Welcome!

This is what our new house guest thinks of Goo:

The un-happy cat above is Jake. This is his brother Tiger:

Tiger is all about finding the smallest enclosure he can squeeze into and staying there for large amounts of time. They are our friend Joellen's cats. Joellen is moving to England for a year for a temporary work assignment, so they've come to our house to be Goo's friend.

We were positive that Goo would have a very difficult time and that Jake and Tiger would make friends quickly. We were WRONG! This is how Goo feels about things:

As they spit and hiss, he talks to them really friendly-like. It's a big surprise!

They were in the house 48-hours before Goo realized there were two of them. That was a funny moment. The thing they don't know about Goo is that he has claws - and it was one of the things we were most concerned about. Now that we've got them all together, we're glad that Jake and Tiger don't have claws since they seem more eager to brawl.

Tiger pretty much plays hide-and-seek all day long, and he hopes that nothing is seeking him. Jake is a snow plow, and unfortunately one of Joellen's plants suffered for it over the weekend.

Some day, hopefully soon, I hope to post a picture of all three of them hanging out, happily, together.

The Dump

We took a trip to drop off some old paint this weekend. The people at the dump have an unsual sense of humor. I guess being around all that garbage, you have to do things that make you laugh.

Good Week

Last month I was a blogging maniac! This month I haven't thought of as many things I want to post. But, I just stopped over at my other mom's blog (thanks Janet) and was inspired. It was fun reading about the chairs.

The last week has been fun. A week ago today we were preparing for my other mom - Matt's mom - Sandi to arrive for the weekend. Isn't it fun to have a lot of mom's! I currently have 4. But, I find that many people frequently step up as a "mothering figure" when I need one.

Anyway, we had some fun adventures over the weekend and got to hang out with a lot of family. Some highlights were walking through the Salt Lake City Public Library (wow!), going to Bambara for lunch (yum!), and playing with Jack at the park (cute!). Here are a few pics:

Kendra going down the slide by herself!


Grandma and Jack in the back seat. "Do you think Kendra's OK?"


Kendra and Jack on the stairs. Bug hug!


Jack at the library.


And one of Quincy, for good measure.

Go me!

I know this is just approximate, but I think I've improved. I'll have to try again and see if I can do better!

82 words

Speedtest

No Fear

I took a brief look through some past posts and realized I've been telling a lot about my fears such as elevators, crawly beach creatures, public speaking ... I'm sure there were more. I'm starting to sound like a whimp! Here are some things that I am not scared of:

• Spiders - I don't like them to crawl on me, but I don't freak out. I know a few people who are desperately scared of them and will scream and run away at the sight. You know who you are - - - Stephanie, Andi, and Tyler!

• Heights - As long as there is something around me I'm usually pretty good. I don't get dizzy or panicky. Or get vertigo like poor Robert.

• Public speaking - I was petrified when I was young, but I did explain that I got over that, right? By the way - you did great on Sunday Cherlyn! The more talks you do the better it gets - I promise!
  
• Snakes - I'll touch them but not hold them. If I see one I'll stay and watch. However, my niece Tasha definitely takes the cake on this one! She loves all creatures and will catch and hold most anything!
  
• Power tools - I've used my fair share in the past few years. Now it's your turn Andi!

• Unusual foods - I used to be squeemish about this, but you can't be when you're married to Matt! He'll try almost anything. In the past, under his tutilage, I have tried pickled okra, gefilte fish, and eel. That's the short list. A list of what Matt's tried could be its own post!
  

See --- fears don't rule my life!
Hopefully this will bring back a little of my self-respect.

Fear

First, I have to say that this is my 100th post! That's kind of embarassing. I really can't believe I've done that many ....

Second, I have to say afer the last 5 posts, which were practically novels, I had decided I wouldn't put anything on here for awhile.

However, at work today I walked past the elevator. The doors were propped open and the floor of the elevator was at eye level. I jumped an scurried away. My heart was racing for the next few minutes.

I have fears associated with elevators.

Since I was very little I have never liked dark holes - like elevators or mining shafts. Or the roof access at Fashion Place Mall that was located in a side hallway. I would cry when my parents would walk under it. Seriously - even looking at this picture makes me scared, nervous, sick, etc.



It's true that if I fell into a shaft like Baby Jessica that I would die of fright. Don't worry about trying to dig me out.

For my fears to kick in, the situation has to be just right .... for example, I did go down the deep, deep, deep shaft at the Park City Silver mine. I did it three times, and I was fine. If the lift had somehow plummeted to the bottom (and I'd lived) and there were no lights, I would have panicked. I maybe would panic just as much if there were lights. If I was there alone, I would be curled in a ball, crying, with my eyes closed.

While working at the Kearns Building downtown in 1996, I would take the elevator to the 7th floor where I worked. Once the elevator stopped unexpectedly to blackness. Twilight Zone!

My eyes adjusted and I could see a few boxes by the elevator doors. Thank goodness I was with another person. I probably would have started screaming uncontrollably. That person explained that there was a floor between 1 and 2 that was used just for storage, and occasionally it would accidentally open on that floor.

From that point on, anytime I took that elevator alone I would face the back until I knew I had passed that floor. It only happened one other time, and I was with a group of people. Phew!

Elevators have an agenda of their own and aren't to be trusted!

Last Ones

Alright, so here are the last few items from my Leap Day post voting:

Best of the Bull - This can be ordered and eaten at the yummy Cowboy Grub. (May I recommend the Big Monty?) I tried this the first time about 5-years ago. I tried it to be brave. The same way that I've tried sushi. It's not my favorite, but I didn't whimp out.

Anyhow, the second time I tried it was on a little dare with our friend Joellen. She was going to prepare cow tongue for us, and so we agreed as long as she tried Best of the Bull. Ew. This time was different than the first. It could best be described as being like fried, breaded spam. Blah.

Summer 2001 - This was the summer during our house construction that reached 106 degrees for weeks straight. The summer we didn't have a roof. The summer the rain fell inside our house. The summer I experienced depression. The summer I nearly had a mental breakdown. With the good comes the bad. I love our house .... now.

Richfield road rash - This occurred summer 1992. Having some fun with friends while visiting my grandma, I ended up in a situation where I was hanging onto the bed of a truck and my feet were drug about 15-feet through gravel. I was wearing shorts, a tank top, and sandles. I had rocks imbedded in my feet and spent a couple hours that night in the ER and a couple more hours trying to get comfortable enough to sleep at my grandma's house after being bandaged up. And of course weeks afterward recovering.

People always ask why I didn't just let go. It's amazing how clear my mind was during the entire incident. My cheek was inches away from the bumper. I knew logically that if I let go, I would hit my face, and probably break something. Instead I let go with one arm which turned me around so I was facing up, and then I let go with the other and rolled away from the vehicle.

A Clockwork Orange - I watched this movie purely because it was on the top 100 movies list. It was extremely disturbing, and I am grateful that with each passing year I forget more and more of it. If I could only go back and just not watch it at all!

Lobster Dave

During my singles ward days, in my ward there were a lot of Daves. We (Heather, Robert, and I ... and a few close ward friends) gave them different names to sort them out. There was Teacher Dave, Dave F, CD Dave, and Lobster Dave.

The first time I met fair-skinned Lobster Dave, he had accidentally spent too much time in the sun without sunscreen. He was painfully red ... thus, we called him Lobster Dave.

He was a few weeks - probably 3-4 - from going on his mission. When he asked me out on a date, I felt pretty comfortable that things couldn't go far in that amount of time and figured it would be fun to hang out.

CANYON CONFESSIONAL:
Our first date we were going hiking. We drove up the canyon and he parked the car near Mill B. Instead of getting out of the car to start our hike, he started talking. Whatever; I didn't really care.

During our talk, he told me things that he had taken care of with his bishop in order to go on his mission. Then he told me a few things that he had slipped on since then and asked my opinion if he should talk to his bishop about them again.

I felt completely uncomfortable, advised him yes, and made some logical excuse to end the date early. He didn't feel uncomfortable, and it seemed that confiding in me had increased his interest.

Some time went by and I avoided the situation. I didn't like to hurt people, and it seemed that it was a short acquaintance anyhow. I was just trying to get through those 3-4 weeks.

Somehow I agreed to another date, which turned into a group thing. Great! The group thing turned into Dave, myself, and my friend Karen going to a movie. Fine. Karen had seen the movie, so it turned into making cookies at her house. Whatever. Karen had a major crush on Dave, thus ...

THREE'S-A-CROWD-COOKIE-COOKOFF:
I drove in Dave's car to Karen's house. I pretty much sat in the living room watching TV while they baked away!

"Check this out!" I said, half-way through their gathering-ingredients-extravaganza!

They came in and watched OJ Simpson in the white Bronco on the freeway. Then they resumed the baking and realized they were missing a key ingredient. I volunteered to walk home (only two blocks) and bring some back. Dave resisted, but I insisted.

I got home and hung out with my family as long as politely possible, turning on the TV so they could see OJ. Then I got in my parents car (I was a smart one, huh.) and drove back to Karen's.

We finished making cookies, ate some, and watched something.

Time for me to leave. Dave walked outside and told me he was sad I brought the car because he wanted to drive me home. Since we didn't have a "real date" he suggested we get together the next night? the next? the next? It appeared I was busy every night before he had to leave town. He went in for .... yea, and it smoothly turned into a hug.

He stopped by a few nights later in between my work and school to bring me a gift.

FAREWELL:
My other friend Janice asked me to go with her to his farewell and I agreed. Walking down the isle to take my seat, he came down from the stand and rushed at me excitedly. His family followed. His parents greeted me and it was clear I had been discussed at home. His little sister looked up at me with giddy eyes.

We took a seat, toward the back. His sister remarked during her talk that she was proud of her brother for being such a good example and going on his mission, although he could have stayed home because of a girl.

Clearly not me!?

During his talk, he stared down at me, and reaching the end of his talk stated that he had met someone for which it was hard for him to leave, and how he was eagerly looking forward to spending more time with that person in two years. Yes, still looking at me.

What it the world was happening? I didn't even know this person!

We left the farewell quickly. Didn't stop by the house. He dropped by once before going to the MTC, but I wasn't home. I didn't write to him. He didn't write to me.

Two years later he called my house, just home from his mission. He talked to my mom. I was freshly engaged, and she told him. My mom suggested that I call him, just to be nice. I decided not to.

He didn't call again.

05/20/2006

It makes sense that this one would be one of the top voted since it's the most ambiguous. This will probably seem a little anticlimactic.

DAY ONE: 05/11/2006
Matt and I were on our wonderful trip back east! I'd never been this far from home. When we got off the plane in Buffalo, I honestly couldn't believe I was in New York. I saw all the I "heart" NY t-shirts in the windows and it sunk in more. WOW! I had only ever seen those on TV, on someone else, or at D.I. We picked up our rental car and we were on our way!

Tourist stops: Niagara Falls
Picture: Niagara Falls from the U.S. side


DAY TWO: 05/12/2006
Driving through up-state New York's country was wonderful the next morning. Everything was green and sunny. It was truly peaceful. One of my favorite parts was watching the fog come in over Lake Ontario that evening. Very mysterious. Also in Fayette we ran into the author of our tourist book, who kindly signed it. He was serving a research mission there. Very cool, knowledgable man!

Tourist stops: House Brigham Young built, Hill Cumorah, Sacred Grove, Erie Canal, Fayette, Lake Ontario
Picture: Hill Cumorah


DAY THREE: 05/13/2006
Today was sunny again and I was grateful. It was very relaxing and we stopped at a few more church history sites. Then we started our cross-country trek up through the Adirondacks and down to Lake George. It sprinkled a lot. The Adirondacks were cold, although no longer snowy.

Tourist stops: Grandin Building, Sacred Grove, Hill Cumorah, Adirondacks, Lake George
Picture: Sacred Grove


DAY FOUR: 05/14/2006
We continued our trek leaving New York, driving through Vermont, New Hampshire and stopping in Maine. This was our longest drive day. It was raining and flooding! Lucky us - we were caught in one of the biggest floods the area had seen in a long time. The closer we got to the coast the more flooded everything became. We sat in our hotel that night watching the news, wondering if we would be able to drive into Boston the next morning.

Tourist stops: Norman Rockwell Museum, Joseph Smith Birthplace, Nubble Lighthouse
Picture: Joseph Smith Birthplace


DAY FIVE: 05/15/2006
We got up that morning and decided to try our luck getting into Boston. We called our hotel in the heart of downtown Boston, and they said they weren't experiencing any troubles with the flood. We took a quick detour to Amesbury, MA where I got to see one of my however-many-greats grandparent house from 1654. Pretty dang cool! On our way back onto the freeway, we saw the National Guard had closed the exit. We had barely made it there to see it. We didn't make it to Salem, MA. The road was closed. We did some touristy visiting along the coast in Rockport. Many of the cute shops had been flooded out and were closed. We did some hiking in the rain/fog. And we drove into Boston, an experience Matt will never repeat again.

Tourist stops: Amesbury, Rockport, Boston
Picture: My relative's house in Amesbury, MA.


DAY SIX: 05/16/2006
We had a very uppity breakfast at the Omni, hiked the Freedom Trail in the rain, but it was WONDERFUL! We ended up at Bunker Hill and took a taxi back to the Boston Commons. Our taxi driver asked us if we would take Mitt Romney back to Utah with us. We got our car and got out of town ... well, at least out of the center of town.

Tourist stops: Too many to mention! I loved touring Paul Revere's house, and the cemeteries.
Picture: Granary Burying Ground (three signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried here)


DAY SEVEN: 05/17/2006
We woke up early and went to a session at the Boston Temple. Beautiful temple! Then we really got out of town ... driving to Hyannis on Cape Cod.

Tourist stops: Boston Temple, Harvard Campus, Cape Cod
Picture: Boston Temple


DAY EIGHT: 05/18/2006
This was our first full day on Cape Cod. The weather was beautiful. Blue sky and no rain.

Tourist stops: Cape Cod! I love it!
Picture: Sunset in Hyannis


DAY NINE: 05/19/2006
Second full day on cape cod. I was so excited to see the sun rise on the ocean, but it was cloudy that morning. :(

Tourist stops: Cape cod! I want to go back!
Picture: Beach in Provincetown


DAY TEN: 05/20/2006
Our flight home left around 2pm. We left Provincetown early and got to the Boston airport at a comfortable time to catch our flight. We were dropping off our rental car when we had a HUGE vacation SURPRISE. The bad kind.

Our rental car had been scheduled for pick-up and drop-off in Buffalo; a 7-hour drive from our current location. The cost for dropping it off in Boston instead of Buffalo? $1300.00 .... nearly $1000.00 more than the price of the rental. Nearly the cost of our entire 10-day vacation …thanks to some perks from my job at the time.

LESSON LEARNED: Always double-check your paperwork. This is something I will do maniacally for the rest of my life. I know it will never happen again. It will be some other stupid oversight that will blight the last day of some future blissful vacation.

The rental people made a few calls, but nothing could be solved right then. I think the person that could help was at lunch, so we were sent on our merry way with a phone number. I was panicked. In my experience it's always much easier for people to take your money than to give it back. Not only that, but we were now running late for our flight.

We rushed to catch our flight. Then we had 2-hours to review the situation in which we realized that if we had taken the rental car, driven 7-hours to Buffalo, paid the rental late fee, and paid the airline change fee, we would still have come out hundreds of dollars ahead. Probably at least $700.00. But, instead we walked away with a phone number, a 4-advil headache, and a stressful flight from Boston to Chicago.

Upon arrival in Chicago, Matt called the rental company and did his best groveling. He explained that the person who set up the reservation misunderstood our needs, that person being a friend of mine at work with tons more experience renting cars than I had; she worked in “travel” after all. They had mercy on us and reduced the charge to $500.00.

The flight from Chicago to SLC was better.

Pictures: I had completely lost interest in taking photos by this time.

7th Grade

I really didn't want this one to get a lot of votes. I wanted to skip over this part of my life, not re-live it .... remember? I'll make it short.

I had a lot of friends in 6th grade. It was a good year. I remember sitting in the cafeteria filling out paperwork for middle school! I had been very excited, but that excitement started to disappear when I realized that many of my good friends would be going to Union instead of Midvale. WHAT!? A batch of friends that were going to Midvale ended up moving. Ugh!?

I started 7th grade feeling friendless. And things got worse for me.

Through a series of events that first year of middle school, I gradually began to withdraw. I had a few close friends, but that was it. I became very nervous and anxious. I had a serious fear of public speaking. An oral report was enough to give me stress headaches, sleepless nights, and to make me visibly shake.

Each school year that followed I gradually came out of this hole that had formed my 7th grade year. I've also been lucky enough to have jobs that have helped me get over my fear of public speaking.

Phew .... glad that one's done.

Results Show!

The results are in! Here are the top 5 voted items from my Leap Day post that will each receive a separate, more detailed post:

1. 7th Grade
2. 05/20/2006
3. Cookie-Cookoff
4. Canyon Confessional

Each of these items got one vote, and will each have a brief explanation in post number 5:

• Best of the Bull, Summer 2001, Richfield road rash, A Clockwork Orange, Farewell

And we begin ...

Ceti Eel

Matt loves the beach. I have recently (the last few years) come to discover why, since I've spent a little more time there than in the past.

I enjoy the sand between my toes, the mist, and the sound of the water. I don't care if the water is cold; I'll walk in it. Matt enjoys these things, too, but he doesn't like walking in the cold water. One thing that Matt likes most is the creatures he finds.

I'm not as fond of the creatures. I have visions (that I have to ignore) of crawly creatures with pincers inches below my bare feet, ready to pounce ... or do whatever it is that they do. I'm also pretty afraid of jelly fish, and I always find dead ones on the beach! Consequently, I'm always walking barefoot with my head down, scanning the sand for rocks, shells, bones, dead things, and live crawly creatures. I don't want to step on any of those things.

This is from a trip to Cannon Beach, Oregon in July 2006. I hate the sound of my voice (it sounds terribly high), but you can hear how brave I am being throughout this entire experience.



What does this remind me of?

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ... Khan employs the small offspring of a nasty indigenous animal (known to fans as the "Ceti Eel") to control Chekov and Terrell and forces them to reveal the details of their mission, and the whereabouts of Admiral Kirk.

Voting Begins

I've received a few inquiries about my Leap Day post.

The polls are now open. In the left column, select events you would like to hear more about, and I will post some more details on the highest voted topics.

The poll will close on 03/10/2008.

Connections

I'm a geek and I find connections in strange things!

For example, I wanted to have 29 blogs in February because it's Leap Year and there are 29 days. Really stupid, but I worked it out and there were exactly 29!

I relate (now you're really going to think I'm weird) to odd numbers better than even numbers. I like them. They feel strong to me. Soft numbers feel week. I do a lot more things in odds than in evens. I don't have to; I just like to. Five cookies on a plate just looks better than four! It feels right.

I like the time 7:21. Why? Since I was a kid I've always looked at it and thought 2+1=3 and 7x3=21! You can do the same thing with 6:54 or 4:24.

I've found a few other people that relate to numbers and look for strange connections like I do. I bet there are more out there, they just won't admit to it!

One person admitted to me that they like to spell out a new word on the palm of their hand the first time that they hear it.

What about you? Please share.

#10

We are now in my tenth favorite month of the year! Yeah!

Down with #11 and #12!