Really Cool Thing #989: Trying to be cool like your older brother's friends (or trying to join USoSL)

You know how when you were little and you always wanted to be like your big brother and his friends? Well I'm not sure that ever goes away, except for the big brother part, I'm way cooler than him now. My brother's friend Charlotte started an online quest to collect pictures of stone lions (check it out here) and I decided to be cool like her and seek out stone lions in Vernal. It turned out to be more challenging than I thought.

First I found this guy just around the corner. It wasn't a stone lion, but it was a large wooden bear (and an eagle). I knew I was on the path.


Then, down the road I spotted in the distance two stone statues and my hopes were raised! Could it be that I completed my task so soon? But alas, they were stone, but not lions.


I thought for a while that my quest was in vain. I kept my eyes open, always scouting for that new discovery. We took the boys to Lagoon amusement park this summer and I had a glimmer of hope. We found this guy and finally I had the right species, but now the material was all wrong! What was I to do?

Then on my way to Salt Lake for a conference I spied something along highway 40 at 65 MPH. Could it be? Yes! I finally found my target! But wait! Toto, I don't think we're in Vernal anymore. Sadly, as beautiful as these two guys are, they are in Fort Duchesne. My goal was to find stone lions in Vernal. My quest continued.




And then, a few days ago on a whim I took a strange route to work and what should appear before my eyes?

VICTORY!!!!
Two beautiful examples of Panthero leo! Quest complete!

Finally, maybe I have a chance at being as cool as Charlotte.

Really Cool Thing #990: Babysitting

Its easy, I do it all the time. Its almost as if the boys watch themselves. I don't have to do anything. They don't fight. They don't run off. Just hose 'em down once in a while and they're just fine and dandy until Mom gets home.

Really Cool Thing #993: Having your brother bust your chops about not numbering your blog right.

Thanks Jon, you're the best.

Oh, and do you like the new layout. Different but the same.

Really cool thing #991: 24

So this week we said goodbye to Jack Bauer. It had me hooked from the start. I loved that anybody could be killed at any moment (except Jack of course). It really showed commitment to the story and not just to the actors. I also liked that 24 wasn't afraid to take a stand. It didn't try to be super PC all of the time. The writers took a very practical approach to issues of right and wrong. Often Jack had to do the wrong thing for the right reasons.
I will admit it was getting just a teeny bit long in the tooth. On his last "day" Jack was tied to a chair and beat up, crashed his car into a limo, hand-cuffed and hung from a pipe and shocked, stabbed in the gut (by his girlfriend), shot in the chest (he was wearing a bullet-proof vest), blown up (don't worry he jumped clear), in a car crash, watched his girlfriend killed by a sniper, stabbed again in the gut (bad guy), shot in the chest (by his best friend, clean through and through, no worries - but maybe he should be pickier about his friends), tear gassed, and beat up again. And I'm not even sure I got everything in, there might have been another gunshot wound in the arm. Oh, and he tortured a few people and yelled "GIVE ME A NAME!!" (Tiff, that's what my T-shirt will say) in a really gravelly voice. And remember, all this happens in 24 hours.

I'll see you at 24: the movie (or will it be 120 minutes?)

Really Cool Thing #992: Grandma

I just received a phone call from my Dad this morning. For some reason I answered like I was at my job at the Holiday Inn instead of the BLM. That strange little reaction added some joviality to an otherwise somber conversation. He called to inform me that my Grandma had just passed away. It wasn't really a shock, she had been ailing for quite some time and we all know that she feels much better now.

I'm sad, but I'm not devastated. When I heard the news I couldn't help but think on all of the wonderful memories she gave me. I will be eternally grateful for how she welcomed my wife into our family. JoLynn loved Grandma desperately for this. I'll always remember her house. Running up the path on the south side. The endless sea of juniper bushes in the backyard on the other side of the steps. Painting the roof with crazy aluminum paint. Hidden cookies and candies. Stacks of white bread with dinner. Traveling across the country in their motor home. Camping trips and family reunions. Jeff staggering out of their motor home, for a skit, with his pants stuffed with a pillow saying "I can't believe I ate all of it!" Their house packed full of cousins at Christmas. Swinging on the last baluster at the bottom of the stairs. Times when Grandma would tell Grandpa to hush when she thought his teasing went too far. Seeing her hold my sons for the first time. I'll love her forever for not giving a damn where they came from or what color they were.

Most of you who read this will know all of these things already. But I just felt like I should record this flood of thoughts I'm having. If Viola (she always hated that name!) Geertson Packer was your grandma think of all the wonder and joy she brought to your life. If not, remember your grandma and think of her.

Really Cool thing #994: National Poetry Month

OK, since everybody else is doing it, I might as well jump on the bandwagon too. I'm posting the only two poems I remember from High School. I'm sure my AP english teacher, Mrs. Storey (yes thats really her name) would be shocked I remembered anything. I know she was shocked that I actually passed the test.

I memorized them mainly because they were short, but also because I thought that some of the metaphysical imagery was really particularly effective. They also had particularly interesting rythmic devices which seem to counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor... or something like that.
To be honest I had to google the second one to get the words right. They're both by Stephen Crane



A man said to the universe:
"Sir I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."




In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said: "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter - bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart."

Really Cool Thing #995: Bad Kung Fu fight scenes with a wheelchair dubbed in German

Chalk this one up to things you never thought existed. But aren't you better off now that you know it does?

Really cool thing #996- Giant Undersea Macroinvertebrates

According the article which can be found here or this slideshow, this thing is 2.5 feet long!!! Awesome. Although I must say I never got anything that big when I was working in the Bug Lab during college. I wonder if it tastes any good? Maybe with a bit of clarified butter.

Another awesome Tron trailer!

I think I'm getting a little giddy with anticipation!!

Reallyl cool........ Carlsbad?

OK, Carlsbad is a strange little town. I'm here all week for a training course, so I'm taking the opportunity to take some pictures. Here are a couple. These are all by the aqueduct in Carlsbad around dawn.

Really cool thing #997... Air Drumming!

Well if you told me you were drowning, I would not lend a hand

I've seen your face before my friend, but I don't know if you know who I am

Well I was there and I saw what you did, I saw it with my own two eyes

So you can wipe off that grin, I know where you've been

It's all been a pack of lies

BOO-DUM BOO-DUM BOO-DUM BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

So I was driving home the other night from work when the 80's Phil Collins classic "In the Air Tonight" comes on the radio. Of course I have to play the air drums at the appropriate spot in the song (see quote above), if you grew up in the eighties, you are genetically wired to do so. It's mandatory. So I keep driving and the next song is something I don't care for, so I switch to the only other station I can stand to listen to in Vernal and what do you know, the song is on again. so in the space of five minutes I got two free, totally spontanious, air drumming sessions.

Really Cool!

really cool thing #998 - Exploding Eggs

So I had batch of hard to peel eggs (I know, what is this the egg blog?). And I found some helpful tips to make the eggs easier to peel. First use old eggs. Apparently the older the egg is the more developed the air pocket within it becomes. This helps make the egg nice and easy to open once it is cooked.

I also found out that warming the egg slightly in the microwave loosens the shell and make it easier to open. So I tried it out. Guess what? 20 seconds (in my microwave at work) works like a charm. The egg is easier to open, however not perfect. So I decided to try 22 seconds. Guess what? Can you say "Ovian Ordinance?" or "Egg Shelling?" or "it's your turn to clean the microwave Nate!"