TOP FIVE BEERS

Nate:
1.) Sierra Nevada Stout (nod to Chico)
2.) Newcastle Brown
3.) Miller High Life
4.) Black Butte Porter
5.) Fat Tire Ale

Jessica:
1.) Petes Wicked Ale
2.) Ace Pear Cider (does cider count?)
3.) Red Rock Brewing Co. (the wheat one)
4.) Corona
5.) Bud Ice

Fly Hunting

It's almost fly season.

This means that wife and dog will be doing there best to rid our home of houseflies. Although normally killing flies involves a swatter, fly tape or insecticide, in our case the killer has four legs and a tail.

In a weird sort bonding ritual, my wife and dog enjoy hunting houseflies together. Jess points them out and gets them to fly around. Then Gus goes after them aggressively, jumping on the furniture and banging his muzzle against the windows and walls in an effort to smash/eat/destroy the fly. The bigger the fly, the more intense both Jess and Gus get. The game can last indefinitely, when either the fly meets the "muzzle of doom" or finds a corner in the house so remote that Jess land Gus both lose track of it.

Gus has gotten pretty good at picking out flies that are sitting still on the wall. He hops and dances and barks at them to get them to fly around. When we're in the thick of fly hunting season, and Gus is on high alert, I like to take a pencil and draw flies on the wall. Then watch Gus go nuts. Jess nearly pees she's laughing so hard.

Life is always amusing...

Gussyboy Exhausted

The phrase "dog tired" is so appropriate. The furry little four-leggers are capable of pushing themselves past the point of exhaustion, and seem relatively happy all the same. Gus did today. His symptoms included:

Cramping? Yup.
Torn pads? Uh-huh.
Whimpering? You betcha.
Tongue dragging on the ground? Not quite, but pretty close.

Mountain biking on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail was what did it to him. He just goes and goes without stopping...it's hard to tell how tired he is until it's too late. He's sitting on the couch right now, beat to shreds, and as content as a pig in shit.

We only took him 15 miles, but he's not much in shape, as are we. Super fun, though!

Several miles into the ride, we found an abandoned golf cart that someone had taken for a joy ride. It seems as though they went as far as they could with it then left it there. I remember those days...


Here Jess is riding up a lung-buster of a climb. Spring has definitely sprung here in Salt Lake. The foothills are green and happy, the omni-present scrub oak is starting to leaf-out, and the wild flowers are psyched for the sunlight. Today was a gorgeous 70 degrees with nary a cloud in the sky.

Saturday

Hello,

After learning about Marsbots all day at the Natural History Museum, I swiped two donuts from the refreshments table and waited outside the museum for Nate to pick me up (we are down to one car which I think is neat). When I saw him I offered up the donuts and I told him I was a saint for going to a teacher training on my Saturday (a beautiful Saturday at that). He replied, “Well then say ‘yes’”. So agreeably I said, “yes, but to what did I just say ‘yes’ to?”

Thus, we drove on out to LCC and hiked through the granite boulder field (I love that) to the base of some slabby, slabby climbs. Nate set up the top rope and I followed after taking a few bounces on the rope to you know, make sure they would hold me (oh Jess). Then I flailed around…not so much climbing really. I did make myself do it twice more, which was a good thing because I improved a lot. Good for me! It’s all about getting your rump out there, putting the weight on your feet, and making funny noises to keep it light. Nate hoisted up and took some pictures of me which are probably not that good because I was preoccupied with how he could belay me and shoot photos of me at the same time.

Then we went left and found another slabby, slabby climb. I went up it first and had fun! Nate picked his nose and wiped the boogers on his pants as I climbed. I yelled down, “Nice booger!” because it was so big that I could see it from 30 feet up.

On the way down Nate spotted two black ant colonies at war. He gently spat on them as he waited for me to catch up, which I’m sure didn’t help either side. On the way home we got some fountain drink that tastes like Orange Julius called “Orange Banger” at a gas station. Tonight we decided; dinner and a movie that Nate’s been wanting to see about one of his comic book heroes (shhhhh…)

Love, me

PS- Just got home. Nate and I found out while we were waiting for our Chinese dinner to arrive that he was born in the year of the Tiger and I, the horse. We are compatible according to the HoHo Gourmet restaurant’s placemat but I already had a feeling... After, we saw Iron Man, which was awesome. Really.

PPS-I love my husband.