Utah @ MindSay

Well, Bobbie, my eldest child, has come and gone. She got here around one on Tuesday morning, and immediately made me laugh as she always does. She is so smart, but sometimes makes mistakes when saying long words (she's a blond! LOL)  She had me and her father laughing hysterically when she said that she was not afraid in the airplane at all until the TURBULATION started.  It reminded me immediately of when she was a blond haired little angel with HUGE brown eyes, looking up at me and saying she was SISHISHED with something, trying to say finished.  The week had begun on a high note, indeed.  She regaled us with stories of all the people (perfect strangers) she had met and spoken to along the way, including some young boys who were off to boot camp, who were bemoaning the fact that it would be their last cigarette for three months, and gave her a lighter that they would not be needing for a while.

She brought her camera and from the first day, just wanted to be out, taking pictures of the beautiful mountains around us.  She was as awestruck as I was when I first visited in December and when I moved here in February.

Each day, we lay in in the morning (she climbed in bed with me at four thirty when her father got up to go to work) and gabbed for a while each before getting up and out, and she scratched my back with her new, long, synthetic nails...purr!

Then we basically just took our time, getting ready, playing on the computer, and so on until the evenings when Lawlie came home and took us out to eat and galavanting to see what we could see. She also gave me some hints and help with the church music, which was a blessing.

We saw several lakes, and the beautiful mountains, with their stunning outcrops.  We also went to a ski lodge which was not occupied at present, but could see the beautiful buildings and what she would be able to enjoy if she came back in the winter.  We ate at several wonderful restaurants, the two best being Timbermine, which is built to look like underground in a mine; a real tourist attraction, with delicious steak, ribs and seafood; and Bombay Grill in Ogden, which is an Indian place, whetting the senses from the first step in the door.  We ate a delectable Lamb curry in Mango sauce, and chicken biryani, which is rice, chicken, veggies and spices all in one dish, unlike the curry which goes over basmati rice. Bobbie also tasted one of their Yassi drinks, which is made with yogurt and which reminded her of  her young days in South Africa, when we drank  Maas, which is somewhat like buttermilk.

On Saturday we went to the strip mall in the ski resort town of Park City, and Lawlie decided that when wives think their hubbies have been bad, they take them to Park City mall, while they take hours to shop.  He was sitting on the ground waiting for ages before we had shopped till we dropped. We got some pretty clothes at great prices while he stewed ! :)

Then Sunday, Bobbie went with us to church and sang for us, and enjoyed the time of fellowship afterward, when we grilled out and visited with the church people. She said if anything had to happen to her hubby, she would move out to Utah, as it is such a great place to live.  They can't move now, since her hubby's daughter lives in Kentucky with her mother, and comes to them on the weekends.

Since Lawl and I both have a computer, Bobbie and I played Scrabble (my favorite pastime) against each other online.  She was nervous at first, but just lacking in confidence; she is actually very very smart, top of her class all the way to her Radiology Tech degree. She picked up Scrabble and for a while was running ahead of me in rating.  We also watched some great movies together; was like old times.

By the time this morning rolled around, she was looking forward to being back with her husband who had the house all nicely cleaned for her return and a new diamond ring for her birthday, which will be tomorrow (or today, since it is past three  a.m. as I write this). She said it is stunning, that he must REALLY have missed her...was the first time they have been apart since being together about two years, married for one.

We had a great time. I do not know the names of every lake we went to, but here are some pics that she and I took during her stay.  I hope you enjoy them.  I loved having Bobbie and look forward to when my second daughter, Liza Anne gets to come, and to seeing all of them at my son's wedding on October 25th.

It is really really late and it is dark in here, so I will post some more photos tomorrow when I can see things more clearly..:)

Hope you enjoy these few anyway.

After receiving literally 1000s of wedding photos from near and far- including the photographers' , dnlecrone (my daughter) has posted a beautiful slide show of the best.  It was the highlight of our summer... go check them out, and congratulate her while you're there!

So about a month ago, Taylor comes to me and out of the blue, asks, "Hey Tobe, you wanna start a vigilante watchdog organization that kicks pedophille's asses?" and I promptly replied, "Yes."

 

It never got off the ground.

 

Every time I got some spare time in the last month (what with work, there's been plenty of it), I would go on the Perverted Justice account Taylor and I created to try and read up on what I was supposed to do to help. The problem is that the forums are so massive that I couldn't possibly hope to absorb all the information that I needed. I was lost and overwhelmed and I wasn't sure exactly how to go about starting up a volenteer service.

 

Today I was able to wrap my mind around all that for the first time. I now have a plan, but I just realized I'm going to need more help than I thought to do everything possible. I need to assemble a team. I already have Taylor on board, and Kate joined up too. Now it's just a question of how much can be done and who can do it. Essentially, I need to have at least some of the following positions crewed:

 

1. Content Creation

(building bastardized accounts on high-pedophille-activity sites such as youtube and myspace)

2. Picture Submission

(donating pictures to Perverted Justice to use on said bastardized accounts)

3. Wikiposure

(reporting pedophille activist rings and advertising to the whole stinking planet how filthy these sons of bitches really are.)

4. Myspace Backyard Cleanup

(searching myspace for local registered offenders with accounts and reporting them to PJ)

5. Facebook Backyard Cleanup

(Same as 4)

6. Gaia Online Backyard Cleanup

(Same as 4&5)

7. Phone Verification

(luring would-be pedophilles into jail with a child-like voice)

 

4, 5, and 6 all require special knowledge of those sites because I can't possibly spend the time learning them all myself. 7, of course, requires a person over 18 with a very young-sounding voice. I'm not sure I can get a volenteer with those qualifications.

 

Other than that, all three of us that are already signed up can manage the other positions (and I believe Taylor and Katie are both proficient in Facebook and Myspace navigation as well). Anybody else in the Utah Valley area that would like to lend a hand and thinks they can fill one of those roles, let me know.

I know we will grow old it is lovely, still
Make a plan to love me sometime soon.

I'm so excited because we have been making plans for a trip out to Utah. This should happen sometime around the end of September. We are going to jam-pack it with fun things to do and visit family. :D I just love all the visual history in Utah.

Any suggestions of places to visit? So far here is the non-definitive

As stated yesterday; here are the pictures for today.



Why is taking pictures of flowers so much fun? I don't know why... am I an addict?








*** PREEMPTIVE WARNING TO PEOPLE AFRAID OF INSECTS/BUGS. This next picture may send shivers down your spine and/or freak you out. ***



*** END OF WARNING. Thank you. ****






I seem to have plenty of pictures to share. Lucky for me now I wont run out of things to post. (for now) Hooray.

To The Death - Utah county's current success story may be Victim Effect, but all I have to say is 'watch out' because unless something divine happens, To The Death is going to be springing to the top of the charts. I know what you're thinking, "How on earth can you possibly say that?" Because I've heard them. Seriously, these guys have some incredible talent, and I'm beyond proud to be able to say they come from my area. Formed in April of 2006, these guys have played at just about every local venue in Utah county, and even some out of Utah county. They released an album in 2007 called "Best Laid Plans..." which you can get here. To The Death on the whole sounds like what would happen if Muse and Coheed and Cambria had a lyrically genius love child that spoke exactly what was on it's mind. Mike Fjerstad has a wonderful voice and he compliments the talented guitar counterparts like bread compliments butter. My personal favorite on their album is "Die With A Smile" because the guitars suck you immediately, and then Fjerstad's voice comes sailing in like an anthem above the weary clouds, which is only elevated to an entirely new level by the climbing piano, stirring you on and don't worry, you're supposed to feel like rebelling. It's kind of part of what they stand for. "Pomp and Circumstance" is another track that absolutely shines on this album -- with a crunchy guitar feel that makes you feel like you want to stand up and throw something. Fjerstad's vocal capabilities are really shown off here; and believe me, he's not being pretentious, he really can sing that well. I'd try to categorize these guys, but this is my kind of band -- the kind that defies categorization and description. They've got something for everyone on this album, and it's beyond worth picking up; local or not, this is a solid, professional sounding album. My only complaint about this band is...

To The Death? Seriously? What kind of a band name is that? Did your twelve year old little brother think that up for you? Come on guys, I know you can do better than that. Hell, I can do better than that. Regardless, keep up the great sound and I hope to see you get signed and hit it big soon; I know you can do it.

If you really like these guys (like I do) you can request them on X96's Live And Local slot from 8-10pm each Sunday. You can request online (because we are the generation of technology) at their site or you can do it the old fashioned way and call it in to 1-877-602-9696. Or the third option, if you're really savvy, is you can text your request to 79640.