Airing of Grievances

My friend Dave likes to air some of his grievances on his blog from time to time. And he has asked me to do the same.
Usually these are little things that just drive you nuts during your day to day life. Like cars driving in your blind spot, news anchors who are annoying stuff like that.
As an EMT I hate when people call 911 for the most minor stuff. I've been called for tooth aches, vomiting, head aches, can't sleep and even once a lady just wanted a ride to her doctors appointment with her OB. 911 is for medical emergencies.
I hate when people don't shovel their side walks. It's either walk in the road or walk through the snow. You managed to shovel your drive way would it take that much longer to do the sidewalk?
My friends bagging on my music. Guess what, I've had the same taste in music for a long time now. You should be used to it. I don't care what you think, I like what I like.
Leaving lights on. Maybe it's because I work at night that I notice this. But when I am going through offices at night there are always lights left on. I'm sure people are just absent minded or maybe lazy but when you get so many of them and it happening every night I begin to wonder how much money the church spends on lights in empty rooms.

Hannah Montana

Unless you've been living in a cave for the last year or so, you've probably heard of Disney's TV show Hannah Montana staring Miley Cyrus daughter of one hit wonder Billy Ray Cyrus who's hit Achy Breaky Heart entertained us all in the mid 1990's. It's good to see that old Billy is still involved in show business, even if it is just riding his daughters coat tails.

The show is about a teen who leads a secret life as pop star under a different name, Hannah Montana. Apparently they get into all kinds of humorous situations trying to keep this a secret and trying to enjoy life as a regular teen-ager. Billy Ray plays her father on the show. Now that just sounds like riveting television.

Now I've never actually watched a full episode of this show. But you can find Hannah Montana stuff every where. They make clothes, toys, CD's, DVD's, food, make up, lotion, Christmas ornaments, bedding and almost anything else you can imagine.

When Lariann would go shopping I would point out some of this Hannah Montana stuff and ask her if she would like it. I would usually get some response like, "I'm not a 12 year old girl" or "Don't waste our money on that junk" and "I'll never where that out in public" and "It's not right for an adult man to be this obsessed with a teen-age girl". Which just made me want to get her some Hannah Montana stuff even more.

Lariann new this and was pretty sure that she was going to get a bunch of Hannah Montana stuff come Christmas morning, since I have a reputation of taking a joke to far.

Well I followed through on my threats and got Lariann a Hannah Montana head band and a calender so now we can have Hannah Montana hanging in our kitchen year round. Below is Lariann modeling the head band and showing the calender.

I promised not to by her more Hannah Montana stuff if she posed like Hannah Montana for this picture. I don't know if I can keep that promise though, valentines day is coming up and I'm sure there will be Hannah Montana valentines, chocolates, shirts, decorations, lingerie et....

(Numer of times the name Hannah Montana appears in this post: 14, counting this sentence and the two pictures.)

Tumor Update

In the past all of these "Tumor Updates" have been good news but unfortunately that is not the case this time.
Lariann had an appointment at the Huntsman Cancer Institute yesterday where they did another MRI. This time the news wasn't as good.
There is more tumor growing again so she is going to be going back on chemotherapy. The doctor hopes that the lower dose chemo that she had before will work again. For now she'll be taking the pills for five days each month and having an MRI every month to see if it is working.
Lariann's disappointed to be back on chemotherapy again. She had been off it for only a few months and was really starting to feel good again. But as she put it, "Feeling sick each month sure beats dieing.
I guess we've spoiled having things go so well for us for so long. Every thing that she's been doing has been working. And we expected it to continue to be that way so we were a little blindsided by this as was her doctor. We both new this could and probably would happen, we just both assumed that it would be farther into the future and that we could kind of live normal lives again for a little while.
That isn't the case this time and we just need to have faith that these treatments will work again for her.

Desert Island DVD's

So guess what I found out. You remember that desert island I was on with my 10 favorite CD's. Well it turns out there is also a TV and DVD player. Must run on some kind of solar power.
Now we have my desert Island DVDs and just like the CD's there are a few rules to try to follow.
• Only one movie from a series
• Only one movie from a given director
• Limit the list to 10

I've grouped mine into categories in no particular order. As you may have noticed from my CD's I don't really care what people think, I like what I like. Here we go.


*ACTION*

10- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
I needed to have an Indiana Jones flick in here and this one is my favorite. I think the Chinese kid is hilarious and the lady screaming all the time making Indy's life miserable is great. I like the mine car scene a lot and the bridge scene at the end is pretty cool. Maybe a little on the dark side but still my favorite.

9- Top Gun
I think this is one of the defining movies of the 80's. I really liked this movie as a kid. Mostly the first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes. I didn't really understand all about "Taking My Breath Away" and why all the guys needed to play volley ball with out their shirts on until later in life. I think it's the only movie to have the entire score preformed on a synthesiser and electric guitar. I do own the soundtrack for this movie. Who doesn't like to hear "Highway to the Danger Zone" when they're driving and then pretend that they are in a jet and try to shoot down the other cars on the freeway? I mean I don't do that. But others might.
As Maverick said to Goose, "I feel the need, the need for SPEED!"

8- Pirates of the Caribbean, The Curse of the Black Pearl
I loved this movie when I first saw it. Johny Depp was great. It had action, sword fighting, canons, eye patches, parrots and a midget. It's a great swashbuckling (first time that word has been used on my blog) flick. To bad the sequels couldn't compare to the original.

*SCIENCE FICTION*

7- Back to the Future III
All of these were great movies so it was hard to pick one. I went with this one because of the cowboy factor. I just love a good western. This one also features Christopher Lloyds first on screen kiss. Not that that's a reason why I like it just a little fun fact.
Doc Brown does compliment me over and over in these movies when he says, "Great Scott"

6- The Empire Strikes Back
Anyone who knows me knows that I have an obsession with Star Wars movies. I've always like Empire the most. It's the first time Yoda appears to Luke, Darth Vadar is Luke's father, Han and Leigh fall in love, Han gets captured by the bad guys. A lot of twists and turns and nothing seems to right for the good guys in this. A lot for them to overcome in the next movie.
This movie has the infamous line of Darth Vader "Luke, I am your father."

*SPORTS*
5- A League of Their Own
I wanted to have a sports movie in here. The problem is a lot of them have the same plot. Underdog who nobody believes in is able to overcome all the odds and win. Now don't get me wrong I like to watch flicks like Rudy and Hoosiers. This movie seems a little more original. It's more about these women trying to make it as baseball players and get society to accept them as such. Even though it does have Rosie O'Donnell and Madonna I'm willing to over look that.
It has one of my favorite movie lines when Tom Hanks says "There's no crying in baseball"

*FANTASY*
4- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
I've read all the "Harry Potter" books and scene all the movies that are out. I enjoy them a lot I think they are a lot of fun. I love the whole modern world of magic that's hidden from the rest of us. I went with this one because The characters are no longer kids but teen-agers so they are a little more complex but things haven't gotten as serious as it will in the later movies.

3- The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring
I had never read any of the books when this movies came out and really had know idea what all the fuss was about. After seeing this movie I was hooked. I couldn't wait for the others to come out. I went out and got the books just so I could find out and I couldn't put them down. Sword fights, magic, good versus evil. I was totally drawn in by this magical world.

*COMEDY*

2- Blazing Saddles
If you've never scene a Mel Brooks film then you really should. This is one of his classics. Of the wall humor that obeys no rules. This movie just gets wilder and funnier as it goes on. The story of black sheriff trying to make it in white town sounds more like a drama but it's not. They tackle the issue of racism in this movie but in such a funny way in a way that only Brooks could pull off.

*WESTERN*

1- The Man From Snowy River
Maybe not as well known film as some of my other flicks but this is one that I have watched since I was a kid and continue to watch today. Maybe not a true "western" since it is set in Australia but all the elements are there cattle drives, horse riding. It's the struggle of the poor boy from the small mountain town to win the heart of the rich ranchers daughter and then get Daddy to let him have her. Some great horse back riding scenes in this movie that are very visual and action packed.

There you have it. Now who wouldn't mind being stuck on a desert island with me and my DVDs? I would like to see what some of you would have on your island so I'm going to tag a few of you.

Amy-your always good about doing these and always looking for a new idea for a post.

Marc and Hali I'd like to see what each of you think.

Lyndsay

Liz

John

SUGAR BOWL!

How SWEET it is!

Pour some sugar on me! Another song reference, this one should be easier to figure out.

Like many of you who watched the Utah play in the sugar bowl last night I was shocked and amazed at what I saw. I, like 89.7% of America according to ESPN.com, was expecting The Alabama Crimson Tide to come out and rock the Utes.

Funny thing though, just the opposite happened. The Utes dominated this thing from start to finish. Making the tide look silly. "Roll Tide Roll"? I think not, the tide got rolled in this one. I enjoyed the shots of Alabama coach Nick Saban trying to figure out what was going on. I mean his team is Alabama from the mighty SEC, all they had to do was show up for this one and they should win. I guess some one forgot to tell the Utes.

I met up with my wife and daughter at my in-laws, after work, who were having a party for the event. I thought I would go over and get some free food, hang out and visit while Utah got beat down by Alabama. Little did I know I would end up watching one of the greatest college football games I've ever seen.

Sugar is so sweet, isn't it.

Christmas 2008

Well it was a great Christmas for us. We moved in about 5 days before Christmas. So we were trying to set up Christmas while we were still trying to get unpacked and put our house together. The weather wasn't very co-operative for us, it snowed and was than bitter cold. On top of that I had been fighting bronchitis for a couple of weeks and being outside for 3 days didn't help that, my bronchitis came back with a vengeance thanks to all my time out in the cold. But we made it in. I want to thank everyone who came and helped with cleaning and moving. Especially those who spent several days helping like my Dad and Mom, Larianns parents and her brother John. We had more who helped but those that I have named really went above and beyond.

Lariann took Lucy over to the Kaysville Fire station to meet Santa. It went about as well as it did last year. She cried and didn't want to sit on his lap. She did enjoy the candy he gave her and she told him "Thanks for chocolate", and "Bye bye Santa".

Christmas was a lot of fun. We got Lucy up and tried to get her to open parents. She was confused about the whole thing. We had to really urge her to open presents. Her favorites were her riding fire engine and her blocks.

We had a lot of family come over and Lucy got to play with some of her cousins. She and her cousin Alex went outside and played in the snow. And her cousin Britian came over to play with the toys.