Some September stuff

We went spent Labor Day weekend in the little town of Pinetop/Lakeside and it was bee-you-ti-ful. The trip had a very annoying beginning however. One thing I try to do is to avoid crowds. I hate crowds. I have a mental schedule in my mind of times when the regular places I go are not busy and that is when I like to go. I love going to the gym saturday afternoon because I know that everyone has the brilliant idea of going saturday morning, but for some reason saturday afternoon just won't cut it for most people. THAT's when I come. I also like going grocery shopping on a late tuesday evening because who's going to go shopping on a tuesday evening?

Anyway, we happened to leave around 5 o'clock on Friday to leave the really hot place for the 80 degree weather place. It just so happens that is prime time for nine to fivers. Holy crap, there were a lot of them with the exact same idea. The 3 hour drive took over 5 hours because for half the trip we were traveling in slow bumper-to-bumper traffic in the middle of nowhere. It was hell.

Note to self: never do that again.

The rest of the trip was amazing. We got to play some board games outside and go canoeing on Show Low Lake. When I was 11 or 12, me and some friends would ride our bikes down a trail through the forest to get to this lake. It's probably a mile from the house where I grew up. Later when I could drive, I spent a lot of time hanging out at this lake. Sometimes it would be something really random like a cereal party where we'd go buy some cereal and milk and go eat cereal at the lake. Sometimes we'd set off bottle rockets at midnight and have scary looking police officers come and frisk us and make us lay on the ground because they thought we had a gun. Sometimes I would bring some chick out as part of a date because going to a lake is way better than going to a lame movie.

I actually  have some pictures this time!!!!!!!11one one

Check it out, these ones are all centered too!!!!!!111 oneone

One morning, at 2 am, there was some really, really loud thunder. We didn't realize that it had been raining A LOT that morning until we left for work and on the radio we heard about people being stranded on the freeways with water coming over their hoods. "Huh" we thought. We decided to avoid the freeway.

It was called "The storm of the century". I even heard it was a once in a millennium type of event. It was the combination of heavy Monsoon rains and what was left over hurricane weather that decided it was going to visit us.

We were safe, our car was safe. Nothing bad happened to us. Some others weren't so fortunate.

Me and Emily had our first ever visit to Ikea. Can you believe that? THAT'S JUST CRAZY, LIKE OHMYGOSH

We just wanted to get some chairs so that we could expand our game night abilities and we got Emily a nice office chair to keep her butt comfortable. I already had one. My butt was already comfortable.

And we like to go swimming. Everyone has a swimming pool here.

Also, Palm trees aren't indigenous to Arizona. It's all a lie. But that's ok!

96% of the time it's sunny, but every now and then it looks like this.

Emily's Recent Reads

Be the Pack Leader: Use Cesar's Way to Transform Your Dog-- and Your Life;
Cesar Milan

            I really like Cesar’s approach to handling dogs. This book offers great advice on being a dog owner. He does assume you have seen his show and I feel like if you haven’t then his idea of “calm, assertive, energy” may be a little nebulous. However, I think this book is worth the read if you have a dog or thinking of getting one.

Masterpieces of Mystery and the Unknown
Agatha Christie

     I love Agatha Christie, but I think I like her novels are better than her short stories. This batch of short stories have been a fun read, but her characters are less developed (especially the women) when she doesn’t have as much space to let them grow. I still thoroughly enjoyed them, but if you’re going to read your first Agatha Christie novel go for one of her Hercule Poirot mysteries; they are excellent.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
Lynne Truss

    Confession: I still haven’t finished this book. Every time I read a bit of it, she reminds me of how awful people are at punctuating correctly and then I start to hate people with bumper stickers like “UFO’s are real.” So I’m trying to read it in small pieces so I won’t turn into a complete stickler who’s awful to be around. (And honestly, I probably make mistakes that make someone with even more passion for punctuation scream silently.)

Moneyball : The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
Michael Lewis

            Michael Lewis is excellent at making a complex subject understandable and interesting. I know nothing about baseball, but I still found this book extremely interesting. I do think knowing what a ‘ball’ was would help the book be more meaningful.

Lost At Sea : The Jon Ronson Mysteries
Jon Ronson

            Fascinating short articles that slowly get more….ummmm…sickening as you work your way towards the end of the book. Once you hit the articles about old celebrities convicted of being pedophiles, I would stop. Other than that part; I loved his look at the random mysteries in the world, from UFO conventions to his experiences with a program meant to turn an Atheist into a Christian.

How to Win Friends and Influence People
Dale Carnegie

            I wish I had read this book when I was an awkward teenager. I’m still an awkward adult, but I feel like this book has given me some excellent tools to overcome my awkwardness. I’m constantly thinking “What question can I ask this person?” now rather than, “Oh please, let’s just not talk.” And I feel like that’s an improvement.

Freakin' Fabulous: How to Dress, Speak, Behave, Eat, Drink, Entertain, Decorate, and Generally Be Better than Everyone Else
Clinton Kelly

    You don’t need to seek this book out. I stumbled upon it and  since I loved What Not to Wear (Kelly as co-host) I thought this would be a fun read. It was that and honestly, less useful than part of me was hoping for. Watch the show, don’t read the book. J

The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing The Legend Of Master Forger Han Van Meegeren 
Jonathan Lopez

            Intriguing history to a piece of history I knew nothing about.  Not only does Han Van Meegeren manage to forge Vermeers for years (throughout WWII) he also manages to die a hero claiming he forged them to trick the Nazi’s; despite his clear Nazi sympathies. I loved how well Lopez shows the true story of Han Van Meegeren in a tasteful, interesting way. It certainly taught me more about the art world during WWII and culture during that time as well.

Tower: An Epic History Of The Tower Of London
Nigel Jones

            Interesting read; learned a ton about the Tower of London and now would really like to visit it. The more you already know about the rulers of England throughout history the more interesting this book is going to be. Jones does do an excellent job of reminding you how this guy is related to this guy who did this with the Tower. So even if you know nothing else about them, you at least have a solid timeline and some interesting tidbits about who they had beheaded there. 

What happened in August

There was an Andrew Jackson Jihad show that I had been looking forward to for several months because they are one of my favorite bands. The day of the show I went online to find the venue and found that the tickets had sold out. That was very surprising at first, because it's very rare for these types of shows to sell out.

However, it does make sense because this is Andrew Jackson Jihad's hometown (city?), and they've been steadily gaining momentum as a band. When I first saw them, they were added to the bill at the last minute and they were the first band to play. It was just two guys, one with an acoustic guitar and the other with a stand up bass. 

The second time I saw them they were the headlining act. It was still a small show but there was probably twice as many people. The first half of the show consisted of acoustic instruments, but the second half was electric (in more than one way) and they brought out some other band members who came from the bands they were touring with. It was loud and crazy the kids loved it. 

This time around, they had a full band with full-time members. They had been increasing in popularity and were playing in their hometown. After I found out it was sold out, I was depressed for an hour and just laid on the couch but then I was ok after that. There will be other opportunities - after all, they live here.

On that note, I just purchased a ticket to see Hot Water Music which is my favorite band of all time. It's especially great because they stopped playing and touring as a band in 2004, and I figured there was a decent chance I would never get to see them. They started playing as a band again a couple years ago, but they played mostly small tours on the east side of the United States and so I thought I probably wouldn't see them for a long time if ever.

On the first Sunday we had a fifth Sunday lesson. They wanted to do the fifth Sunday lesson early because it was an information meeting about the upcoming dedication of the Phoenix Temple, which we are quite excited about. It will be more like a 15 minute drive as opposed to a 45+ minute drive to the Mesa temple. 

When we first moved into the ward, a middle aged couple told us they liked to play board games after I mentioned our weird hobby (obsession?) in a talk. We finally had them over and I showed them our game closet and I was acting like most of these games were standard games that they probably heard of. Turns out they like to play games, but they like to play older games! Yeah...........

We still had a lot of fun. We played some games like wits and wagers and they introduced us to a word game that was actually pretty fun. 

We watched a lot of Duck Dynasty. I'm not a TV/movie watcher, but I love this show. I know it's probably not an NPR approved show *says it in a hushed voice and British accent*, but just watch it before you pass judgement. 

We had a couple who is a little older than us to play games and they were a riot. We had a blast. It reminded me of the old days of playing games with Robert and Cassi (shoutout!).

I'm back into trading again, but I talk about that crap enough already. 

Emily got a weird rash on her mouth which then spread to her eye. She went to the doctor and turns out it was some kind of bacterial infection and luckily there was actually a cure for it. I say that because Emily's brother had a rash and nobody knew what in the world it was. We were concerned it might be the same thing. 

We spent Labor Day weekend in my beautiful hometown of Lakeside, Arizona. It's basically paradise his time of year. Me and Emily both have realized we're not big city type of people. I'm especially not fond of the big city. Someday we'll live in a medium sized town like Flagstaff or St. George. 

That was August.