Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving this year was at Mimi's Restaurant. The food was not nearly as good as home cooked but the cleanup was so much easier. After dinner, we went to see Australia the movie. It was OK but I think Nicole Kidman has done something weird with her lips. They don't look normal. After the movie, we went over to Senta's for pie and Guitar Hero. Burke has quite the setup, one person can sing, two can play guitar and/or bass, and one can play the drums. As you can see here, Parker looks like he is going to be a drummer like his dad. To everyone who reads this, thank you for your love and friendship!

The Pumpkin Part of Halloween

The first two photos are of Parker and Senta's pumpkin creating night. Senta had been to a Plyer family party the night before and they had a lot of colored, sticky styrofoam stuff that they cut out and stuck on the pumpkins. The features are all Parker's decision. The next couple are of the real pumpkin carving a couple of days later. As we were getting ready, laying down the paper, getting the carving tools and sitting on the floor, Parker walked over and said " what doing guys?" We all got a chuckle out of that. The last photo is of the newly carved pumpkin with a lit interior candle on the front porch looking scary.

The Miracle Rod

Many years ago, I was browsing through the junk at State Surplus. Near the door, there was a garbage can full of confiscated rods and reels. Gary Bagley and I were looking through these poles and I noticed a G Loomis rod with a Daiwa reel. I didn't know too much about fishing equipment, but I knew G Loomis was a very good brand. I bought the pair for $15.00 and took them home. Richie was fascinated with the rod and reel and was bound and determined to find what they were worth. He searched catalogue after catalogue. Finally he came in the room smiling and told me the rod was worth $150.00 and the reel was worth $100.00. Needless to say, I was amazed. Several years later,I took Greg fishing at a small reservoir on Cove Mountain above Annabella known as Anabella Reservoir. We were in a small raft and it was a windy day. We weren't catching anything and the raft was filling with water so we decided to leave. Greg was using the G Loomis rod with a cheap reel on that particular day. We we got to shore, to our horror, we noticed that the rod had fallen out of the raft. We went back out to see if we could find it on the bottom (it is a fairly shallow lake) to no avail. The very next year, I again took Greg fishing on Annabella Reservoir (the reservoir has a large population of freshwater shrimp which makes the flesh of the fish bright orange and as the water lake gets lower in the fall, the fish are fairly large and easy to catch). This time, we had Lou Brown with us and a decent boat. I was using a fly and a bubble and Greg was using a spinner. We had been fishing for an hour or so when Greg hooked into what we thought was a fairly good fish. As he reeled it in, it became apparent that it wasn't a fish, it was the G Loomis. That was a good fishing trip.

Pumpkin Patch

Last Thursday, we (me, JoAnn, and Senta) took Parker to a pumkin patch in South Jordan to pick the perfect pumpkin. After giving Parker a ride in a wheelbarrow, he choose a rather sad looking pumpkin (look for it carved in my next blog). The thing is, we moved it around next to other better looking ones but he always choose the same one. Anyway, it was a nice evening in the pumpkin patch. One regret I have is that I forgot my camera and had to use my cell phone. That is the reason for the less than HD photos.

Colonoscopy or "Hello, Mr. Hose"

Well, this last week I visited my friendly gastroenterologist for my 2nd colonoscopy (go ahead, I dare you to click on the link). I won't bore you with the details, but the Dr. told me I don't have to go back for 10 years! That is good news.

Parker and Trey

I finally learned how to get photos from my phone to the computer. I don't know if it is the best way but I just email them to myself and then save them. The phone lady at work will probably have a heart attack when she sees the bill but oh well. These photos are of Parker and Trey Dukatz. . Their birthdays are only a few months apart and they are BF in the WWW. They spend so much time together they are practically brothers. Parker is very lucky to have such a good friend at such a young age. By the way, I didn't take these photos with my phone, Dustin sent them to my phone.

La Sal Mountains Again

I think I've mentioned that my work takes me to the La Sal Mountains several times a year. These photos are from a trip this summer to inspect a couple of timber sales that are finishing up. We (SITLA) have an agreement with an excelsior mill in Colorado where we furnish them with at least a million board feet of aspen each year (they pay $10.50/ton). They use the aspen to make excelsior for use in erosion blankets. The harvesting of aspen is more important now because hundreds of acres of trees are dying due to the poplar beetle. If we can harvest it soon enough, the clones will sprout and in a couple of years, a beautiful replacement stand of aspen will be tall enough to escape the jaws of hungry cows, horses, elk, and deer. Click on a photo to get a better view.