You know what?

This blog entry is not going to be very informative, at least not in the sense that I will be relaying any useful information. Mostly tonight I will be babbling I think. I don't really have a specific subject right now, I just felt the need to get on the computer and write. I think that writing is very therapeutic for me. I enjoy the opportunity to express myself and perhaps even discover something new about myself in the process of blogging. So tonight it's all about me. I guess I'll start with work. I'm starting to get bored. I need a new challenge, but FedEx is making it pretty hard right now to climb the ladder, so to speak. Right now I am a swing driver, which means that I fill in for other people when they call in sick, or are on vacation. This is a pretty good job, in the sense that it pays well and that it keeps you doing a different route every day. But it gets to the point where you know the ins and the outs of each route and the challenge is lost. So a while ago I decided to start looking at applying for a management position. I found out that in order to be a manager at FedEx, I need to attend training classes. These classes are taught by other managers, on their own time, and on our own time too. So you can tell how excited most of them would be to spend a Saturday teaching other people how to compete for the jobs that they might want to apply for themselves. Anyway, out of the list of classes, I have been to one. It's like pulling teeth just to get any information out of these guys. But I will keep pressing on, because I'm stubborn like that.
Then there is life at home. Life at home is great, for the most part. I got into trouble a few nights ago, because I was staying up too late for my own good. The problem is that at night , after Ammon and Rachel have gone to bed, is the only time I have for myself. If you look at the timestamps on most of these postings (this one included) they mostly occur around midnight. It's the only time when there is real peace and quiet in the house. But I understand Rachel's concerns, so we made a deal: I have up to one hour after she goes to bed to do what I want to do on the computer. Then I have to turn it off and come to bed. That's a fair deal I think, and it's not like I'm up every night... I just happen to be a night owl, and don't necessarily get tired at 10pm like Rachel does. For most of my life, I have been in bed late, like around 12-1am. It's just how I grew up. On my mission, it was really hard for me to go to bed and have lights out by 10:30... I never really got used to it, but after working hard every day in the hot hot sun, it felt good to lay down and rest. I didn't necessarily fall asleep, but I did rest.
Then there is the problem of picking out a middle name for Noah. I not a real big fan of the names on Rachel's side, and Rachel isn't a huge fan of the names on my side either. Not that there is much to choose from on my side. John, William, and David, three names between my dad, and my grandfathers. About half as many as one might expect. I think that Alexander and James are our current acceptable choices now, but we are not enthusiastic about either of them, not at all like we were for Ammon. Oh well, the name will come to us eventually.
You know what? I think that's it for now. I've satisfied my blogging bug for now. Bye Bye.

My 10 Year High School Reunion

This last weekend I attended my first high school reunion, and let me just say, it was "Great!" Ok, it wasn't horrible, but it definitely was not great. Just so you know, I went to Tahoma High School in Maple Valley where I grew up. I graduated in 1998, and we had a pretty big graduating class. I want to say that if any of the people who planned it ever read this I don't begrudge you for my not having a great time. Unfortunately, being a fairly "by the book" Mormon, I don't consume alcohol, don't smoke, and don't have much fun when I'm placed in situations where people do that stuff to excess. I guess I will never understand the draw of getting drunk, losing your inhibitions, being an idiot and then not being able to remember most of it the next day AND having a big headache after the "buzz" wears off. That and none of my close high school friends were there. But that is ok, since I see most of them on a semi-regular basis anyway. I did notice (just like anyone else who has gone to a high school reunion) that there are three groups of people. The first group consist of people who haven't grown up at all since high school. The only difference is that they can now drink legally. Then there are the people who look at that first group and wish they could go back to that life. They may have gotten married/real jobs/mortgage (see RESPONSIBILITY) but don't appreciate what they have. And then there are the adults in the third group. They are the ones who have started families, finished (or are mostly finished) with college, out in the real world having a good time being adults. They don't long for the "glory days" of high school. They are glad to be moving on to new challenges, to bigger and better (and ultimately more rewarding) things.
And to be completely honest, it takes a high school reunion to put things like that into perspective. I can comfortably and happily say that I fit nicely into the third group.

Back Rubs

As Rachel gets closer and closer (and bigger and bigger) to the due date, she get more and more uncomfortable. It doesn't matter what position she is in either. Standing, sitting, in the bed, in the car, it just doesn't matter. So almost every night I am asked to give back rubs. Tonight it was a back rub and a head massage. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, I just feel sorry for her. She has been going to a masseuse at least once a month, and that seems to help for about three or four days. I'm just glad my insurance covers all of that. As I think about the part about being uncomfortable, I remember that we went swimming this last weekend, and she did say that she was comfortable when she was sitting in the inner tube floatee thing. She said that maybe we should buy one and out it in our room so she could sleep on that instead. It was one that had two squirt guns built in to it. It was pretty neat, I'll have to find out the brand and name. But I guess a $20 swim toy is better for her than our Tempur-Pedic mattress... Maybe we should have gotten a waterbed instead. I hate those things... Water beds I mean, not water toys or my mattress.

4th of July Weekend

This 4th of July was pretty awesome. Last week I went to Lowe's and bought myself a smoker. They had it listed in two spots for two prices, and when I asked about the price difference, they said that the higher price was the real price. Of course. But I got it at the lower price... about 20% lower. So that was cool. I also went to Costco and got a few racks of pork back ribs. I didn't realize that they take the membrane off for you before they package it, so I think I spent about 10 minutes trying to get the non-existent membrane off before the BBQ. But now I know, and knowing is half the battle. I think that I will always get my ribs from Costco now. Plus they were cheap. So on the 4th, I went over to my mom's house with my cousin David. We brought the smoker and my grill box and the 7 racks of ribs and 4 lbs of pork tenderloin that I was going to cook. I prepared the ribs in three different ways, and then put all but one rack on my smoker. I just couldn't fit the last one, so it had to go on the gas grill. No smoke for that rack. But I smoked them for about four hours.... Awesome! Then we went to the Indian Reservation to buy our $300 worth of fireworks. I only buy the artillery shells and big cakes anymore. But David convinced me that we should get some smaller stuff too, and I'm glad we did. Got some party poppers and pop its and sparklers for the little kids, and some bottle rockets and roman candles for the bigger kids. I just can't compete with those neighbors. Not when they own their own fireworks stand. They always 1 up me (or 2 or 3 up). But we had a lot of fun.