Today we spent time with our friends Angie and Rob who moved here to Cedar City a year ago. We had a chance to see their new house and Angie’s parents who live down the street. We saw the prairie dogs that live in the empty lot across from them. Most of the day we spent in Zion National Park.

I took some good pictures, but Zion is a big long canyon. It’s similar to the Grand Canyon, but much more narrow, and instead of getting views from the top, the park is down inside the canyon. There are a bunch of trails you can hike, and we took a small trail that leads to a pool of water. It was very pretty, but very hot also.

This evening we ate at a place called Rusty’s where I had some good ribs. Afterwards we drove up to Cedar Breaks for more great site-seeing. We got there just in time for sunset to take some pictures. On the drive back we saw deer all over the place.

Overall it was a great day to spend with friends and see some beautiful parts of the country.

The Dodgers are in HD! The game doesn’t count, but it’s glorious! The picture is beautiful. It’s like being at the game in the really good seats. I might never leave the couch.

I just bought some stuff for hotdogs. Gonna watch the game!

“Tommy, it’s time to set the table!” Mom worked diligently over the stove cooking a familiar meal.

Tommy was four years old and had enough energy to blown down a house. Even when he was learning to walk his mother had commented that he went straight from crawling to running. He was always in motion, and channeling that energy was always a challenge. This meant that the rest of the family was usually involved in a Tommy activity like coloring, riding scooters, or hide and seek. Tommy was certainly a handful.
He was sort of an odd boy, and definitely not a kid you’d see in a Pampers commercial looking perfect and cute. That’s not to say he was a bad kid by any means, he was “unique.” He wore big glasses with a prescription that rivaled Grandma and Grandpa. The lenses made his eyes almost twice their normal size, which looked very out of proportion for his head. His hair was straight and blond, but he had a defiant cowlick that liked to stick up in the front. His hands were always dirty, and if Mom didn’t pay attention, sometimes he had the dreaded snot and dirt face. When you’re four you don’t bother with tissues, and you don’t wash your hands unless someone forces you. Smeared boogers on the face are gross enough, but when you mix in dirt it really brings out the texture, sort of like a work of art. Tommy was a budding booger artist.

continue reading…

Probably a stupid idea, but the picture for The Doggy Pouch is great. It would appear the dog is actually enjoying itself. I’m not sure though what the purpose of this device is supposed to be. Is it for dogs that refuse to walk? Dogs with no legs? When exactly would you need to use this?

Since dogs and annoying neighbors was the focus of my last post  , I decided to post about the anti-barking device that we purchased.

Originally we started with a collar device that emits a piercing sound each time the dog barks. It worked, and the dog stopped barking. The problem is, because she wears it around her neck, it was often set off by her movements. The microphone had only one level of sensitivity, and because it was going off when it shouldn’t, the dog started to fear going outside (where that sound always occurred).

After this we tried a device that simply sits out in the backyard, and it has been much better. It’s called the Bark Smart (deluxe version has a counter and timer, we went for the cheaper one). Because she doesn’t wear this device there are very few erroneous triggers. It also has three levels of sensitivity which is nice. It also can run off batteries, so we can keep it outside all the time, even in the rain (AC adapter can’t be used outside which is dumb).

Overall a really great product, and definitly worth the $25 for the cheaper one.

AKA a Super Bowl Party. I don’t really care about football, but I’ve got the HDTV and surround sound, so might as well use them. There also is rarely a good excuse to eat big and juicy hot dogs on steriods, aka sausages. I’m open to suggestions…I personally like a good hot link sausage with some spice, but we could have a couple different kinds. Let me know if you’d like to come so I know how much food to buy.

When: Sunday, February 4th
Time: 2 pm (game is at 3).
Place: My House
Who: People

If you want a sausage, you have to comment. And if you think you’re going to come anyways, post a comment.

Update: Here is the menu! Thanks for offering to bring stuff, but we just went to the store and grabbed some stuff. We have strawberries, carrots and celery, chips and dip, baked beans, bratwurst and sauerkraut, hot italian sausage, regular oscar meyer wieners, mountain dew, cherry 7-up, and diet coke. I think Stacie is going to bake some pre-made cookie dough.

It is day 3 of winter session, and I just ate hot dog #3. I’m starting to feel like that supersize guy. Maybe I could make a movie about eating hot dogs during winter session at csulb. It could be me eating hot dogs and posting on the blarg. Dang that would be exciting.

When I got home last night the Rose Bowl had just finished, but luckily Stacie left the DVR on. I skipped back to about 6 mins left in the 4th and watched the end. Holy Cow Vince Young is good. I heard something about Texas scoring a touchdown that shouldn’t have been one, but sounds like a good game.

Right now we’re doing dumb stuff in Excel. The people on both sides of me are posting on MySpace. WOW this is dumb.

The dog needs a haircut and her nails trimmed, bad. Even if you do not care for dogs, or my dog inparticular, I think you will still find this story amusing, so keep reading.

A while back I found out that my mom’s best friend since junior high has been taking their dog to a place on Woodruff to get its haircut. We had been going to Petco, but I found them impersonal and not very good. Yesterday I decided to obtain my Aunt’s phone number (remember, they were best friends, so we call them Aunt and Uncle even though they’re not). I asked my brother online if he could find it, which he did. I proceeded to call the number, and what ensued could not have been planned if I tried.

The phone rang and a man picked up with a quick "Hello?" Seeing how I rarely call them, I asked "Danny?" to which the man replied he was in fact Danny. Skipping any sort of chit-chat I began to ask him about the dog haircutting place my Mom had told me about. The person on the other end of the phone began rattling off all he knew about this particular business. At this point it struck me that it didn’t really sound like Danny, but he was telling me what I needed to know, and he said he was in fact Danny, so I continued to listen.

After a couple questions we neared the end of our conversation. The man’s voice still struck me as odd though, so before I hung up I asked again "This is Danny, right?" The man then replied "No, this is Dave." Turns out I transposed the last two digits of the phone number and called the wrong person. The funny part though is that not only did this man’s name sound similar to Danny, causing him to mishear me in the beginning and continue speaking, but he also knew all about the dog place I was trying to find out about. Odds have to be a million-to-one.

I then proceeded to call the correct phone number and tell Danny the funny story I have just told you. And yes, we are taking the dog there tomorrow.