very diligent about making sure that the sign goes up and gets lit each year. Hope everyone else is enjoying the holiday season!

Getting Ready for Fatherhood - AKA Being a Good Uncle

Now, don't get all excited. The title of the post is not any kind of obscure reference to pregnancy. It's just the thought I had as I looked at these pictures. These were taken last night at Zak's mom and dad's house right before we left. I'm not even sure how the horsey ride thing got started, but at first, Zak was giving Beck a ride. Kaiya, ever the observant one, noticed that fun was happening without her (not to be allowed) and wanted to join in. At the tail end of the ride (somewhere between the dining room and living room) Kathryn noticed the fun and also wanted to join in. I thought for sure that Zak would say he'd give her a ride in a minute, but he told her to climb on and asked me to walk behind and make sure that no one fell off. It was too cute not to get some pictures!

The Latest

Having just recovered from a rather nasty bout of stomach flu, I am feeling quite grateful to be healthy today! I went home from work early on Tuesday and didn't come back until this morning. You really don't want to know any of the details in between - suffice it to say that Zak has been spraying crisp berry scented disinfectant on just about everything in our house. I hate that smell now. I am also quite sick of saltines, noodle soup, and Sprite. Blech.
Zak is getting more and more anxious for the semester to end. Unfortunately, there are still two full months left. Although, if you take out weekends and holidays, it's not quite that long. In fact, it's only a little over a month if you only count school days! He has been observing in a classroom at his alma mater, Mountain Crest, and comes home with interesting stories every day that he's there observing. All I can say is that I guess some kids are more motivated to succeed in life than others. I'll have to have him post some stories one of these days.
Sorry for the short post -- there is really nothing else going on in our lives these days. I'll write more when there is!

More Yellowstone Pictures

You tell me, what trip to Yellowstone would be complete without some kind of close encounter with wildlife? We were driving around and took a little turn-off to see some waterfalls or something, and suddenly all the cars in front of us stopped. We craned our necks to see what the problem was, and this bison is what we saw. He was just walking down the road, minding his own business. Zak snapped the first picture and I snapped the second. Zak almost could have touched the bison, it was so close to the car. And finally, what trip to Yellowstone would be complete without a picture of an enormous boot? This was about 9 pm Sunday night. I was struggling to stay awake when we stopped for a quick break in Alpine, WY. And there it was. Zak couldn't resist.
All in all, it was a fun trip. I'm glad we finally made it to Yellowstone!

More Yellowstone Pictures

These are just a few more scenic pictures. I took the first two at Lewis Lake and Zak took the rest of them.

Our Yellowstone Adventure

Zak and I have been meaning to go to Yellowstone for the last three years that we've lived in Logan. We finally made it over Labor Day weekend. I have included some pictures for everyone's enjoyment. Or puzzlement. Don't worry, I'll explain.

Here's a little background before I launch into full-fledged explanation mode: Zak and I drove to Yellowstone on Saturday, leaving Logan at about 9 am and finally arriving around 3ish. We camped in our car (since I was a little worried about the bear situation due to numerous people sharing bear horror stories with me before the trip) at Lewis Lake. It was a beautiful lake (as most lakes are) and the campsite was nice, as campsites go. Zak and I played around at the lake, shooting rocks into the water with his slingshot and walking along the shore. I also favored Zak with a stirring rendition of "Father Abraham" (complete with all the actions) and other beloved Girls' Camp songs. I didn't realize at the time that sound carried so very well across the water. I guess the boaters on the other side of the lake were entertained, too. Or disturbed. Anyway.

We went back to the campsite at about 8 pm when it started to get dark. We decided we would go to bed, since we didn't have anything else to do. So we reclined our seats and proceeded to attempt to sleep. I'll sum up the whole night briefly: it was COLD. We had lots of blankets and sweatshirts, but we still froze. Also, due to the cold temperature, I had to go to the bathroom several times. Zak, the wonderful husband that he is, told me that I could wake him up if I needed to go to the bathroom and he'd go with me. I was still a little nervous about the whole bear thing. You never know, right?

I woke up for the last time at 4 in the morning and couldn't go back to sleep. Zak woke up at 5 (when I woke him because I had to go to the bathroom AGAIN) and we decided to drive to Old Faithful so that we could be there to see the geyser erupt when it got a little lighter outside.

Here's the explanation of the pictures: The first was taken at ... Vault Geyser! Zak and I were sitting on a bench, waiting for Old Faithful to do its thing (from across the way, by Vault Geyser) and this lady approached us and asked with a Southern drawl, "Have ya'll seen the Morning Glory Poo'?" I thought she really said "pooh" and started to point to the pile sitting close to the sign for Vault Geyser, but quickly realized that she meant pool, as in body of water. I retracted my hand and said, "Nope. Sorry!" Zak and I laughed about that for a while, since he thought the same thing and had settled on giving the lady a blank look, rather than pointing out the pile of refuse by the sign. She probably thought we were a little odd, but that's okay.

The second picture is Zak, thinking that he's completely hidden from view since he was wearing his camo shorts. Little did he know, the white socks totally gave him away! What really happened was that he was trying to push a couple of logs that were laying on the shore into Lewis Lake (what is it about boys throwing things into bodies of water?) and one of them had splashed in, so he backed up in order to avoid being hit by the water. I'm just not a great photographer. Once we left and were on our way home, Zak lamented that he hadn't brought our little inflatable boat. It would've been fun (his words, not mine) to use it on Lewis Lake.

The third picture is one that Zak took of me at Old Faithful -- he is a much better photographer than I am! I'm not sure what I'm doing with my hands in the picture, but I thought that it was a really cool shot.

The fourth picture is one of those puzzling ones. We saw this lady with her family at Prismatic Pool and were unable to figure out why she was wearing this shirt. It's one thing for a guy to be wearing it, but for a lady with a whole passel of kids to wear it... we just weren't sure where that was coming from. Zak placed himself strategically so that he could get the shot and share it with all of you, so that we could all wonder about this together. Hmmm.

Unbelievable!

I guess I cursed myself somehow by blogging about how I learned how to fix my flat bike tire. That was a week ago Monday, and since then I have had THREE MORE flat tires! Unfortunately, they've all occurred after I got to work, and they happened this last Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Consecutively. Today I'm driving the car. Does anyone else think this is ridiculous?
Last night we bought some plastic stuff you can put inside your tires to prevent thorns from piercing the tube, and Zak is going to put that into my bike tires today. If it's done by tomorrow, I might give it another try and see if I can make it to and from work without any flats.
I have a really good husband -- on Monday, he brought me the car and pumped up my flat tire and rode my girly bike with flowers on it home. What a good man! The last two days, though, he's been in class or at work, so I've had to figure it out. Luckily for me, there is a gas station just across the street that has an air machine. I've been able to fill up the tire enough to get home and fix the flat. Anyway... this weekend is the Yellowstone trip. We're excited!

Mantua Lake

Last night we drove up through Sardine Canyon and turned off at Mantua. Those of you who are not Cache Valley natives will pronounce this very differently than those who are: the correct pronunciation (or so I've been told) is "Man-a-way". How they get that from Mantua, I've no idea. Also, Mantua is between Logan and Brigham City, to give you an idea of its location.
You need a little background before I continue with the story: After our Bear Lake adventure, Zak was browsing in a watersports shop while I got a "famous" raspberry shake. Really, he didn't want to wait with me while I got the shake. He was protesting on the grounds that you can tack a "famous" in front of just about anything; it doesn't make it taste better, or even make the item actually famous, it's just a marketing ploy. I guess it's one I succumb to often, and I'm okay with it. It was a pretty good shake. Anyway, he found an inflatable boat that looked like it could probably seat two people, so we splurged and bought it. We had borrowed his brother's floatation device for our Bear Lake trip and had been looking that day for one of our own. So we found one, and that was great.
We've been meaning to test our little boat since then and we finally got around to it last night on Mantua Lake. I was a little concerned that it wouldn't actually float with both of us in it due to the warning about the number of pounds it stated on the box that it was able to support. I won't go into that exact figure here, because, frankly, who cares? You don't really want to know what I weigh, nor do I care to share.
After a five-minute session pumping the thing up with this awesome (dare I insert "famous" here?) double-power hand pump that I bought for $8 at KMart and some tricky manuvering (read: Sarah couldn't figure out how to get in the boat without letting in LOTS of cold water), we were ready to go. We floated out into the serene lake and watched the ducks diving in the water. We didn't see any fish jumping, but we saw a lot of little bubbles where they came to the surface to feed.
As the evening wore on (we got there about 7:30), it got cold. I mean, come on, we're in the mountains, on a mountain lake. We drifted and just sat and talked for a long while - when the stars began to come out, we started making our way to the shore. Now, the interesting thing is, we didn't have any paddles. We hadn't bought any. Zak's flippant comment to the saleslady when she asked if we would like to purchase some was, "I have hands." Thank you. So we're out in the middle of this lake, it's getting dark, I'm freezing (and so is Zak, but he won't admit it), and we have no paddles. Obviously, we knew before we went out that we'd have to use our hands to paddle back in, or get out and swim -- just so anyone reading this doesn't think we're total dopes. So we start paddling. And we paddle, and paddle, and paddle some more. It took a really long time to get back to the shore, and we were COLD by the time we got there. Zak had a great idea after we got home last night. He said that next time (uh-huh, yeah) we'll tie a rope around one of the big rocks on the shoreline and attach it to the boat. Then we'll be able to pull ourselves in when we're ready to go. I think we should just get some oars or paddles.
I had to post a couple of pictures - the one of Zak because he is just so darn cute, and the crooked one (ah, my wonderful photography skills!) of the mountain, moon, and water, because it reminds me of how peaceful it was out on the lake. It was another fun adventure!

Learning New Tricks

For FHE last night, Zak taught me how to fix a flat bike tire. I picked up a thorn some time Friday or Saturday and on our way out the door to church on Sunday, I noticed that my back tire was totally flat. I, of course, was a little distraught. Zak thought that I was a little nuts. I mean, c'mon, it's just a bike. And it's fixable. In any case, I went through the whole process of taking the rim and tire off the frame, pulling out the tube, finding the hole (which was pretty easy since the thorn was still in the tire), and patching it. Zak was a great teacher and helped me get it all done. I rode my bike to work again today after my forced one-day vacation from it yesterday. It's riding smooth as ever! And now I know how to do it on my own if I need to.
I don't think I've blogged since last week, so I'll tell a little about our fun Monday and Tuesday. Last Monday, I came home from work and Zak asked me if I wanted to go to dinner and a movie! Of course I did, so we went to Angie's (a great local place for those of you not familiar with Cache Valley) for a bite to eat, and then we saw The Bourne Ultimatum. We both really liked the movie -- I think it's the best Bourne yet, and I own the other two. So I'll probably own this one, too, once it's available to own!
The next day was Tuesday, my day off during the week since I had to work this past Saturday. Zak and I went to Bear Lake and had a great time. We borrowed a raft from his brother Rhett and alternated between laying on the beach and floating on the lake. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm - so relaxing! It was just what we both needed. Unfortunately, I got a pretty bad sunburn on my back despite putting on copious amounts of sunscreen. We decided that the stuff we have isn't very effective, so I guess we'll have to buy something new before we go out in the sun again. Zak also got a bad sunburn--on the tops of his feet (not that anyone but me would know that, right, Barb?). He told me that next time he'll listen to me when I say that he should probably put sunscreen on his feet since they never see the sun. All in all, it was a great day!
Other than those fun activities last week, life has been pretty normal. I am back to work in the dungeon and Zak is relishing his last few days of freedom before school starts on Monday. I can't believe the summer is almost over!

Our Exciting Summer

Our summer hasn't really been terribly exciting, but as I looked back over the previous posts, I realized that I hadn't said much about it. I seem to have been dwelling on Zak's adventures.
A little bit about the summer: Zak has been taking his last English class since June 11th - Shakespeare. He's done after he takes his final today, and he is SO glad. He hasn't enjoyed Shakespeare very much. He had another two-week-long secondary education class in July that is over. He's also been working a lot with his dad on a home they're doing finish work on in the Smithfield subdivision.
I have been working lots, as usual, and dealing with the scheduling problems that came up when a co-worker left to have a baby (three weeks earlier than planned!) and another co-worker left (for two weeks) to get married. I thought summers were supposed to be more relaxing than this! Really, though, I'm grateful to have a good job, despite the occasional scheduling problems.
Some of the highlights of the summer include:
*Zak took and passed his first Praxis test!! (This is great because it means that he can student teach for sure in the Spring 2008 semester, and then he will graduate in May!!!) Congratulations, Zak!
*Zak's sister Nikkol and her family have moved back to Logan! Hooray! It is fun to have them here - we love playing with Beck, Kaiya, and Crede (and their new puppy, Steele).
*We were loaned a washer and dryer by Nik and Corey, so I can do laundry at my own house for the first time in three years! It is wonderful.
*The house hasn't burned down yet due to the jimmy-rigging of the electrical in the basement - Zak had to run a larger wire in so that we could hook the dryer up. We stay home while we run it - just in case.
*We finally gave the basement a really thorough cleaning. I wasn't going to do laundry down there until we got it cleaned up. It is a really creepy basement, complete with old coal chute and everything. We put down some of those sticky spider traps and have caught some really huge beasts. Zak discovered something that's really disturbing last night. His thinking was that we should cut the edges off where the spiders have been caught so that other spiders will go into the middle. He thinks that if the spiders see other spiders stuck at the edges, they will know not to walk on the sticky paper. (I guess this is along the same lines as leaving a dead, petrified mouse in a Mason jar with a baseball on top down in the basement to serve as a warning to all the other mice....) Zak started to cut the end of the paper off and the spiders started moving. They are still alive on that sticky paper, and some of them have been there for two weeks. That gives me the chills - yuck!
*I just finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on Wednesday! (Started it on Tuesday.) I had to re-read the last hundred or so pages three times - loved it!
*I got to see my parents, my sister Wendy and her family, my brother Michael and his girlfriend Sarah, all within about a week and a half in July. It was great to visit with family!
That's about all for the summer to this point. We still have one more month left - so maybe I'll have another post in a months' time, telling about all the fun things we did in August. We are planning a trip to Bear Lake, and maybe a quick trip to Yellowstone if things work out. I hope you are all having a good summer, too!

Box Elders Bugs: They're What's For Dinner

Zak really dislikes box elder bugs. I think they might be some sort of cousin to fireflies. They move slowly, they sometimes fly, and they reproduce like crazy. Box elders are fairly harmless, but I guess for Zak, there's something especially annoying about them.

He has gone through several stages with the box elders. He started by burning nests of them whenever he could find them, then moved on to spraying poison every place he thought they might be living and breeding, and since they are still ubiquitous, moved on to eating them, starting last night.

We were playing Mafia at his parents' house and the bugs were buzzing around, and one landed on him. He announced, after brushing off the offending bug (is there any other kind?), that if one more box elder bug landed on him, he would eat it. We all laughed, thinking he was just joking, as he is wont to do.

The moment of truth arrived when another box elder bug landed somewhere on Zak...an arm, a leg, someplace; he grabbed it, placed it on his tongue, and swallowed it. He repeated the process twice more before the evening ended. Is anyone else hearing the theme to Survivor playing in the background?

I have to admit, box elders are not my favorite bug either. I don't have a favorite bug, because in general, I don't think or care about them at all. They make me jump when I find one crawling on my leg, arm, or shoulder, or when one is buzzing around my head when I'm trying to read. But despite the occasional annoyance of having them crawl on me, I don't think I would ever eat one. Blech.

The Demise of the Orange Couch

You may be wondering what in the world is going on with these pictures. Well, not what is going on, that's fairly obvious, but why. That's a question I can't answer. Sorry.
I can tell the story of the demise of the orange couch, though. Zak LOVES to sleep on couches, and this orange couch is the one he slept on for several years. I can't express how attached Zak is (was) to this couch. Barb and Larry have been re-doing some of the rooms in their house and the couch was sitting in one of the rooms that was being re-done. Also, it was pretty much just time to get rid of the couch. The cushions were all flat as pancakes and all the interior foam was disintegrating. Instead of doing something normal and sensible, like taking the couch to the DI or the dump, Zak decided that he needed to burn it. (And this only after much trial, tribulation, and dicussion -- he did NOT want to get rid of this couch and I did NOT want it to end up in the basement of some future house we will have one day.) Not only did he decide to burn it, he decided to sit (or stand) on it as it burned. I'm not sure where the motivation came from to do this... like I said, can't explain why.
Zak's brother Rhett decided to join him in this...adventure?...and so goes the progression of pictures above. They said it was pleasantly warm at first, like a seat warmer in a car. I guess it got pretty hot toward the end, so they had to stand up. During the time the last three pictures were taken, Rhett was saying, "I cannot abandon my post!" That part was pretty comical.
And where was I when all of this was happening?? Standing by, watching helplessly, trying to reason with Zak to get off the burning couch. (Um, duh.) Now that I think about it, I should've had my phone in my pocket just in case I needed to dial 911. But they got off before the conflagration reached too high, although the definition of "too high" is arguable. I kept thinking to myself, "These guys are so crazy! Why are they doing this?" I guess they were pretty entertained by it, and it will make a good story for posterity... of what NOT to do!

Mr. Freshman MC

I realize that it's a little unusual for me to post twice in the same week, and I don't want anyone getting any big ideas about that continuing, but I had to put a link on my blog for Taylor's Michael Jackson dance. He participated in a contest at school over the winter semester called Mr. Freshman MC (MC standing for "Mountain Crest," which is the name of the high school, for those unfamiliar with Logan and its environs). Zak explained it to me as sort of a prom king contest for freshman, so it's a pretty big deal. Taylor's talent portion of the contest was a Michael Jackson dance that is very cool (especially for a white kid). So here's the link to the video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvKnjNJzVBc.
This "production" was a HUGE Lewis family effort -- everyone was involved in one way or another. There were lots of early morning practices, during which we gave Taylor our critiques of the dance, and Kelly worked a ton with Taylor on choreography. Rhett and Burke did all the filming and did an excellent job, as usual! All of us were there on the big night to cheer Taylor on (although all you'll hear in the video is the screaming of adolescent girls, as the entire school was invited to the assembly).
We were all pretty excited when Taylor won the competition, and after watching the video, you'll see why -- he was definitely the most talented kid on the stage that night!

The Cache Valley Report

Spring has arrived in Cache Valley...again. We had such beautiful weather in the last part of March, then it snowed last week, and now it's nice and sunny outside. I hope it stays that way!
Well, well...what have we been up to? Zak and I stayed with Taylor in Millville this last week while Barb and Larry were in St. Louis visiting with Nik and Corey. It's so much bigger than our little half-a-house in Logan, we loved having a backyard to go walk around, and we had a big bonfire (ask Zak how big) on Tuesday night and roasted hot dogs. I think Zak got a good picture of his creation, both pre- and post-burning. We also particularly enjoyed using the dishwasher (as opposed to washing by hand which is our norm mode of dish washing) and the washer and dryer (which we use every week--many grateful thanks to Barb and Larry for that--but it was still nice to use it). Last night was our first night back in our place, and while it was fun to stay in Millville, it was also nice to be home.
The semester is winding up for Zak -- only two more finals and one paper, then he's done for a few weeks. Hooray!! His first of two Praxis tests is coming up on June 9th, so please keep us in mind on that day.
Work is going well for me. Nothin' new to report there. Each day is very much like the one before. The thing that has been the most fun about work lately is riding my bike to work. Not, of course, when it was snowing last week, but on some of the nicer days. There have been a few days when it has started raining after I got to work, and Zak--bless his heart--has come to work and brought me our car and then ridden my girly red-with-white-flowers beach cruiser home in the rain. What a great guy! It takes someone really special to not mind being seen on a girl's bicycle on one of the busier residential roads in Logan. Way to go, Zak! Way to go!
Zak and I have always listened to NPR in the morning as we get ready, but lately I've been listening to it more and find that I really enjoy knowing what's going on in the country and the world. I am reminded of a conversation between Paul Rudd and Alicia Silverstone in "Clueless" (which I will quote here) -- "Hey, in some parts of the universe, maybe not in Contempo Casual, but in some parts, it's considered cool to know what's going on in the world."
Fact: I'm not trying to be cool, I just think it's good to be aware of happenings in the world. Another Fact: I'm a little embarrassed that I know that quote from "Clueless." What can I say, chick flicks of all kinds are a guilty pleasure for me. I say there's nothing wrong with being entertained, as long as the line between entertainment and reality doesn't blur.
Weeelll, it's back to work for me!

Spring Break

Well, well. I find it so hard to blog consistently. My apologies to those of you who are faithful bloggers and who also faithfully check others' blogs, hoping for new posts. I have good intentions, though I know those don't do anything but pave a road I have no interest in taking...
Zak and I took a trip to St. Louis over spring break, and we had a lot of fun. We were able to see my parents and to see Nikkol, Corey, and their kids, Beck, Kaiya, and Crede. We made trips to the St. Louis History Museum (there were cool exhibits on the first horseless carriages in St. Louis and one on Charles Lindbergh), the Magic House (found out we missed some of the cooler stuff -- we're just amateurs, so that's why -- we didn't know where to go), Laclede's Landing, and the Arch. My mom and dad's newly remodeled kitchen is very nice! It was fun to see it in person after seeing all the pictures. It seems so much bigger than before. We had a great time talking and catching up on things.
We spent quite a while on the MetroLink on Wednesday afternoon--much more time than we'd planned. Zak and I thought it would be fun to take the MetroLink into the city to see the Arch and have a bite to eat somewhere on Laclede's Landing, so that's what we did. We found a restaurant called Hannegan's which had good food and a fun, downtown-1930s kind of atmosphere (if that makes sense). Then we walked around the Arch and down by the riverfront as it poured rain. Luckily, I had a jacket with a hood, so I was okay, but poor Zak got soaked! After we were done at the Arch, we hopped back on the first westbound Metro we saw, and didn't pay attention to the fact that we would need to switch trains at the Forest Park station to get back to the place we parked and got on MetroLink. So instead of a short, twenty-minute trip back to the Galleria, we found ourselves all the way out at the airport. There were plenty of colorful characters on the Metro with us. It's such a totally different culture than what I'm now used to, living in Utah. Once we got headed back in the right direction, we managed to switch trains and get back to where we needed to go. It was a fun little hour-and-a-half adventure. All in all, the trip was enjoyable, except for the fact that I wasn't feeling very good the whole time. I always seem to get sick while on vacation. C'est la vie.
Zak, the lucky devil, got to stay in St. Louis after I flew back to Utah on Wednesday. He has been helping out at Nik and Corey's house and discovering that parenting isn't as easy as it looks to those on the outside of things. Nikki has been getting ready for a huge stake extravaganza and Zak has been able to watch Beck, Kaiya, and Crede for her while she sets things up at the church building. Some of the things I have been hearing in our frequent phone calls are, "Man, this is exhausting!" and "I am so tired!" He has discovered that Happy Meals and movies are very effective bribery tools. The movies give him much-needed chance to nap. I know he is enjoying being there, but I sure miss him and will be glad for him to fly home Monday night!
Today I took my first scooter ride of the year! Unfortunately, it was to get to work. But still, it's great to have it warming up enough to ride again! I have missed riding the scooter during the winter months. It's great to finally have spring arriving.

Birthday II

Here are some pictures of more Wii-playing. Zak and I are playing Rayman's Raving Rabbids in the first one -- we were doing a dance competition. (This was a few weeks ago.) I really like the game, though it isn't Zak's favorite. It has a variety of games, some of which are really fun, while others are just okay. The last two pictures are from the birthday celebration last night. Zak is performing surgery in the middle picture. Trauma Center has turned out to be pretty cool, as long as you skip all the boring dialogue. The last picture is of the guys playing Mario Kart. It's funny that we bought the Wii, and it seems like the games that everyone gets the most enjoyment from are the old school Nintendo games. Anyway, that's what we look like while playing the Wii. Pretty exciting stuff.
I don't know of anything too exciting to report other than our impending trip to St. Louis. Zak and I are going to St. Louis in March and we're really excited to see my parents and Zak's sister and her family. It will be great! I will only be there for about five days, but Zak gets to spend a week and a half, lucky kid! We will meet Crede, Nikkol and Corey's third baby, for the first time. I'm sure that we will have lots of fun.
School is going well for Zak. He is observing at one of the middle schools and taking several secondary education classes, and one grammar class that is the current bane of his existence. Every day we are inching closer to his being done with school, and that is a good thing!
Work is still going well for me. My job has become much busier as my manager has been visiting dealers in the Salt Lake City area and getting them to try out the CU. It's good because the days fly by, but bad because we are a little short-handed for the volume of work that's coming in. If we keep the same level of work coming in, though, we will be hiring additional help. Then the workload should even out a little. It's not so bad to be busy, though. Job security is important.
In unrelated news, I finished a new book yesterday by Guy Gavriel Kay called Ysabel, which was excellent. Any of you SF/Fantasy readers out there, I would highly recommend the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy and then Ysabel (which loosely ties in to the trilogy, but takes place 15-20 years later). One of Kay's influences was J.R.R. Tolkien and it shows in his writing. He's an excellent author. I have also been enjoying the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. Her Chalion series is really good, and she has a new book out that starts a series called The Sharing Knife. Reading is great! (Also - Many thanks to Barb for the pictures. She is great about taking them when we are together. They make it more fun to post on my blog!)

Happy Birthday, Zak!

Happy Birthday to Zak! He turned 29 yesterday and we had a fun birthday celebration with his family last night. (Incidentally, Zak will be 30 in 364 days. The only reason this concerns me is that I am only eight months and six days behind him. Yikes!) The unconventional cake is actually a platter of Tex-Mex dip with Zak's name spelled out in sugar wafer cookies. When Barb has made cakes in the past for birthdays, they are mostly left uneaten and just get dried out, so she has been making other things for birthday celebrations. I think it's a great idea!

The last picture is Zak's present from Rhett and Burke. I can't really explain it, other than to say it's a picture of a flunger, which is a version of a finger Zak and Rhett dreamed up when they were younger... Yep, doesn't make much sense, but it is pretty funny. It's something. You can do some amazing things with computers. If I can get permission from the artists, I may post a picture on the blog. We all got a good laugh out of it.

The Eagle Has Landed (and so has the Wii)

The Wii(s) arrived a week ago!! (It looks better somehow to type "Wii(s)" as opposed to "Wiis". It's easier to read. So that's why I'm doing it. I know it's probably not correct punctuation. But this is my blog. So who cares?) We got a Wii, Taylor got one, and our friend Ben got one. We also got a LOT of controllers, as you can see. And Rhett's favorite birthday present, Wedgehead, is also featured in the first picture. Still haven't figured out how to put pictures throughout the post.

My favorite thing about the other two pictures above is that I noticed I'm sitting in the background reading instead of playing. Typical, right, Zak? I figured that since we were taking one home with us and I was quite involved in my book, I may as well let others play and enjoy. For his birthday next month, Zak has asked for nothing more than a coupon stating that I will come home from work and not read my book for one solid week. I'm not sure if I can provide that coupon. How about a sweater? :)

Incidentally, for those Tamora Pierce fans out there (you know who you are--Karen, Carolyn, and Nicole), the book was Beka Cooper: Terrier. It's about George Cooper's ancestress who is a city guard. I was hesitant at first, since the formatting was a little different, and the vernacular she uses is a little odd. It's in a journal format, which I think can be a tricky way to tell a story, and she uses words like "cove" and "mot" to mean "man" and "woman," respectively. It took a few pages before I caught on to that. "Gixie" stands for "girl." About halfway into the book, I realized that there was a glossary of terms in the back. I'd pretty much worked out most of the words by that point, but it was still helpful. Anyway, it turned out to be a really good book, and I enjoyed it a lot! You girls should read it if you get the chance.

Back to the Wii(s): We had two Wii(s) set up, one in the family room and one upstairs. Everyone had loads of fun playing the different games we rented. There haven't been any Wii horror stories for any of us yet, no broken light fixtures, tv, or furniture. Zak will take anyone on in boxing, and he'll usually win. He's hit the professional level with one of his Mii(s) named Ge. We really like some of the party games in Monkeyball, and I like all the Metal Slug games. It's old school Nintendo, and that's probably why I like it. All it requires is proficiency in button-mashing and perseverance. We tried Need for Speed: Carbon (racing game) and couldn't figure out the controllers or controller formatting. We thought it was dumb. Too "Fast and the Furious" for me, anyway. Zak said that Red Steel is okay, but not tons of fun to play. We haven't tried Zelda yet, but since Kelly and Kristy bought that for everyone (thanks, guys!), we will have a chance to try it anytime we like. That's the rundown on the games.

We are also enjoying making Mii(s). I have only made a few, but Zak has been going to town! He has made Rocky, the four characters from Seinfeld, Nina Myers, Jack Bauer, and a host of others. We are growing a town full of them.

Now on to the "Eagle" part of the post: Jack Bauer and 24. The premiere was GREAT! We are very excited to see how the show will unfold. I like Wayne Palmer as president, but not as much as David Palmer. I really don't like his advisor, Tom Whatsits. Where's Mike Novik when you need 'im? One other question pertaining to Jack: Where's the Listerine? For those of you who watched, you know what I mean.... That was one of the toughest things I've ever seen, but also one of the grossest. Monday nights are now the highlight of my week.