@Wudan07

I made a Carrot Cake from scratch. FROM SCRATCH. I swear to god I could do a headstand and nobody would give a good goddamn. Me, a 200+ lb man, doing a headstand.

Maybe it’s because I think a lot of the things I do are a big deal, when the rest of y’all don’t. I also taught myself how to use a complex programming language – how do you like that?

Ok, I haven’t mastered it. Anyway. The cake was good, I thought. I even made Cream Cheese Frosting from scratch. It was the piece de resistance, in my own humble oppinion.

I took the digital camera to work today. I had a premonition, I think. On the way to work I saw the biggest, most clear rainbow I have ever seen, ever. It was a full rainbow, coming up from behind the airport and landing downtown. Of course, rainbows don’t work like that, it’s a physical/optical phenomenon, but it’s still cool.

With the camera stowed in my backpack, in the passenger seat next to me, I was worried that I might not be able to capture this natural phenomenon before the water particles suspended in the air decided if they were going up or down, so I began to open my backpack with my right hand while driving 55+mph with the other. I did get the camera out and snapped a picture while driving. Of course, I think that picture is not cool enough, but it is kinda cool since it’s a pic that I took while I was driving. You’ll see it when I get it posted. Lucky for me, I did not die 🙂

I am determined to make the most use of my digital camera before I buy additional memory. I so often find myself seeing cool things and wanting to take pictures, but always not having a camera – now I’ve got one.

I almost forgot to mention, I got the camera for Christmas, from Sukie. For a devout atheist, Sukie is an extremely giving person. She’s a fairly interesting conundrum – she also has very little family, (until she married me, anyway) but family is very important to her.

Dax, theorb77 and I got my mom a computer. Dax and Orb did most of the contributing, I reckon. I have a cool picture of my parent’s reaction when they saw it, because they both went in to the kitchen and came in to the living room together. My dad has a funny look on his face 😛

My mom was telling me they’d put the computer in my old room. I just realized there’s like 5 bedrooms at my parent’s house and I’ve lived in 3 of them at one time or another. It’s the upstairs room, so my poor mom won’t have to walk up those horrid stairs so much. Once Orb and Antig get their own place, I’m guessing sometime in 2005, the OTHER room up there can be clearred out and made in to a guest room and that back bedroom will probably be something of a ‘study’ for my mom – there’s a bed in there now, but once it’s out she could probably even put quilt stands up in there.

When I snuck in to my mom’s house to arrange her stocking she caught me and we had a nice chat. I made the assertion that the winners of this Holiday season are Dax and Sukie, and it’s true, they are the biggest givers.

Oh and a HUGE thanks to Dax for Sukie’s Birthday Present – man, Pikmin 2 is so bad-ass that it makes Dennis Rodman look like Karl Malone. Of course, Malone’s been in LA for a season and a half now, so he probably is starting to go that way. Nasty mess, that LA.

I’ve been pondering what my next baking attempt should be – the carrot cake and the dutch babies were both so cool and turned out well enough that I want to try something else now.

Did I mention that the cake took a very long time to make? Mostly because I had to substitute almost every tool for something else – the original recipe called for using a fairly large food processor for every stage. A hand held mixer and a small chopper worked well enough, I’d wager 🙂

Ah, the always infrequent blog entry.

Well kids, Christmas is upon us and it’s time we pause and think about the reason for the season: Buying me stuff. So, if you haven’t bought me something yet, well, get hopping!

Just kidding. Sukie wants to go to Wendover really bad. We have a free room waiting for us, all we need is some money to blow and a sitter for the boy. Well, we’re probably not going anyway.

This week is finals at school. I can only hope for a C in Economics, maybe a B in Accounting. I tried, but too late in the game 🙁

Well, just thought I’d blog. Isn’t it about … time?

For the first time in God-only-knows-how-long I have completed a test and scored 100%. For the second week straight I received 100% on my homework assignment – and it was all in Accounting. It’s not even beginning accounting, which I think I got a C in, it’s in Managerial Accounting, and I’m going to work hard and squeak a B out of it.

I know what you’re saying, I’m married to an accounts-payable rep, and I must have picked some things up off of her – but she didn’t help me study or give me pointers. So, yeah, I was pretty proud of it.

We went to breakfast/lunch at the Blue Plate Diner located on the East Side of the valley. It was good I guess.

Even more important is the new gloves that Sukie got me for Christmas. I knew she was getting them for me and begged her to give them to me before my head esploded. I now have to get her and Lucas some stocking suffers so that we’re all even. Good thing I get paid tomorrow.

Oh yeah, at the Blue Plate Diner we saw Marci Stars, which is basically large, silver stars, like the ones Marci had in her room. These ones were about the same size, but more silvery, in my estimation.

Ooh, a high school friend is getting married at the end of this month, and it’ll be good to see all the people I used to hang out with. At the beginning of this year, another old high school buddy got married and I acted all weird because I guess I had unresolved issues. Well, issues has resolved since and I’m ok with me. Of course there’s things I would change about me, but you don’t always get those luxuries in life.

The Yuletide season is upon us and I couldn’t be happier – I’ve got an awesome family and the semester is almost over! Huzzah!

I have spent enough time away from blogging. I haven’t blogged because (a) I have been busy, and; (b) Because I have not been sure what to say.

I’ve spent a great deal of time wondering about this year, which I have to say, has been a very big year. It’s been an awakening year.

I have also spent the last several drives home screaming along to the music played on x96, at 1am when it’s cold, screaming lyrics is a good way to stay warm. The other night, the DJ put on a song I haven’t heard since … well, I don’t know when I last heard it … but it was long ago.

It’s ‘Bad Habit’, by Offspring. By all accounts, a really, really violent song, definitely worth a listen.

Anyway, I digress. I also happened to pick up the new Ray Charles CD. It’s full of duets, it’s his last record before he passed on. It’s pretty good, not necessarily in the vein of what I usually listen to, but I like Ray Charles, he was a good man and a hell of a musician.

Well, I keep trying to think of fitting words for this year, 2004. I don’t have any. I’m not like Amy, I beleive in a God, but I’m not like the rest of y’all. I am just me 🙂

2004 is the year that Marci passed on as well. It’s hard for me to express how I feel about this, I don’t feel like I really knew Marci at all. I could tell that she really was in to her faith, and of course I knew that she was related to Antigone, but I had no idea just what she stood for. Her passing, and the mourning process, is like if somebody told you about a really great place to visit and then told you that it was gone, and you’d never ever see it. I don’t think I can put it better than that.

The other night Sukie hinted that I should BBQ some franks we had. It was cold, and I was up to the challenge. After 3 restarts of newspaper, the coals were heating up. 20 minutes later, I had hot coals. Hmmmm, so I poured them in to the grill and went and got the hot dogs. I’m sure what I discovered is not a thermodynamic breakthrough – coals cool down fast in cold weather. I think this was good prep, because this winter on one of the snowiest days, I am challenging myself to BBQ. Yes, it is a stupid thing to do, and yes, it is all ‘white trash redneck’ of me to do.

Or is it? Isn’t such an affrontery to nature the very point of science? existence? Well, you’d think so. These private riots against nature certainly are the point of civilization. It’s no different than building a house, and, by it’s impermanence, is not nearly as drastic or dangerous to nature.

This summer, I upset Sukie, and it happened to be a particularly rainy day – at the time it was during one of those ‘raindrops as big as your head’ downpours we get a few times a year. She said that for her to forgive me, I’d have to run outside, no shoes on, and run around her car 3 times. Well, I did it, and by the third lap I was busting a gut, turned to the clouded sky and gave my own special salute to the rain. That’s the kind of affrontery I’m talking about – pure negligence and lack of dismay in the face of an overwhelming circumstance.

In Sex and the City, the character Charlotte York had found her perfect husband TWICE and had troubles with pregnancy both times. On her second marriage and first pregnancy, she miscarried and it threw her in to such a depression. She was home, alone, and watching TV in her sadness when she saw a documentary on Elizabeth Taylor, and her triumph when she, in despite of overwhelming circumstances, put on her best and went out.

As for my BBQ, yes, I will be sure to see this one out. I might even take the grill out on the front porch to watch all the other saps shovel snow while i just chuck flaming hot coals at it, just ‘cuz i like the sizzle’.

I keep threatening to post these lyrics of this Tim McGraw song that keeps getting stuck in my head. It’s a good song, I reckon:

Don’t you remember

The fizz in a pepper

Peanuts in a bottle

At ten, two and four

A fried bologna sandwich

With mayo and tomato

Sittin’ round the table

Don’t happen much anymore

Back when a hoe was a hoe

Coke was a coke

And crack’s what you were doing

When you were cracking jokes

Back when a screw was a screw

The wind was all that blew

And when you said I’m down with that

Well it meant you had the flu

I miss back when

I miss back when

I miss back when

Well, ok, so there went the weekend. It was ok, I guess. I did my homework (ok, not all of it) and programmed, and hung out with friends.

We saw The Incredibles. The movie was almost ruined because every time Mr Incredible spoke, I recognized his voice, but couldn’t place it. I knew the voice was from a funny sitcom and I could picture the character yelling at a female character, but I couldn’t place it. Well, it turns out it was Craig T Nelson, star of TVs “Coach”. Go figure.

Anyway, I found that out LATER. After the movie we got a call that my Mom’s car had broken down in Orem of all places. So we haulled our little family down there and I packed up tools and water to make the trek, and it turns out that we didn’t need them. I’m ok with that, I rode back in my mom’s car and Amy got a Krispy Kreme donut for me which I didn’t eat at all.

I’m really worried about putting on additional poundage for this holiday season, since the things I love to eat are very very fattening. I don’t like hearring about it though – so don’t chide me for chugging egg nog like some kind of nog-aholic. It’s good, damnit.

On Saturday morning I made a Dutch Baby Pancake, which I might argue was a delicious and tasty treat. I’m more than willing to make one again since it was easy as pie and tasted oh so good. Think of it as a delicious omelet that tastes like french toast.

Well, life goes on. We have the same old president, and as I told my French friend Tchouky, “that’s ok, we can still be friends.” I’ve accepted the will of the American people, and I think it’s going to be ok.

This all might blow up in our faces, but somehow I’m ok with that. Oh well.

At the very least, this should get our nation’s citizens to be more politically engaged, and discuss these issues.

Well, that’s that. I’m actually kind of intrigued because of the similarities between our present deccade and the sixties, which were 40 years ago (yikes). This decade is almost half-over though, and I think that it’s going to be different, and, again, I have a feeling it’s going to be all right.

Oh well. I hate WinAmp, btw. It will randomly decide to kill my current playlist instead of just adding to it. What gives?

Oh I just watched 2 episodes of Smallville. Damn, I may be hooked again. Silly TiVo …

Abraham Lincoln’s re-election campaign slogan for 1864 was, “Don’t change a horse mid-stream” and it seems that most people I know who are planning on voting for Bush seem have that basic idea in mind. Lincoln was re-elected, but the South was, of course, not participating in that election as an unfortunate side-effect of leaving the United States.

Well, I guess you wouldn’t want to change horses midstream, if you happened to be averse to getting wet.

Folks, I’m telling you, if that horse had led you up the wrong river, lied to you, and was feeding you more horse-poop about a gold-mine over the next ridge, if only you’d let him take you further in to the unknown, you might want to consider jumping off the goddamn horse and dealling with the wet sensation for a while. There isn’t any gold-mind, there’s no happy land he’s taking us to, it’s all just BS, and I hope you can see it before Tuesday.

In two days, we’ll know whether we should make vacation plans in the next 4 years, or evacuation plans. The tension is so thick you could cut a knife.

This is, without a doubt, the most important election of the last 20 years. Please, for the love

Ok, it’s official, I wants to get a GPS device. I found one at REI for like $100. It’s because I’m becoming fascinated with Geocaching, more importantly, a special $100 cache that was placed in the San Rafael swell.

13 miles of hiking – last time I did that much hiking Meryl nearly died!

I did some looking and there’s tons of caching right here in the valley.

So, a digital camera and a GPS and I think I should be set for a new hobby, what do y’all think?

Oops, I forgot, nobody ever comments here.