Happy Halloween

Due to our various ailments, we had to split our pumpkin carving up over multiple nights. Still, I think this might be our best collection yet. Which is your favorite?

A Month to Forget

October has been pretty brutal around here. Our house has been overrun by mountains of snotty tissues, a cacophony of coughing, and the occasional vomit. The misery started three weeks ago. With the slightest hint of fall in the air, Eddie and Violet came down with colds. Kristen soon caught the bug. I managed to avoid it for a while, but inevitably it caught up with me as well.

This week, as Kristen and the kids started to feel better, my cold hit its peak. The last few days have been particularly rough, culminating tonight with a near death experience at Nicolitalia Pizzeria in Draper.

As I bit into my first slice of pizza, a rogue red pepper flake shook loose and tumbled down my throat, causing me to cough. I attempted to swallow the bite, but the molten cheese and sauce merely bounced around my mouth. By now I was coughing uncontrollably. My eyes started to water and my nose overflowed with snot. I frantically gulped at my water as Kristen just looked on and laughed.

I was eventually able to swallow the pizza. I stumbled to the bathroom so I could empty my nose and regain my composure. What a night. What a month. Is it spring yet?

Neighborhood Stroll

We have been going on a lot of evening walks lately. Last night I decided to bring my camera along to capture some of the sights.

Dear dog owner, I'm sorry to inform you that as of the time this photo was taken, it appears your beloved "Chubbs" had already been run over by a car.

Lately, Eddie's favorite part of our walks is checking out all the different Halloween decorations. From afar, we were especially excited to point out this decked out yard to him. Until we got a closer look. Yikes.

We walked up to Soda Row last night since there was a classic car show going on. I was amused by the crowd—an eclectic mix of Daybreak residents and greasy old men from the car show circuit.

Not surprisingly, Eddie's favorite cars were the ones that incorporated cheap Halloween decorations. And decked out VW buses.

The $500 Barf

Now that the weather is cooling off, we recently began our search for a new car (so Dave doesn't have to ride his bike to work in the snow). We knew we wanted a sedan, but hoped to find one with a bit more interior space than our Mitsubishi Outlander (which can barely fit Violet's car seat).

After test driving several different cars, we preferred the Hyundai Sonata. We kept our eyes peeled for good deals on a used one, and last week we found one listed in Bountiful. After Dave got off work, we loaded up the kids and drove up to check it out. As we walked onto the lot and explained what we were looking for, we watched the Sonata driving away as someone else purchased it. Our salesman (affectionately dubbed "Snaggletooth") then attempted to sell us a KIA Optima and every other used mid-sized sedan on their lot.

On Tuesday, we found another Sonata listing that interested us (partly because of the "free iPad with a car purchase" offer), and determined to drive downtown and see the car. Deciding it would be best to not take the kids with us, we opted to drop them off with Dave's sister, Christie. As we arrived on the porch, Eddie frantically announced, "I'm going to throw up!"

Now, he had been saying this for days since he had thrown up once over the weekend. But he had shown no signs of sickness since then (besides occasionally making fake barfing sounds), so we didn't really believe him. Still, as a precautionary measure, Dave and Eddie headed for the bathroom as I explained to Christie that he was just fine. It was at this very moment that Eddie threw up in the hall next to the bathroom door. We cleaned up the mess (luckily it was tile), apologized for having to "barf and run," then got back in the car and headed straight home.

At this point, Dave and I were starting to wonder if the fates were conspiring against us. Then, the next day, we looked at the same Sonata listing on the dealer's website and were surprised to see the price had dropped $500 overnight. We loaded up the kids once more and drove downtown. Two hours later, we drove our new car away.

Southern Utah Photo Journal

This past weekend we dropped Eddie off with his grandparents in Cedar City and headed down to St. George to enjoy a mostly kidless weekend at our friend's condo. The six of us (with two babies in tow) recharged our parental batteries playing mini golf, shopping at the outlets, eating out, and soaking in the community hot tub. To top it off, I took a bunch of photos that didn't relate to any of it.

In a post about our trip to Southern Utah in late April, I referred to driving through Parowan and seeing a bear fighting two elk in someone's front yard. Ever since then I have regretted not stopping to take a photo, so I determined it was high time to right this wrong. As I climbed out of the car, I noticed the neighbors across the street sitting on their front porch. I was hoping to be discreet, but they immediately knew what I was up to and called out, "Jerry's not home. You can just go right into his yard."

On the heels of the announcement that Arrested Development is returning, while driving around town we stumbled upon the headquarters for Bob Loblaw's Law Blog. A great place to lob law bombs, I'd imagine.

Photoshop 1.0, located in downtown St. George.

With a hip-hip and a clippity-clop, he's out looking for a head to swap, so don't try to figure out a plan, you can't reason with a headless man

The condo where we were staying was in the same neighborhood as my Grandparents' old house. Even though they haven't lived there for 15+ years (and my grandpa has since passed on), the entrance to Bloomington Hills and turn onto Osage Circle was as familiar as ever—it will always be their house to me. I thought about knocking on the door and asking if I could have a root beer popsicle and play Space Invaders, but then, maybe the current residents aren't as accomodating as "Jerry."

The Future is Now

The following Back to the Future-themed short film was recently released to help promote an auction benefiting the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. The items being auctioned off were replicas of the futuristic shoes Marty McFly wore in Back to the Future Part II.



In the short film, Christopher Lloyd makes a brief reprise of his most famous role, Doctor Emmitt L. Brown. Watching Lloyd frantically pace around the Lone Pines Nike store, I realized that all the actors who starred in the Back to the Future series are now about the older age they were depicted as during various time periods in the movies.

Being the geek that I am, I threw concerns about the space time continuum out the window to look for images of the main actors' younger selves, their predicted selves, and what they actually look like now. Take a look:

 Michael J. Fox (Marty McFly)

Age 17 // Age 47 (Predicted) // Age 50 (Actual)

Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown)

Age 41 // Age 71 (Predicted) // Age 72 (Actual)

Thomas F. Wilson (Biff Tannen)

Age 17 // Age 47 (Predicted) // Age 52 (Actual)

Crispin Glover (George McFly)

Age 17 // Age 47 (Predicted) // Age 47 (Actual)

Lea Thompson (Lorraine Baines McFly)

Age 17 // Age 47 (Predicted) // Age 50 (Actual)

So who do you think was the most accurate prediction? Please leave a comment explaining your choice.