Welcome to big-boy football, Utah.
So listen - tomorrow is an important day. I am living in the heart of Utah, and by heart I mean the only actual city of note (with all due respect to Magna), Salt Lake City, the home of the Utah "Utes". Yes, they are really called the Utes. It is not even short for anything - like "Utility Worker", for example (all due respect to utility workers). Utes is one of the more clever mascot names in all of sports, if you ask nobody.
I write to all my fellow Michigan fans out there: Oh ye of the maize & blue blood! Even though my beloved wife sort-of-kind-of supports my support of Michigan, and does not claim any allegiance to the “U”, I am somewhat isolated. So, on this first Saturday of the season when you cheer the Wolverines, think of your son/brother/cousin/friend also, in enemy territory, hoping and praying he does not have to return to the office on Tuesday in shame. For he has worn the maize & blue to work on this football Friday, carrying around a mug with Block M, showing off the mini-helmet and national championship Pepsi can from 1997 (sadly it’s empty, in more ways than one).
Although I show those things off always, because I’m weird like that, it is of greater importance tomorrow. In this City of Salt, a Lake, and super-dry skin due to lack of humidity, I hope to stand tall and represent my home, Michigan, my team, Michigan, and proclaim “Hail to the Victors!” so it may echo up and down the valley. Also, give me a call on Saturday, so we can talk some big-boy football.
GO BLUE!
Showing posts with label SLC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SLC. Show all posts
3/05/2008
The Adjective Subject
Well, Mom & Dad made it back to the mitten state from the rectangle-with-corner-missing state, having survived 4 nights at elevation. I'll evaluate their enjoyment of the trip by comparing impressions. These are my opinions and have nothing to do with what they told me about their stay: "It was very nice."
Mountains: Very impressed. Our neighborhood: Mildly impressed. Our house: Mildly relieved. Our cars: Frivolous, but slightly impressive. Smoggy air quality in the valley: Not impressed. My parenting skills: Incomplete (the kids were only here for one night and I can't take responsibility for their behavior after a weekend at Nascar in Vegas with their grandmother. No offense Grandma K.)
Annie's hostess skillz: Mui impresivo. Disco Kitty: Impressed as you can be with a feline, and now they understand why I actually like a cat. Rock Band: Entirely unimpressed with the song selection (they're old-ish), but reluctantly impressed with my fake drum & guitar skills and "Welcome to the Family"-impressed with Annie's vocal stylings. Dinner at Annie's Mom's house: Impressed by both company and food, but slightly jealous that her family spends more time with The Steven now than they do. Mountains again: Hugely impressed (I use that word purposefully - people 'round here use the adjective (adverb?) 'hugely' too much, it's kind of a sloppy word, isn't it? No offense, Utah.)
Why am I thankful my buddy Matt is getting married? For one thing, I can finally stop worrying about his penchant for wearing short shorts and shaving his body. Aside from the fact that he's a pro-level triathlete, I couldn't think of one good reason for doing either of those things on a regular basis. Weekends only for me. But more importantly, it means I get to fly to the great state of Massachusetts at the end of this month to celebrate his wedding! I can't wait to pahk my cah in Hahvad Yahd! Actually, I won't be anywhere near Boston, but who cahes, you gawtta problem widdat? And most importantly, it means me and a bunch of dudes are meeting up in Las Vegas this weekend, ostensibly for a bachelor party celebrating Muzza's pending nuptials. But let's be honest dudes: this is the culmination of years of adolescence + young adulthood where we've been told that a dudes' weekend in Vegas is the capstone of our reckless manhood! So naturally, let's take it easy and not all go broke at once - we've got wives, kids, and almost those to consider - oh, and someone's gotta buy our bus passes home. In the immortal words of Butthead: "This will be the coolest thing we have ever done."
This Blog Post: They were more impressed with my 2nd grade Young Author's book, entitled "The Black Corvette." Or was 2nd grade "The Big Blizzard"?
Mountains: Very impressed. Our neighborhood: Mildly impressed. Our house: Mildly relieved. Our cars: Frivolous, but slightly impressive. Smoggy air quality in the valley: Not impressed. My parenting skills: Incomplete (the kids were only here for one night and I can't take responsibility for their behavior after a weekend at Nascar in Vegas with their grandmother. No offense Grandma K.)
Annie's hostess skillz: Mui impresivo. Disco Kitty: Impressed as you can be with a feline, and now they understand why I actually like a cat. Rock Band: Entirely unimpressed with the song selection (they're old-ish), but reluctantly impressed with my fake drum & guitar skills and "Welcome to the Family"-impressed with Annie's vocal stylings. Dinner at Annie's Mom's house: Impressed by both company and food, but slightly jealous that her family spends more time with The Steven now than they do. Mountains again: Hugely impressed (I use that word purposefully - people 'round here use the adjective (adverb?) 'hugely' too much, it's kind of a sloppy word, isn't it? No offense, Utah.)
Why am I thankful my buddy Matt is getting married? For one thing, I can finally stop worrying about his penchant for wearing short shorts and shaving his body. Aside from the fact that he's a pro-level triathlete, I couldn't think of one good reason for doing either of those things on a regular basis. Weekends only for me. But more importantly, it means I get to fly to the great state of Massachusetts at the end of this month to celebrate his wedding! I can't wait to pahk my cah in Hahvad Yahd! Actually, I won't be anywhere near Boston, but who cahes, you gawtta problem widdat? And most importantly, it means me and a bunch of dudes are meeting up in Las Vegas this weekend, ostensibly for a bachelor party celebrating Muzza's pending nuptials. But let's be honest dudes: this is the culmination of years of adolescence + young adulthood where we've been told that a dudes' weekend in Vegas is the capstone of our reckless manhood! So naturally, let's take it easy and not all go broke at once - we've got wives, kids, and almost those to consider - oh, and someone's gotta buy our bus passes home. In the immortal words of Butthead: "This will be the coolest thing we have ever done."
This Blog Post: They were more impressed with my 2nd grade Young Author's book, entitled "The Black Corvette." Or was 2nd grade "The Big Blizzard"?
3/02/2008
Freeze Frame
Wow - so much has happened! Most of it normal, everyday stuff that isn't particularly noteworthy, but I have some time to kill. One item: I passed my 1-year anniversary of living in Utah about a week ago. It came and went without fanfare, but it was interesting to reflect on how different my life is.
My parents are here this weekend! It's great to have them in my home, around my normal life, and - for my Mom - seeing Salt Lake for the first time. We went to Park City yesterday, walked Main St., and ate lunch at Zoom - Robbie Redford's restaurant. How chic! Then Mom & Annie cooked an awesome dinner back home. They picked up some fresh fish and clam chowder from one of our favorite restaurants, and cooked it up - I daresay better than restaurant quality.
In the meantime, I gave my Dad a quick tutorial on the guitar on Rock Band, and we jammed a little. Then Annie & I showed them how we roll as a band, crushing When You Were Young with a 5 star show on vocals & drums. After dinner, we played a mean game of Scrabble while enjoying some dessert and coffee. All 4 of us love word games, so it didn't even matter who won (mebyalot), we had fun all around.
Today we're heading downtown for some shopping and site seeing, then to my future in-laws' house for a family dinner. Tomorrow, the kids get back from a weekend with Grandma, so then the REAL real-life will be on display in our house. :) Can't wait.
I'll leave you with this cool social experiment. Thanks to Heidi for the link:
http://www.maniacworld.com/frozen-in-grand-central-station.html
My parents are here this weekend! It's great to have them in my home, around my normal life, and - for my Mom - seeing Salt Lake for the first time. We went to Park City yesterday, walked Main St., and ate lunch at Zoom - Robbie Redford's restaurant. How chic! Then Mom & Annie cooked an awesome dinner back home. They picked up some fresh fish and clam chowder from one of our favorite restaurants, and cooked it up - I daresay better than restaurant quality.
In the meantime, I gave my Dad a quick tutorial on the guitar on Rock Band, and we jammed a little. Then Annie & I showed them how we roll as a band, crushing When You Were Young with a 5 star show on vocals & drums. After dinner, we played a mean game of Scrabble while enjoying some dessert and coffee. All 4 of us love word games, so it didn't even matter who won (mebyalot), we had fun all around.
Today we're heading downtown for some shopping and site seeing, then to my future in-laws' house for a family dinner. Tomorrow, the kids get back from a weekend with Grandma, so then the REAL real-life will be on display in our house. :) Can't wait.
I'll leave you with this cool social experiment. Thanks to Heidi for the link:
http://www.maniacworld.com/frozen-in-grand-central-station.html
8/05/2007
Mountains Do
I primarily want to share some pictures and stories from several trips I took in July. We spent too much time in a car out of necessity, but lots of time outdoors on hiking trails, near mountain lakes and rivers, and had beautiful weather throughout. I spent more hours on roads called “Scenic Byways” than I ever had in my life. To me, scenic byways are code for “you may drive off a cliff because you can’t stop staring at the beautiful mountain scenery.”
The first weekend trip was to Annie’s mom’s log cabin in the Uinta Mountains. It’s a true log cabin, and it’s way off the beaten path. I had been up there back in January to go snowmobiling, where you can only actually get there via snowmobile. Since it’s summer, Annie’s plucky Jetta got us up the winding dirt roads with ease, although it’s much better suited to a 4x4 truck. The kids were troopers on the easy-to-medium difficulty hikes we did. At a gorgeous spot called Scout Lake, the kids ventured out onto some shallow rocks, when I spotted a little fish, maybe about 6”. It looked like it was frozen in place, not moving even the slightest. So the kids and I looked closer, and we could tell it was ensnared in some fishing line, wrapped around a stick. Zoey and Preston crept out closer, prodding the stick, and the fish would start straining against the line. Zoey got brave and dragged the stick out of the water, but it became clear the fishing line had cut into the fish’s belly and he wasn’t going to make it. So we left it. The kids were sad. After hiking around the lake a bit more, we were crossing that same spot when a seagull swooped down and nabbed that little dying fish right out of the water! It’s the circle of life, it’s the wheel of fortune…
The following weekend, Annie and I packed up my car and we headed up to Grand Tetons National Park for some tent camping, rafting, and hiking. The drive itself was great. The scenic byway on this trip included some 8% and 10% grades between eastern Idaho and Jackson, WY. Speaking of Idaho, we passed not 15 miles from Preston, ID – the setting for Napoleon Dynamite. We thought about stopping to play some tether ball, but we decided to keep chewing up miles instead. Jackson is a great mountain town, mixing the super-rich with real life cowboys.
As we entered the park, signs everywhere told us we were either going to burn down the forest, or get eaten by bears. This was going to be awesome! The bear threat level was Reddish-Orange. Fortunately, we found about the last available campsite in the park (after stopping at several others and getting sent away like so much touristy bother), which was at Lizard Creek on the north end of GTNP. Relieved to be out of the car, we cooked dinner on our small, controlled fire in the designated fire pit, then stashed everything back in the car. As I lay in the tent, I heard every crack of a stick or rustle of leaves clearly; sure the bears were going to find us among the 50 or so campsites.
Saturday morning, we packed up early, and drove south through the park, stopping along the lakes and several scenic spots. Our goal was to get a more desirable campsite, then go rafting. Annie knew of a campsite east of the park, in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest, but as we approached, it showed “NO FIRES”. So we backtracked to a site in the park called Gros Ventre (pronounced ‘gro vont’). It’s named after a river, and roughly translates to “Slightly less threat of getting eaten by bears”. After reserving our site, we headed back to Jackson, and got hooked up with Dave Hansen’s Whitewater, getting the last 2 seats on a 16 person raft. With several hours to kill, we walked around downtown Jackson. Thirsty, we stopped into one of those country-boy bars next to the rafting office. I swear, everyone there stared at us like we were aliens. After a longer-than-expected bus ride to the drop in point, we hit the water for my first rafting experience. It was somewhat of a joy-ride tour, mixed with four or five lower class rapids. The best part was a long stretch of calm river, where most of us just jumped in and floated next to the raft. Quite refreshing. We were pretty exhausted once we got back to our site, but had time to cook some bratwurst, corn, and chili on the fire. Being several miles east of the mountains, we had a great sunset view, too.
Sunday, we packed up and headed back into the park. After some much needed coffee and bagels, we visited the Jenny Lake campsite and took the ferry across the lake to some cool hiking trails and river falls. We decided to hike back, rather than boat, and the 2+ mile hike was tougher than expected, with lots of rocky terrain and hills. Best workout I’ve had in months. With legs slightly burning, we stopped at a great little pizza place in Jackson on the way out of town. We made awesome time on the way back to SLC, only stopping once in Blackfoot, ID. Sadly, we saw no bears during the trip. But we did see a heard of bison!
I gotta do more camping. It forces me to be outside and do things I wouldn’t normally do. We have at least 7 national parks within an easy drive from Salt Lake, so I’m sure it will become a more frequent part of my summers here.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sj.gingrich/MountainTime
The first weekend trip was to Annie’s mom’s log cabin in the Uinta Mountains. It’s a true log cabin, and it’s way off the beaten path. I had been up there back in January to go snowmobiling, where you can only actually get there via snowmobile. Since it’s summer, Annie’s plucky Jetta got us up the winding dirt roads with ease, although it’s much better suited to a 4x4 truck. The kids were troopers on the easy-to-medium difficulty hikes we did. At a gorgeous spot called Scout Lake, the kids ventured out onto some shallow rocks, when I spotted a little fish, maybe about 6”. It looked like it was frozen in place, not moving even the slightest. So the kids and I looked closer, and we could tell it was ensnared in some fishing line, wrapped around a stick. Zoey and Preston crept out closer, prodding the stick, and the fish would start straining against the line. Zoey got brave and dragged the stick out of the water, but it became clear the fishing line had cut into the fish’s belly and he wasn’t going to make it. So we left it. The kids were sad. After hiking around the lake a bit more, we were crossing that same spot when a seagull swooped down and nabbed that little dying fish right out of the water! It’s the circle of life, it’s the wheel of fortune…
The following weekend, Annie and I packed up my car and we headed up to Grand Tetons National Park for some tent camping, rafting, and hiking. The drive itself was great. The scenic byway on this trip included some 8% and 10% grades between eastern Idaho and Jackson, WY. Speaking of Idaho, we passed not 15 miles from Preston, ID – the setting for Napoleon Dynamite. We thought about stopping to play some tether ball, but we decided to keep chewing up miles instead. Jackson is a great mountain town, mixing the super-rich with real life cowboys.
As we entered the park, signs everywhere told us we were either going to burn down the forest, or get eaten by bears. This was going to be awesome! The bear threat level was Reddish-Orange. Fortunately, we found about the last available campsite in the park (after stopping at several others and getting sent away like so much touristy bother), which was at Lizard Creek on the north end of GTNP. Relieved to be out of the car, we cooked dinner on our small, controlled fire in the designated fire pit, then stashed everything back in the car. As I lay in the tent, I heard every crack of a stick or rustle of leaves clearly; sure the bears were going to find us among the 50 or so campsites.
Saturday morning, we packed up early, and drove south through the park, stopping along the lakes and several scenic spots. Our goal was to get a more desirable campsite, then go rafting. Annie knew of a campsite east of the park, in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest, but as we approached, it showed “NO FIRES”. So we backtracked to a site in the park called Gros Ventre (pronounced ‘gro vont’). It’s named after a river, and roughly translates to “Slightly less threat of getting eaten by bears”. After reserving our site, we headed back to Jackson, and got hooked up with Dave Hansen’s Whitewater, getting the last 2 seats on a 16 person raft. With several hours to kill, we walked around downtown Jackson. Thirsty, we stopped into one of those country-boy bars next to the rafting office. I swear, everyone there stared at us like we were aliens. After a longer-than-expected bus ride to the drop in point, we hit the water for my first rafting experience. It was somewhat of a joy-ride tour, mixed with four or five lower class rapids. The best part was a long stretch of calm river, where most of us just jumped in and floated next to the raft. Quite refreshing. We were pretty exhausted once we got back to our site, but had time to cook some bratwurst, corn, and chili on the fire. Being several miles east of the mountains, we had a great sunset view, too.
Sunday, we packed up and headed back into the park. After some much needed coffee and bagels, we visited the Jenny Lake campsite and took the ferry across the lake to some cool hiking trails and river falls. We decided to hike back, rather than boat, and the 2+ mile hike was tougher than expected, with lots of rocky terrain and hills. Best workout I’ve had in months. With legs slightly burning, we stopped at a great little pizza place in Jackson on the way out of town. We made awesome time on the way back to SLC, only stopping once in Blackfoot, ID. Sadly, we saw no bears during the trip. But we did see a heard of bison!
I gotta do more camping. It forces me to be outside and do things I wouldn’t normally do. We have at least 7 national parks within an easy drive from Salt Lake, so I’m sure it will become a more frequent part of my summers here.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sj.gingrich/MountainTime
5/24/2007
I Can See Magna From Here
So I like my job so far. I've been eating a few cookies for, you know, product training. And to balance it out, I've been taking the stairs rather than the elevator to the 4th floor. I'm not going to say I'm out of shape, but I can really feel the elevation by the time I reach my cube. Yes that's right. I'm in a cube farm. It will be a couple months before I take over the company and get a plush windowed office with views like these, from our break room.
Annie's IKEA opened yesterday to much fanfare, Swedish pride, and freeway bottlenecks. I'll probably see her again in about a month. I'm off to California tomorrow for a long weekend, which I'm really excited about. It's a family reunion / 60th Anniversary party for my grandparents. I believe that puts them in the category of "really old"... but they're still rockin' and I have a blast with my family. Annie can't go because IKEA won't let her leave the meatball line until the entire state is satiated. Happy Memorial Day everyone! 
Annie's IKEA opened yesterday to much fanfare, Swedish pride, and freeway bottlenecks. I'll probably see her again in about a month. I'm off to California tomorrow for a long weekend, which I'm really excited about. It's a family reunion / 60th Anniversary party for my grandparents. I believe that puts them in the category of "really old"... but they're still rockin' and I have a blast with my family. Annie can't go because IKEA won't let her leave the meatball line until the entire state is satiated. Happy Memorial Day everyone!
3/19/2007
More Pics
I added some pics to the NYC trip photo album from A's camera.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sj.gingrich/NYCTrip
Additionally, I wanted those of you who've never been in Salt Lake to get an idea of the landscape, and the views I'm now familiar with, but still amazed by.
First, some general shots. I spend most of my time Southeast of the city, where my apartment and A's house is. If you go due East from her house, you climb the foothills of the mountains, and these shots are from that 'bench' area:
This picture is looking SW across the valley, in the early morning.
Here you can see downtown and the north ridge from the same viewpoint.
Here is part of the Wasatch range that borders the Eastern edge of the valley. In about 20 minutes, I can drive into the canyons of this range. After taking the pic of downtown, I just turned around and this is the view.
Here's my new apartment. That one with the door, way down there at the bottom. Yeah, it's pretty sweet. Since it's mostly underground, I don't have views from my apartment, but here's a shot from just out front.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sj.gingrich/NYCTrip
Additionally, I wanted those of you who've never been in Salt Lake to get an idea of the landscape, and the views I'm now familiar with, but still amazed by.
First, some general shots. I spend most of my time Southeast of the city, where my apartment and A's house is. If you go due East from her house, you climb the foothills of the mountains, and these shots are from that 'bench' area:
This picture is looking SW across the valley, in the early morning.
Here you can see downtown and the north ridge from the same viewpoint.
Here is part of the Wasatch range that borders the Eastern edge of the valley. In about 20 minutes, I can drive into the canyons of this range. After taking the pic of downtown, I just turned around and this is the view.
Here's my new apartment. That one with the door, way down there at the bottom. Yeah, it's pretty sweet. Since it's mostly underground, I don't have views from my apartment, but here's a shot from just out front.
3/13/2007
First update
Not that nothing has happened since Feb. 22nd when I arrived at Salt Lake airport to begin 'living' here, but this is the first time I've felt compelled to share some experiences. Why? Well, the past 3-ish weeks have been spent living out of a suitcase at A's house, and included a weekend mini-holiday in New York City - which I will recap at some point in the near future, pictures and all. Nope, no job yet, no mind awakening revelations, and no Mormon conversion. Not that there'd be anything wrong with that. But...
...I finally signed a lease today! A quiet, ground floor apartment in an eclectic area known as Sugar House is now in my name. For you West Michiganders, think a more upscale Eastown, complete with local shops, coffeehouses, oxygen bars, hippies, and the ubiquitous gorgeous mountain views. Seriously, it never gets old. Every day, everywhere you look, towering peaks and slicing canyons are visible. This is neither unique to the west, nor new to me after many visits to Salt Lake, but it is truly the defining characteristic of the area. A large city literally plopped down on the edge of a valley immediately after passing the western slopes of the Wasatch mountain range. That's pretty cool.
As anyone reading this is probably aware, I moved here solely to be with A. Not to enjoy the fresh powder or because I got a great job offer. As such, the majority of my time here has been simply enjoying our day-to-day life together. She's a rare woman with brains, wit, self-confidence, strong character, and a natural sexiness that's not lost on these blue eyes. I will continue to spend a lot of time at her place, where I recently helped fix/replace the entry door lock/deadbolt and re-paint the living room. How domestic! I even take out the trash sometimes!
Being the new 'man' around the kids has been fun and stressful at times. I'm trying to suck it up and be a trooper for A, but it's hard to go from single and living alone to the constant questions, demands, complaints, spills, and thrills that children can bring. I did have some great bonding time with Z this past Friday, including 2 hours of Legos, some Disney trivia, helping her roller blade around the parking lot, and falling asleep on the couch while she narrated her favorite movie, the Phantom of the Opera. Master P is a smart, thoughtful little guy, but I find it harder to connect with him. As long as we get in some NASCAR racing or Guitar Hero on PlayStation, and maybe wrestle a little bit, I'm a pretty cool playmate. He also started playing basketball for a junior league, so this summer I'll give him some tips and have him dunking left-handed by fall. ;)
That's it for now. I'll get up some pics of my new home, the NYC trip, and a few other things very soon.
...I finally signed a lease today! A quiet, ground floor apartment in an eclectic area known as Sugar House is now in my name. For you West Michiganders, think a more upscale Eastown, complete with local shops, coffeehouses, oxygen bars, hippies, and the ubiquitous gorgeous mountain views. Seriously, it never gets old. Every day, everywhere you look, towering peaks and slicing canyons are visible. This is neither unique to the west, nor new to me after many visits to Salt Lake, but it is truly the defining characteristic of the area. A large city literally plopped down on the edge of a valley immediately after passing the western slopes of the Wasatch mountain range. That's pretty cool.
As anyone reading this is probably aware, I moved here solely to be with A. Not to enjoy the fresh powder or because I got a great job offer. As such, the majority of my time here has been simply enjoying our day-to-day life together. She's a rare woman with brains, wit, self-confidence, strong character, and a natural sexiness that's not lost on these blue eyes. I will continue to spend a lot of time at her place, where I recently helped fix/replace the entry door lock/deadbolt and re-paint the living room. How domestic! I even take out the trash sometimes!
Being the new 'man' around the kids has been fun and stressful at times. I'm trying to suck it up and be a trooper for A, but it's hard to go from single and living alone to the constant questions, demands, complaints, spills, and thrills that children can bring. I did have some great bonding time with Z this past Friday, including 2 hours of Legos, some Disney trivia, helping her roller blade around the parking lot, and falling asleep on the couch while she narrated her favorite movie, the Phantom of the Opera. Master P is a smart, thoughtful little guy, but I find it harder to connect with him. As long as we get in some NASCAR racing or Guitar Hero on PlayStation, and maybe wrestle a little bit, I'm a pretty cool playmate. He also started playing basketball for a junior league, so this summer I'll give him some tips and have him dunking left-handed by fall. ;)
That's it for now. I'll get up some pics of my new home, the NYC trip, and a few other things very soon.
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