Front yard

Messing around at the drive in movies with my camera

This isn't my good camera. This is the cheaper camera. We were watching Transformers 2, so I HAD to find something to do to kill the time. Got a couple of shots of an airplane flying behind the screen.





Tail lights



The boys

UVU Car show at Thanksgiving point

When I was growing up my dad and mom would always take us to classic car shows. I developed a love for old cars when I was young but it has been a while since I've really been into older cars. Recently my brother purchased an old '51 Chevy and is restoring it from the ground up. He's literally taking it all apart (the engine, the frame, drive shaft, etc.) and re-building it. He bought a sand blaster and has been blasting the engine compartment and frame back to it's original finish. He has the engine torn apart and getting re-machined. He bought a HUGE compressor (the kind you have to bolt down to the ground) and paint gun and plans on painting it in his garage.

Anyway, I'm kind of getting back into those older cars and a lot of great memories have re-surfaced from my youth. I remember just being enamored with older cars and just loving going to "Auto-Rama" with my dad and brothers every year. This year was just as great as me, my dad, my brother's Russ, Jeff, and Billy, and my brother in-law Nate all went. I took a few pictures of my favorite cars.

I don't know what kind of car this was, but it looks like they dipped the body in some sort of copper finish. It was amazing and you could see yourself in the reflection.



(L-R) Russ in the black shirt, my dad, Jeff, me, Billy



This old buick was like something out of Mad Max. It had a converted diesel engine in it and it was LOUD. Loved it.



'69 Chevy Camero - my dream classic car (except I want one in black)



This is the first car my dad owned when he was 15/16



I was tempted to take it all off.



Growing up my parents bought Russ and I one of these mini-bikes. We LOVED it. It looked just like this.



Evidence



Jeff found this old Russian motorcycle in the swap meet section and is in the process of buying it.



We had a great time and I can't wait to go back.

Tepanyaki

(No, this is not a futuristic picture of Alene and I)




Alene and I went to Tepanyaki for the first time last night for our Anniversary date. I LOVE that place and can't wait to go back. I was so glad Alene was able to eat some sushi. I, of course, got a beef dish.

Tired

I'm whining like a baby, but I'm tired.

I worked 10 hrs today, which most people actually do every day. I normally wouldn't be tired after working 10 hrs, but considering my brain is trying to absorb a TON of information, it makes me ten times more worn out.

I'm excited for my new job, but it's definitely 10 times harder than I thought it would be. There are so many intricate and dynamic things about watching how much we spend, making the right decisions, reading leases/contracts, dealing with our customer requests, etc. Just a ton to learn.

Some of the stuff I'm getting, while some of the stuff I get about 1/2 of, and some of the stuff I'm completely lost on.

My boss is leaving town to go home for the weekend on Friday, so I will have that day to try to get organized and come up with a clean list of questions about everything he's taught me.

This is still a tough transition. I've gone from a job where I could roll in between 8am and 10am, and take off between 3pm and 5pm, all while I'm wearing jeans, a tee shirt, and my Keens. This job requires me to wear a shirt and tie, suit coat, be in the office before 8am and stick around until 5-6. Lunches have been about 20-30 minutes, then it's back to work.

I'm totally confident I can get into a "groove", but it's going to take a while. My biggest deal of stress comes from the fact that I DON'T want to make a mistake, even though my boss even expects me to. I just don't want to and it stresses the crap out of me just thinking about it.

Add to all of this, my ONE math class I'm taking, but it usually requires 4 sections of homework every week (roughly 10-15 questions per section) and each question has long formulas (interest savings, compound interest, etc.) and may day went like this: 6:30am, wake up; 7:15am, leave for work; 8am-6pm, work; 6:30-8:30pm, eat, try to get a few personal things done and pay attention to my family; 8:30-9:30, watch Lost while trying to do homework (I only did 2 questions during Lost because I had to read the friggin' sub-titles); 9:30pm to midnight, do my homework and study for exam tomorrow.

So I'm tired and I should be in bed, but I'm writing this while I brush my teeth.....oh yeah, I'm also sick (sore throat, sinus problems).

Whoops, forgot to add one car

As I referenced at the bottom of this post, if I were a millionaire, I'd also have a 1969 Chevy Camero SS:

Vehicles I've owned

In my 16+ years of driving, with an additional 3-4 pre-driving age, I have amassed a large amount of vehicles over the years. Maybe not large, but larger than I would have thought. Also, I think amassed means you own currently, so maybe that's the wrong word.

My mom first taught me how to drive when I was 9 years old. From there she would allow me to drive the car home down our 200 yard long dirt road driveway to our house. By the time I was 13-14 and had a job, I would drive my car to work, which was in town and I could escape the cops knowing by taking back streets.

Soon enough I started getting risky and driving home on main roads. One day I was pulling out of work at Dusk without my headlights on. As I passed a sheriff I noticed they were off, so I turned them on. He immediately did a 180 and pulled me over. I was SCARED to death. I thought I would go to jail or something like that. Keep in mind that this was just after my getting arrested for something my friends and I got in trouble for a few months earlier (had to do with stolen property).

So, the sheriff was actually really cool. He first asked for my license and registration (I looked old enough to be 16). I told him I didn't have a license and that I was 14 (maybe 15?). He kind of got that "oh no" look. I explained that I was only driving from work to home and my parents were aware of it. He arranged to call my dad and had my dad come pick me up. He kind of gave my dad the "you know you shouldn't do that" routine and my dad said said he understood.

But the next day at work I drove to work again. On the back streets of course.

That's enough about my driving though. I started this post to list all the vehicles I've owned over the years.

My vehicle ownership all started with my interest in cars in general. My parents owned a used car dealership while I was younger and my dad & mom have always had a fondness for classic cars. I worked from around age 9-12 and earned enough money to "buy in" partially on a "classic" car. My dad found a used 1956 Chevy Station wagon. Now, when you hear the word "station wagon" you think some large family vehicle. However, I was really into classic cars and loved the idea of lowering my cars. My dad said we could take this wagon and have it lowered and it would look pretty cool. I was on board, but over time we realized that it was going to be really expensive to try to fix this car up, so we sold it and bought a truck.

Here is a picture of what my wagon looked like. We had had it painted like this, but the interior still needed to be completely re-done.


My next vehicle (this was when I was around 13) was a 1984 Chevy s10 pickup. It was a stick-shift and this is the truck I drove a lot to and from work (and the one I was pulled over in). This is not an original picture of my truck, but mine looked like this


Just before I turned 16 and got my license, my parents helped me get a more economical car in this 1983 Toyota Celica. Mine looked just like this, but it was red. I got 3 tickets in this car in the first year of having my license. I drove it until it started having over-heating problems and sold it for next to nothing because it wasn't running (probably cracked the head from driving it so hot).


My parents and I then bought a 1977 Chevy Camero for really cheap (like $600). It was an impounded vehicle and nobody claimed it after 30 days, so we bought it from the towing yard. I loved this car because it was a V-8 (pretty good power) and it was built the year I was born. I took it on a road trip before my Sr year to San Diego with my friend Brian. We were gone a whole week and it was a blast (even though it ate up gas so much, but gas was cheap then). I can't remember why we got rid of the car. I think someone offered my dad a good amount of money for it, so he took it. (this is an original picture of my Camero)


We then bought a nice 1986 Chevy El Camino. I know everyone laughs at these cars, but I actually really like them. I don't know if they're classified as trucks or not, but they are basically like a small truck. Mine was gold with silver-spoked rims. The cool thing about these was that there was a ton of storage behind the back seat. My friends and I would go to the drive-in and hide people behind the seats, only paying for the two of us.

I remember when we were going the first time and Roman didn't want to look gay, with two men driving up to a drive-in movie, so he asked the cashier if we had seen a couple of girls in a green toyota and that one of them had nappy hair. The cashier said no, then Roman made it a point to say, "well, we're supposed to meet them here" just so he could clear up the fact with the cashier that we weren't gay. I was laughing so hard inside and the people behind the seat were doing everything they could to contain their own laughter.

Russ took this car over when I bought my next car. (this is not an original picture)


When I was 18, just after graduating HS my dad and I stopped by a used car lot of a friend of his. My dad was out of the used car business, but had lots of friends still in it. We found this perfect 1986 Honda Accord for around $3500. I was stoked. I had a full time job then (doing landscaping for my dad) so I could afford the payment. I had a 3 year loan at $150 a month.

This car was really nice and ran so well, despite me buying it with close to 200k miles on it. I drove it for 3+ years until I moved to Utah in 1998. I decided I wanted a 4x4, so I sold this car. It had over 300k miles on it and still ran great. I think I got around $1500 for it. (this is not an actual photo of mine, but mine looked just like this one, same color, same rims, etc.)


I then bought my first 4x4 in a 1993 Jeep Cherokee. I really liked this vehicle, but over time it started to have a few problems here and there. I never did any major suspension work on it, but it was fun to have when you could use the 4 wheel drive. I ended up selling it to my brother Jeff when he got off his mission. (this is an actual picture of it)


While I owned the Jeep, I also owned a 1995 Plymouth Neon. I needed a good car that was good on gas. This car did pretty good. Over time it began to wear down though. I remember one time me and 5 dudes drove it to the BYU vs. Cal Berkley game in CA. On our way there we stopped and met up with my best friend Roman in Sacramento. From there I rode with Roman in his truck while my friends drove the car. About 30 minutes outside Sacramento we noticed they started exiting and we were not able to exit. We took the next exit, looped around and drove back to their exit. We found the car had blown a head gasket and did something to where one of the cylinders wouldn't work. I remember how horrible it was because it was the only mode of transportation in getting back to Utah. However we were extremely lucky with the time of day and the fact that Roman had a truck.

It was 4pm on a Friday afternoon. All garages, for the most part, close for the weekend. We towed the car with Roman's truck into town and found a garage. The guys were just getting ready to close up shop. We begged them to get it fixed for us on Saturday. I offered to pay them cash and bought them a case of Budweiser as an additional incentive. They agreed. We then piled all our stuff and my 4 friends in the back of Roman's truck and drove to Oakland for our hotel.

The next day Roman and I drove back to Davis (about 1.5 hrs) to pay the guy and get the keys. The only issue was that they only fixed the head gasket problem; the car could only run on 3 cylinders (it would have taken longer and an extra $1500 to fix that cylinder problem). They said I could make it back to Utah, as long as I was really careful. So, Roman and I drove the truck back to the game, watched BYU destroy Cal, then went back to the car to attempt to drive it home. We drove ALL THE WAY home with 5 guys and 3 cylinders. We ate up a TON of gas doing it too. I still can't believe I didn't have a nervous break-down over this.

I ended up having the clutch go out on it, so I sold it to my mail carriers husband for $500. (this is an original picture)


I then bought my friend Tim's 1997 Nissan Pickup. This was a good truck and I loved driving it, but there wasn't much room in it when Alene, Caiden, and I wanted to go camping. I had it about a year before I sold it and bought my 2002 Dodge Dakota. (this is an original picture)


When I married Alene, I guess I "inherited" her Ford Focus, or from then on the cars were "ours". This was good car too, despite the side mirrors constantly falling off due to either Alene, or me hitting them on something. We took it on a road trip to Zion and to Montana and glacier NP. We sold it when we bought our Subaru. (this is an original picture)


We bought this 2002 Dodge Dakota and still own it. We've been trying to sell it, but I honestly have not been very good about marketing it. With the gas prices acting the way they are, and lending being hard to find, it's really hurt our chances of selling this for what we would like to get for it. It's a very good truck. I like how roomy it is, but it still has room for a truck bed. The back seats have the same amount of space you would find in any SUV. (this is an original photo)


We bought the Outback about a year after buying the truck. This is a 2002 Subaru Outback. It's nice because it has all-wheel drive, so it is pretty good in snowy and wet weather. Alene drove it a lot back and forth to Park City when she was working up there. We also took it on a drive down to the Robbers Roost area to go to Horseshoe Canyon. It's still a very good car for us, but the only down side is with having a baby, getting the car seat in and out of it. The head room is so short and makes it really hard. (this is an original photo)


Last May I wanted a bigger truck, something with more room in the bed and something a bit more powerful than the dodge. While the dodge is a V-8, it just doesn't quite have the power that a Chevy V-8 has. This is a 1997 Chevy 1500. I love this truck. The only thing I don't like is the rear seats are more cramped and it's only a 3-door, as opposed to the 4-door that the Dodge is. I'm pretty sure I'll have this truck for a long time. (this is an original photo)


I also bought this 1978 Honda 400 street bike a couple of years ago for $800. It's fun to ride around, but it's not quite powerful as I'd like to feel safe on the freeway (although I do take it on the freeway from time to time). It's still fun to have on a summer night and going for a ride with Alene. (this is an original photo)


I really like cars. I have to watch myself when I start thinking about them, because then I begin to covet. I think if I were a millionaire, I'd own a nice truck, a Jeep Wrangler, a Harley Davidson Sportster, probably a BMW (I've test driven many and I LOVE them), a 1969 Chevy Camero SS, and probably some sort of family SUV.

Anyway, since I won't be a millionaire, the cars I have will suffice and I will stop coveting.

Winter time drink carrier

I bought a Red Bull at the store the other night, cracked it open to take a sip before I got in the car, then set it on the roof to load the groceries. I forgot about it, and realized it was there after I stopped by McDonalds to pick up a Redbox, so I decided to let it ride home and it did just fine and much cooler than it was before.

I highly suggest this for anyone that likes their drinks cold during the winter.

American Ninja

My brother Russ and I Had some good laughs on Monday, recalling our fixation and fascination of ninja movies and being a ninja, in the 80's. One movie we would rent almost every weekend for a long time was the American Ninja series, which lasted about 4 series I believe. Here is the plot:

Joe Armstrong, an orphaned drifter will little respect for much other than martial arts, finds himself on an American Army base in The Philippines after a judge gives him a choice of enlistment or prison. On one of his first missions driving a convoy, his platoon is attacked by a group of rebel ninjas who try to steal the weapons the platoon is transporting and kidnap Patricia, the base colonel's daughter, who happens to be along for the ride. Joe rescues Patricia and gets her safely back to the base, but everyone else in the platoon is killed, leading his superiors to conclude that Joe is guilty of cowardice, collaboration or simple incompetence. At the same time, the rebel leader vows revenge against the serviceman who disrupted his plans, and sends an army of ninjas to assassinate him and bring back Patricia. If he wants to survive and save the girl, Joe's going to have to draw on every last ounce of his training.


Can anyone else tell me if there was a better plot for an 80's ninja movie??? Was there ever a better name for a lead star playing an American Ninja than "Michael DUDEikoff"??

Boring

Alene and Bailey are out of town at a funeral. Caiden is with his mom. I'm bored.

I got a ton done today, most notably something I thought was pretty much impossible without a torch. I moved our old gas fire stove from the basement to the garage, into the back of the truck. My guess is the thing weighs a good 600-800 lbs (I'm not kidding). Russ came over to help. We accomplished it by me building a "sled" of sorts for it to fit into and slide on. We attached a couple of tow ropes to both my truck and around the stove. We then proceeded to move the truck 12" at a time as we dragged the sled up the stairs, allowing time to get the front lip of the sled up over the next step. It was tedious, but we finally got it up to the garage.

Then we had to figure out how to get it into the back of the truck. We thought about borrowing my brother's friends engine hoist, but we would have had to buy additional chain and it would have taken a long time. I thought I'd hit up my neighbor, who owns a 4 wheeler, to see if he had any ramps. We lucked out. He brought over his two ramps and we slid the thing up into the back of the truck. Mission FRIGGIN' accomplished. I've been wanting to get that thing out of my basement for SO LONG.

Now I have to deliver it to Castle Dale, where the buyer has offered to pay me an extra $100 to deliver it. However, I'm getting a little nervous as I've called him for two days and he has not returned my calls. I'd be pissed if he backed out (after completely committing to buy it) and ignored me. Then I'd have a giant metal stove in the back of my truck.

BUT, I did just (finally) finish fixing the water pump issue on the Chevy. I ended up needing to get a new water pump, which was fairly cheap ($50). The issue though was that I could not get the fan clutch off the old water pump. It was on there VERY tight and it was an awkward thing to even grip in order to give it enough force to remove it. I finally went into Auto Zone and asked the dude behind the counter if he had any advice. He toyed with it for a bit, thinking it would be easy, then he started to get pissed (just like I had the past 3 nights, throwing tools and yelling at Alene and Caiden). After 20+ minutes, he finally get it to break free. I could not thank him enough at how gracious he was. I'm going to call the store and just let his manager know how much I appreciated him and I will always go to Auto Zone for my car needs.

I have a few small regrets, but I'm not sure I could have done anything about it. The wall got scuffed up a bit on the stairway up. Nothing that a small amount of drywall mud patch and some paint will fix. I also damaged the door frame going into the garage as the tow rope rubbed against it on the way out. No big deal really, I can fix that too. In fact, nobody will likely notice it.

Here are some pictures of us moving the stove:

This is the base I made for it. It was really heavy, with 2x10 boards along the bottom, 2x4 frames, and some melamine (slippery) boards along the bottom to help it slide.




Pulling it up the stairs with a tow rope


More of the rope going to the truck. I used some climbers webbing doubled up at the very end. That stuff is STRONG.


In the back of the truck. I covered it with a tarp and used some straps to tie it down.




I've completely gotten off topic. Boredom. Most men would probably relish this time, and there is a bit of me that has, but in the end, my life feels empty when I don't have my wife or children near me. It has made me dwell on my belief that families are eternal and I want to be with my family beyond this life. I cannot imagine a life without some sort of hope that we can be together beyond this life. Why even try to stay together if you cannot imagine the possibility? I mean, I understand the "seize the day" attitude, but can't you have both?

I've been really mean to Alene lately. Just short with her, mostly stupidity on my part because of my frustration over a simple fix that I could not "simply" fix. It was eating at me every day and I could not sit until it was fixed. I really miss her and bailey and caiden.

I'm killing my time by watching movies and Season 1/2 of the office on netflix via my xbox 360. It's kind of nice to watch something without interruption, but I'll trade the interruption of my crying daughter, or my son talking about pokemon, or my wife needing me to listen to her ANY DAY now. A day alone is long enough. Come back Alene (I know, I'll see you Sunday).

Better than Billy Idol

If you've seen the Haka before, this is it times 10.

Blood Oranges

I bought my first blood oranges the other day at the store. I didn't know they existed until I saw the opening sequence to the TV show Dexter.

Dexter is one of my favorite shows. It's on Showtime for a reason (language, graphic violence), but it's an odd idea for a show.

The show is basically about a forensics dude named Dexter Morgan, who uses his job as a cover for what he really is: A serial killer. He kills people that are guilty and get away with murder. He is very careful about ensuring they are guilty before doing what he does. He's very detailed and consistent with the way he does it. The show has everything: Comedy, Drama, Thrills, Intensity, Though-provoking, etc. I really love how they show Dexter struggling to act normal in society with a girlfriend, job, sister, etc. while he suffers with this urge to kill. It flashes back a lot to his youth and his father (a police officer) discovering his son's urge to kill and how his father taught him how to blend in with society, and how to use his urge for good.

I'm not an advocate for vigilantism and I do believe (for the most part) in our systems of courts and juries to sentence people, but this show, for the most part, is pure entertainment, but makes you think sometimes.

Here is the opening sequence to the show that introduced me to the Blood Orange. You'll see where the blood orange comes in:

This is why I don't own a cat

I go to my brother's house for 10 minutes to get a few things and I come home like this.



I consider this both a curse and a blessing. The curse is that it itches like hell. The blessing is that if Alene liked cats (she doesn't, so I guess this is a moot point), I have an excuse as to why we can't have cats.

I hate allergic reactions. I guess it could be worse. I could be allergic to football or pizza.

At the gun range

Russ and I took a few hours to go the gun range to shoot his new AR-15 and my CZ 75B along with his friend's .22 rifle. It was VERY busy that day. Here is a video I made of our time there.



Here are some pictures too:

Got a new camera

My friend Clint upgraded and he was looking to get rid of his old camera (it's less than a year old). It's an 8.0 mega pixels Canon Powershot S5 IS. I felt like I robbed him on the price, but he was cool with it. He threw in a 2 GB SD card, a case, a lensemate, a UV filter, and a tripod. I'm not a hardcore photographer, but I like the idea of being able to take decent pictures. My previous camera is a Canon powershot A540, so this one has a quite a few more bells and whistles.





Here are a couple of the first pictures I took with it around the house.







The yewts are "Fully Intoxicated" and damn proud!!!! I love those guys.