blarg...

My wonderful coworker came to work just enough in the last two weeks to share his disease. If I get "ammonia," Mark, I'm going to punch you in the lung!

I swear those weren't there yesterday...

It rained soooo much today look what grew. These are right outside our apartment.


I swear they weren't there yesterday.

Tragedy Downtown!

So yesterday I introduced you to my feathered friends. There were three of them and an egg. That all changed this afternoon. I checked on them about 11am and all was good. The chick was walking a bit and looked that much stronger than it had yesterday. The egg didn't change much. All looked well. I got back to work and a while later my coworker came over and bore the bad news. The chick and the egg were gone! My coworker said she saw the mama fly off with the dead chick body and the egg in two trips. I was horrified! I feel a loss. They say she might have another clutch. I sure hope so. The adults are much more active without a nest though. I will still be watching my fewer, feathered friends.

My Feathered Friends

Today a coworker informed me about one of the best things ever. There are two web cams with live feeds of a peregrine falcon couple living in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in downtown Salt Lake City. They have one chick and one egg it looks like. I can't get enough!

Check them out!

Close View
Far View

A Theater Near You

Being a couple with no kids, Dillon and I like to watch movies. As most people, we would limit the movies we saw in theaters to only the ones we really wanted to see. This all changed mid 2006 when we discovered that the theater a block from our house let us in free. The rule was wheelchair patrons and one guest are free. This was awesome and we always stocked up on a lot of concessions. A while later they changed their policy to only wheelchair patrons are free, but my ticket is a whapping $5.50. So let's just say that we have seen a lot of movies that we might not even watch on TV if they were on. We also enjoy renting movies. Most of those we watch with Nolan and Heather. Now I am going to attempt to make a list of them.

2006:
Church Ball
Ice Age: The Meltdown
Mission: Impossible III
Over the Hedge
X-Men: The Last Stand
Cars
Nacho Libre
Superman Returns
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Monster House
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
The Wicker Man
Flyboys
Open Season
The Prestige
Flushed Away
Happy Feet
Casino Royale
The Pursuit of Happyness
Dreamgirls
Night at the Museum
Rocky Balboa
Pan's Labyrinth
watched on video:
The Pink Panther
V for Vendetta
She's the Man
The Da Vinci Code
Little Miss Sunshine
Jackass: Number Two
Flicka
Stranger Than Fiction
Eragon
Children of Men

2007:
Epic Movie
Norbit
Ghost Rider
Bridge to Terabithia
Wild Hogs
The Last Mimzy
Blades of Glory
Meet the Robinsons
Next
Spider-Man 3
Shrek the Third (just me - Dillon didn't see this one)
Ocean's Thirteen
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Evan Almighty
Ratatouille
Transformers
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
Hairspray
The Simpsons Movie
Hot Rod
Rush Hour 3
Stardust
The Nanny Diaries
Balls of Fury
The Game Plan
The Kingdom
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Lars and the Real Girl
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (3D)
Dan in Real Life
Martian Child
Fred Claus
Beowulf
The Golden Compass
Juno
I Am Legend
Charlie Wilson's War
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
watched on video:
Knocked Up
3:10 to Yuma
American Gangster

2008:
Cloverfield (only made it halfway through)
27 Dresses
Fool's Gold
Jumper
Be Kind, Rewind
The Other Boleyn Girl
10,000 B.C.
Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!
Nim's Island
Leatherheads
The Forbidden Kingdom
Baby Mama
Iron Man
Speed Racer
What Happens in Vegas
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Scull
and counting...

Ask me about any of these. I remember most of them pretty well - at least whether I liked it or not. Dillon, let me know if I am forgetting any.

Need for Speed

Saturday Dillon and I went to Speed Racer. I loved it! I have never seen the old cartoons or anything, but Dillon has and he liked the movie too. It was a feast for the eyes. I love bright, vibrant colors and this movie was full of them. It was seriously beautiful. At one point in the movie, Dillon and I were both reminded of Who Framed Roger Rabbit - it was at the exact same time, kind of eerie how much we think alike sometimes. All the people are actual people, but so much of the scenery is computer animated. It's great.

I could not get enough of the little boy and the monkey either. They had me cracking up the entire time. The young Speed is super cute too.


They left the movie wide open for a sequel, which I was very excited about. Then on Monday I heard how poorly it did in the box office and was bummed. Stupid Ironman! No, that was a pretty good show too, but it's sucking the life out of Speed Racer.

If you haven't seen it yet, do it now. I give it three thumbs up - bet you didn't know I had an extra thumb, huh? I would love to see it again in the theater and I will be buying this on Blu-ray when it's out.

BTW, I think Susan Sarandon has had a boob job. They look good for a 95 year old...

A Few of My Favorite Things

Fat Unicorn

I love my new t-shirt! Thanks for buying it for me Dillon.


His name is Chuck although his friends call him 'Chunk.'

My Ego Has an Owie

I got my new skates on Friday. On Saturday we went to a park with Nolan and Heather to skate. Nolan has recently gotten into long boarding. I was humming along while Dillon, Nolan, and Heather were talking a ways away when WHAP! Out of the blue my skate flipped out from under me and I landed hard on the concrete. Dillon saw the whole thing, and Heather and Nolan just saw me on the ground. I don't know who else saw me, but it was embarrassing.

Dillon said, "What the hell happened? You were going along just fine."

"I hit a twig," I lied. I think they all bought it, but, sadly, there was no twig...

We went back to the park today to skate again. I felt much more like I used to. I have a long ways to go to get back to where I used to be with the sport, but it's coming back very quickly. I am just glad I took Dillon's advice and didn't wear my cute, new running outfit on Saturday. My white shorts would have certainly had dirt on them and maybe even a hole.

This I Believe...

There are 5 aspects to every society that has ever been and believed will ever be. Without all of these for any period of time, the society begins to crumble. These are government, economy, education, religion and family.

Marriage is the most important union on this earth because it is the foundation of the most important unit in life - the family. Unfortunately all too many people in this country think of it as no more commitment than buying a car or a house or even a t-shirt.

Over the years, my sympathy for divorce's has declined dramatically. So often adults refuse to take responsibility for their own actions. I realize that every circumstance is different and not everything can be foreseen, but i see people making the same mistakes over and over and refuse to feel sorry for them.

Our society goes to great lengths to try make individuals accountable for their mistakes. Divorce is all too often the first resort for marital problems and is all too easy to obtain. If there were more consequences to divorce there may be more thought in marriage.

I know people with the mindset going in to the marriage, 'If it doesn't work out, there's always divorce.' When did that become okay? How is that not a huge clue that you shouldn't marry this person now? Marriage is hard work for two people going in to it with no end in sight. You add one or more parties that are willing to cut and run as soon as they hit turbulence, and there is no way they will prevail.

They don't call them broken homes because they're healthy. This is a touchy topic because Dillon and I are both products of broken homes. I feel that we are both very blessed to have come from those with the mindset that divorce isn't an option for us. If more people had this mindset, less bad marriages would ever happen.

Unfortunately there are so many families out there now were divorce is the best option for the family as a whole. What a tragedy. Even more terrible is the thought that so many of those situations were avoidable.