Lake Powell Anyone?

This feels about my speed right now...

I wouldn't look quite so sexy as those folks floating along, but I sure could do the relaxation and fruity drinks as well as the best of them. 

Fair, Rodeo, Black Licorice, Abortion, Facebook.... What Am I NOT Talking About In This Post?

Well, so many things to talk about today.  So let's get cracking. 

Last week we went to the Davis County Fair, which I love.  One of my favorite things is the dogs doing the long jump off the platform into the water.  My family can't figure out why I'm so fascinated by it.  My least favorite thing is the chicken barn hen house place.  It stinks so bad in there that I turned around and walked back out.  As I do every year, I decided that I want to do 4-H. This year I decided I want to raise a cow.  I picked out a cute ittle wittle brown baby calf for my very own, but then Sean came along all, "Where are you going to put it?" and "How on earth will you pay for it?" and pretty much killed my dreams.  Every year I want to do 4-H at fair time, and then I forget about it.  No more.  I'm going to be a 4-H leader so my kids can do it.  I did it when I was a kid.  Besides raising a cow, I would also like to learn how to quilt. 

Lexi refused to be in the picture

Last Friday night we went camping overnight up at the Veteran's Memorial Campground.  It's surrounded by pretty, but the campground itself is kinda ghetto.  It was a perfect quick camping trip.  Just enough time to go up and build a fire, roast hot dogs and marshmallows, sit outside, take a walk in nature, and come home before everyone gets too tired and cranky and dirty. 

Saturday we had to get back in time for the lady from the medical supply company to come do Lexi's pump training.  That took about 2 hours.  We hooked it up and did a saline trial.  That night Josh, Lexi and I headed to the fair grounds to meet Scott, Katie, and Dave for the rodeo.  Oh my gosh I love the rodeo.  I love the barrel racers the most, I think.  Then the bull riders and the saddle bronc riders.  The bareback bronc riders make me cringe because they get tossed around so much it's scary.  I love the rodeo queens and the flag being carried by a cowboy on a horse and the patriotic downhome country shtick. 

Sunday we went to a birthday party for Sean's grandpa.  He is turning 93.  Holy cow.  It was a nice evening.

Monday and Tuesday I had to go out to the Diabetes Clinic for the pump start using actual insulin and more training, and then her regular 3 month appt.  I really like the pump and I'm very grateful to be able to have it.  It's a lot of work to get it set up and adjusted right, but I know it will be worth it in the end.  I had to do blood sugars every 2 hours until midnight, and then one at 3 am, for a few days.   Now I don't have to do quite as many, but I got an e-mail today about a bunch more stuff I have to do this weekend.  Something called basal testing that I have to read more about, but it sounds like a pain in the butt. 

We tried to go boating tonight, but it didn't quite work out very well.  On the way up to the lake, Lexi started complaining that her head hurt.  By the time we got up there she was refusing to move off the back seat where she was lying down, so I launched Josh and Sean off in the boat and stayed up in the parking lot in the car with Lexi.  Luckily I never go anywhere without a book.  She seemed to feel a little better after she slept for a while, but then on the way home it got bad again and she started throwing up.  Blah. 

I start work on Monday.  I'm excited and I'm not.  Lexi's school called and set up a 504 meeting for her next Friday, so I have to sneak out of work to do that.  Well, not really sneak.  My work isn't like that.  But I gotta make the time. 

Things That I Think Are Stupid:

I read a comment on some blog somewhere last week that basically said you never see skinny people drinking Diet Coke and how it doesn't help you lose weight.  First of all, false.  The guy in front of me at the gas station today getting his Diet Coke while I was getting mine was skinny.  Second, who drinks Diet Coke because they think it will make them skinny?  No one, that's who.  People don't drink it because they think it's like Slim Fast or some sort of diet suppliment.  They drink it because they like the taste, duh. 

MSN has a link on their home page that says, "Why is black licorice hated?"  Um, because it's nasty?  Duh.  Like, what other reason might there be, msn?  Because it has a bad personality?  People are prejudiced against black candy?  What?  People don't like the taste of it, idiots!

There's been a lot of talk about the GOP platform being too harsh for its opposition to abortion without making exceptions for rape or incest.  I think that's the right thing to do, if you believe that abortion is murder.  I mean, if you believe that abortion is murdering an innocent child, why is it OK to murder an innocent child because it's the product of rape or incest?  It's not.  I don't happen to agree with their point of view, in fact I'm deeply offended by it, but I think at least it's consistent. 

Why do people gotta be such idiots?  I hate when someone posts something on their facebook, and then other people who disagree gotta jump all over it and make a comment.  Like, really?  If you disagree, then scurry on over to your own page and write all about it.  Or get a blog like me.  My friend posted something that wasn't even a big deal or all that controversial and had a few people jumping on her, and I just really wanted to say something back to them in the comments, but I just didn't want to be a part of blowing anything up into a facebook fight. 

I'm really snacky tonight.  I want something to eat, but nothing sounds quite right.  So I've been going around eating a little of this and a little of that, trying to find that thing that will hit the spot, but nothing does.  Breakfast at McDonald's?  They're supposedly starting to serve it a midnight now.  Hmmmmm......

Snopes.com. Pass the Word.

I can't figure out why some people believe everything they read.  Seriously?  This is what I was talking about before when I said to have a healthy dose of skepticism.  Someone posted this on facebook this morning.

The first thing I did when I read that was think, "Nope, bet that didn't happen."  Second thing I did was look it up on snopes.  Sure enough, it's not true.  Pepsi has not and does not have a can with this on it.  It's also been passed around with Coke as the target instead of Pepsi.  What actually happened was that after 9-11 Dr. Pepper made a patriotic can that said, "One Nation... Indivisible" to celebrate how united our nation was after the terrorist attacks.  A couple of people complained that they took out the "under God" in between, but the company didn't do it so as not to offend anyone.  A soda can just only has so much room on it, and the focus was on "ONE nation INDIVISIBLE"... so a couple of jerks took a nice message about unity and tried to use it to divide people.  Anyway, those cans haven't been in stores for 10 years.  Why can't people just have some critical thinking skills for heck's sake?  Everyone isn't out to get you.  Take off your tin foil hat.  The world is pretty nice when you don't see everything as a conspiracy against you and your values. 

The Problem Pile

Disclaimer:  The bottom of this blog contains a swear word (sh--), twice.  Do not scroll down if you do not enjoy swear words on funny t-shirts like I do.  Or if your kids are reading over your shoulder and will want to know why that shirt says a bad word on it.   

I sent everything in for Brittney's school registration except for one paper.  I didn't realize that I threw it away on accident.  So today I went in to the school office to get another one, filled it out, handed it in, and she said, "OK, let me find the rest of your paperwork in the problem pile."  Figures that I'm filed in the problem pile.  It feels like a metaphor for my life sometimes. 

Just bought myself a lovely Obama-Biden yard sign and a t-shirt.  I wanted one of the Utahns for Obama t-shirts too, but I restrained myself.  Might still have to go back for one.  It is my birthday month after all, so all purchases are guilt free.  Just kidding.  Ha nothing I do is guilt free. 

I've had two early birthday celebrations.  My mom is going to be out of town on my birthday, so she had us all over for a delicious dinner on Sunday.  She gave me a really cute purse, a scarf, and a belt.  So fun. 

Then my mil and three of my sil's and my oldest niece all took me out to lunch at Olive Garden today for my birthday.  It was so much fun.  We had lots of time to just sit and chat, and I feel like I never get that.  When we go to family parties there are so many people and so much going on, of course, that there isn't a solid hour or two to just sit and talk to anyone. 

It's nice that they all had birthday parties for me, because I don't think my actual birthday is going to be much of a party.  I have to work that day, and all of my plans have been foiled.  First I wanted to go to Las Vegas to see Garth Brooks.  Then I downgraded to Wendover to see Rodney Atkins and take an ATV tour of the desert.  Now I pretty much am planning to sit home and feel sorry for myself.  I don't know. 

It's now time for a Q & A Session, inspired by the comments section of my blog.

Q:  great little clip! Has our fil seen it? :)

A:  Ha ha ha!  No.  I love our fil, but he tells you stuff, you don't tell him stuff.  Plus his head might explode if he watched that clip.  :)

Q: The salon totally should have comped the dye job, as in given it to you for free. 

Q: I agree w/ Heather, they shouldn't have made you pay!

A:  Well, it really wasn't their fault.  They didn't make a mistake... it was my hair that didn't process right.  I don't know what they could have done differently, except not do it in the first place, which is probably what should have happened.  I actually don't mind the white in my hair anymore now that I'm used to it.  The only thing I don't like is that it's super thin in the white areas at the top.  I'm worried I'll have bald patches.  I told my stylist I was going to start using Rogaine, but she said to take Biotin.  So I went to the store to buy some, and a lady told me that her daughter used it and it totally works.  She said her daughter's hair was in a short bob and now it's down to her butt.  She finally stopped taking it because she got tired of having to shave her legs and pits every day.  So I started taking it, and I don't really care about it making my leg hair grow, but what if it makes me start growing really long facial hair?  What if I'm like the bearded lady?  Or if it makes my eyebrows grow and I look like I have caterpillers on my face? 

I freaking want this t-shirt.  Apologies.

Freak of Nature Part 2

So I went and got my hair done this week.  I don't love it.  Somehow when I walked through the door to the salon, all my brain cells quit functioning.  The stylist was talking to me about what I wanted, and she suggested a little different color than what I've been doing, and I said fine, and then she asked if I wanted to try to dye the unpigmented white hair that I have underneath and increasingly throughout my hair, and I said.... sure.  Why not.  She asked if we'd ever tried it before, and I said no, and at that moment I could not remember why.  It took exactly 4 hours and 15 minutes and 4 stylists working on my hair for me to remember why I never try to dye the white parts.  Oh yeah, that one time, years ago, a stylist told me that she tried to dye a white spot in her client's hair and it turned purple.  That scared me.  Then I've been told by other stylists that unpigmented hair like that can be unpredictable.  That scared me.  Plus, even if it did take dye properly, I am very low-maintenance, and I don't want to have to re-do my hair every few weeks or else have large chunks of white roots showing.  But I didn't remember all of that until I was driving away.  Over 4 hours later.  Because, you see, the white parts turned purple.  Not a cute purple.  I would have said cool and left it at that.  No, a brownish muddy ugly color with a purplish tinge to it.  So she got the owner and the owner tried putting a reddish bronze on it and that helped tone it down and make it better.  By this time my stylist's next appointment was there, so two other sylists who didn't have clients at the time worked the rest of the red in, which took forever, because they were basically kinda scrubbing my hair with it.  So 4 hours, 15 minutes, 4 stylists, and $100 later... and it looks eh.  If anyone ever wonders why I don't do more with myself, this is why.  Because it doesn't make a difference.  I'm not meant to be one of those women who looks all put together.  Some of the stylists there remember me because of my funky hair.  Love being a freak of nature.  Maybe they could take my DNA and study me too like the UofU.  The owner and my stylist were both like, "Oh, I love a challenge!" and "I love a project!"  Just trying to be all positive and not let me know they were freaking out inside over the insane color my hair had just turned.  But I don't wanna be a challenge or a project!  Wah! 

We had a garage sale this morning.  We didn't make a ton of money, but we really didn't have that much stuff, and what we did have wasn't all that great.  Nothing was priced above a couple bucks, and I was just giving stuff away.  So I feel pretty good about it.  We got rid of almost everything and just had one little load in the back of the truck.  I see no point when having a yard sale in bartering with people.  Seriously.  People are paying me to haul my junk away so I don't have to?  I'm not going to argue.  Whatever you offer me is what I'm taking.  Why turn someone's money down just to have to take it to DI later? 

Nutella 2012

Worth watching. 

The Daily Show
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Disclaimer:  These are my ramblings.  They are not necessarily well thought out.  They are subject to change without notice.  When I say "you," I don't really mean you, the reader.  I mean people.   I am a hypocrite.  Sometimes I rant about things that I also do myself.  I don't except myself from the things I criticize, and I don't claim to be perfect.    That should cover it.

I'm so tired of hearing about how the media distorts everything and how both parties lie and whatever.  Who cares what the media does?  Who cares what the parties and Rush Limbaugh and politicians say?  Find out for yourself what the real scoop is.  When I heard this Obama uproar about "You didn't build that" I immediately knew that he wasn't really saying people didn't build their own businesses.  It's obvious.  Anyone with an ounce of healthy skepticism knows that.  So look it up and find out!  Maybe you still disagree with his premise and his policy, awesome, but at least be intellectually honest about it instead of lazily listening to the spin.  I'm sick of hearing about Mitt Romney's stupid dog, and how he likes to fire people, and how he once bullied someone a hundred years ago in high school, and how Michelle Obama may or may not have said the pledge of allegiance when she was visiting a school (they actually had lip readers find out for sure), and "you didn't build that"  and birth certificates.  I am interested in Romney's tax returns, simply because he advocates tax cuts for the wealthy.  I think that's relevant, and it's common practice for candidates to release them.  I don't care how much he made, just tell us what percentage of his income he paid in taxes. I am interested in health care, the economy, civil rights, and foreign policy.  Can we effing talk about those things for a few minutes without having to get sidetracked by the bullcrap???  And now I have  alienated any friends and family who read my blog.  At least I still have you, Russia.

Weekend Wrap Up

This weekend Sean and I were looking forward to finally getting to hit some garage sales on Saturday morning since he didn't have to work until the evening.  We only got to go to a handful of garage sales, but Sean did manage to find a replacement globe for our lantern.  A new one costs $30, so we haven't wanted to buy a new one, but Sean found one for 50 cents.  Still in the box, just a little dusty.  A lot dusty.  But cheap.  We decided to go for a drive and check out Crystal Hot Springs for a possible future camping trip and hit the fruit highway for some fresh produce.  I thought Crystal Hot Springs sounded fun, but it looked like a hot mess.  Emphasis on hot.  It was packed wall to wall with people, which is always gross when swimming is involved, the bathrooms were nasty, and it was just hot and dusty and ugly.  Everyone goes there, though, so maybe I was just cranky? 

Today we went to the Bee's game, and Marilyn came with us.  I can't think of very many (realistic) things I'd rather do on a Sunday afternoon in the summer than go to a baseball game.  I love it so much. 

Ways in which I was a dork last week (that I remember):  I saw my sister-in-law at the store on her birthday, and I did not wish her a happy birthday or mention it in any way.  Even though I had looked at the calendar two days before and thought, "Gee, I need to remember Curt and Cami's birthday on Thursday."  Sean didn't call his brother either.  It was a crazy week. 

Random thoughts on a few matters:

This is one of my favorite songs today.  Very sweet.  And he's easy on the eyes, which is always a plus.

I did not buy the Spanx.  I'm just going to let the jiggles jiggle on.  And the Oreo diet sounds awesome.  I'm not sure I really believe that people in Russia are reading my blog just because blogger tells me so.  I wonder if it's just people who have their IP address re-routed so that no one can track them or some weird Bourne Identity Mission Impossible sort of thing like that.  Or someone's friend that lives in Russia and reads our blogs.  Or maybe random Russians just like reading about my fabulous life.  Anything is possible.

I did get sick of the stupid Chick-Fil-A thing, but having said that, I do think it's important for people to follow their convictions.  I realize that my money in the form of someone else's profits goes all kinds of places I wouldn't agree with, but if I know about it and can do something about it, that's great.  I don't begrudge people taking action on it.  I think Dan Cathy is pretty much a sleeze after reading that he has donated to hate groups, including one in Uganda that advocates killing homosexuals, and I probably won't eat there again, but I'm not under any illusions that it's any big deal or that I'm doing anything that will actually help anyone in any real way.  I think the biggest problem I have with this CFA thing is the same problem I had with the Kony 2012 thing.  It just seems like lazy activism.  All I have to do is eat a chicken sandwich or post something on my facebook page and I can pretend like I'm actually doing something to make a difference.  When, really, I'm not.  How many of the people who were all fired up about Kony a few months ago even know that the Utah high court just ruled on a human trafficking case?  Do people actually bother to follow what's going on?  No, but if something comes across facebook we can re-post it and feel all self-righteous.  It's lazy activism and it bugs me. 

How cute is Gabby Douglas?  I loved this quote from her about people criticizing her hair.  (Wha??? Stupid.)  ''I don't know where this is coming from. What's wrong with my hair?'' said Douglas, the first U.S. gymnast to win gold in team and all-around competition. ''I'm like, `I just made history and people are focused on my hair?' It can be bald or short, it doesn't matter about (my) hair.''  Good for her.  

The Spanx Diet

So, I have a new weight loss plan since my old plan of doing everything the same as I always do wasn't working.  I decided just to go buy some spanx.  But man, shopping that website... that stuff looks torturous.  Why I gotta suit myself up from top to bottom in industrial strength reinforced lycra or whatever?  That looks so hot and miserable.  Is it worth it?

Brittney and I are working on a new blog which we plan to co-write, and which will never actually come to fruition.   But if it did, it would be called Seriously, What's Wrong With People?  Here is a sample of the things we would write about:

Ryan Lochte and his mother

Chick-Fil-A    (Geez, eat your chicken, don't eat your chicken, either way I don't care. )

The crazies (Eagle Forum) who want to retract Utah's participation in the Common Core Initiative.

People who want to use the tragedy in Colorado to debate gun rights. 

The neighbor kids who play in my yard and leave their crap all over the place, including water bottles and popsicle wrappers.

Man I'm blogging almost every day now.  It's gettin all exciting up in here.  No wonder people tune in from Russia to read my blog.