The Condensed Cat

Summer Vacation: Day 2

2008-11-02T21:22:00.012-07:00

	This morning we made our way toward Devils Postpile National Monument. Wow. The entrance to the place was VERY high in altitude and very chilly for summer. I believe it was somewhere around 9,000 ft. At this point there is a Minaret viewpoint where I shot these two pictures. I never feel natural posing for the camera. I suppose that is why I like being behind the lens.
	Devils Postpile is seriously one cool place to visit. I was not sure if it was going to be worth the extra driving to get there but in retrospect it was worth it all. I mentioned that at the overlook it was chilly and windy. To get to the postpile from there you have to descend about 2000 feet down mostly a narrow one-way road with steep drop-offs. The weather was nice. It was not windy and warm. What a different a little elevation makes. I need to tell you a little about this formation. It is one of the finest examples of columnar basalt formations because of how many columns have 6-sides (hexigons). We took many more pictures but these will suffice to tell the story. Notice the cool arrowhead like formation where the columns are lateral on the left and vertical on the right. That's cool to see. Then we took a close up of the column debris at the foot of the formation. Tracy loves this stuff because she took geology in school and can recognize volcanic things like this. The other pictures don't really give you scale of the formation so I took a panoramic picture that lets you see the whole thing. We'll talk about the top of the formation in just a second but first let's talk people. On our way up to the top of the formation (they let you walk on it) Ryan posed for me through this decaying tree. What a cute kid. Tracy and Ryan showed their cuteness in this pose. If you look closely you can see the formation in the background. The walk up to the top is short but very interesting. You walk through an area that has a lot of fire damage and it's a bit like a forest graveyard of sorts. Ryan just loved all of the dirt and dirty things; the more the better. When we got to the top of the formation I'm not sure what I expected to say but I did not expect to see a tile looking floor. The picture I selected doesn't show that feature off very well. Looking down, the ground looks like a bunch of hexagonal tiles. They were smoothed by ancient glaciers and as as you can tell from the included picture it is curved. The curve is not all that noticeable from on top but the camera sure picks it up. All in all we enjoyed this part of the national monument. We were not sure what else there was to do but we did know we needed lunch.
	I had to fight every temptation to keep the table out of this picture. The scenary around this lake near the Postpile was enticing. However, I realized I wanted to capture what our view was as we munched on lunch. There were ducks, fly-fisherman, etc. Ahhhh. Relaxing!
	I guess I had really no idea that this national monument had a big waterfall attraction. It does and it's called Rainbow Falls. It is about a 1 mile hike from the trailhead to the the falls. Just a few steps in, Ryan conked out. He did that a lot in his child carrier. Like the postpile trail, this one was marred by fire. This fire in the 1990s was apparently a very big deal for the area. Huh? The waterfall only looks about 3 feet high in this picture with Tracy. However it is really about 100 feet hight; darn optical illusions. This was a fun place to shoot. On this one photo of the trees and roots winding through the rocks you can see me camouflaged. Tracy likes to shoot me taking photos. (grin) We hung out at the falls for about an hour as Ryan continued to sleep and I found new angles to take photographs from. We liked this waterfall. It was definitely the most impressive one we saw on the trip. Actually it was just about the only one that had water so I guess that is not hard to award a winner (smile). We closed out the day by going back toward the postpile and try to find the soda springs which was proof of volcanic activity. They were okay, but I liked the bridge we had to cross better.
	When we go back to the hotel, Ryan cooked us up some dinner and made sure we had good plumbing. Every pipe checked out and no leaks.

Summer Vacation: Day 1

2008-10-26T09:36:00.011-06:00

Over 2000 miles in a car with a toddler. What were we thinking? Ryan was probably wondering that same thing by the time we made it to Delta. It was one of the many planned stops along the way to our first destination in California. We picked Delta because we knew they would have a park that Ryan could run around in. He is just at that stage where he can walk around fairly freely and we knew that sitting in a car for a day would be challenging.

Surprisingly he handled it quite well. He loved it so much that when we got to the park he wanted to look at the plexiglass on the playground equipment to simulate looking out the car window. Crazy kid...

Next we stopped in Ely, Nevada. I have nothing to say about Ely. We just stopped and got gas. It was cool and windy and we were not feeling the love so onward we went to mysterious Tonopah, Nevada.

I was not really sure what to expect. A co-worker of mine, Nick, mentioned that his dad almost detests Tonopah when he has had to visit there for his job. One thing is for certain and that is there really is not much going around in the region. It's really isolated. The drive across Nevada to get to Tonopah was more scenic than we thought.

Tonopah is apparently one of the best places to gaze at stars. I wish we could have seen that. I miss seeing all of the stars in the sky that I used to see when we sleep outside at night for sleepovers with friends.

We saw a few interesting things in town.

The high school mascot is the "Mucker." Click on the photo to find more of what that means.
There is a classic McDonald's there. It looks like it was stuck in the 60's or 70's. Those both interesting and disturbing at the same time.
There is a cool cemetery in the heart of town. Tracy snapped this photo.
You can tell life is harder here. We snapped this picture of the liquor store next to the gambling establishment. All we need now is a payday loan place .
This is the strangest gas fill-up I ever had. Usually prices are pretty close with gas stations but here one gas station was like $4.29/gallon and the other was $3.70. That was a head scratcher. We went with the cheaper gas and made it to our next location so WHEW.

There is not much vegetation in Tonopah. I guess only getting 6 inches a year of rain helps promote desolation. The scenery was interesting. Even this little neighborhood park that we found was interesting and Ryan enjoyed it.

As we left the sun was setting and we snapped a picture of the beautiful sunset while driving down the road on our way to Mammoth Lakes. Since the sun went down, Ryan got a chance to play with Daddy's sunglasses. Anything to entertain....anything to entertain...

It's All in the Name

2008-10-25T18:25:00.003-06:00

We went on vacation a few weeks ago (pictures and posts forthcoming). Along our journeys in Fresno, CA. I noticed signs for "Swearengin for Mayor." What an awesome last name for political office. I wonder what will be in her acceptance speech. I don't know much about Fresno, but I think her vision for it is cool. Good luck!

Ryan is An Animal...errrr...Well He Saw Animals

2008-08-03T20:47:00.004-06:00

All the planning in the world can be thwarted so very easily. Ryan celebrated the night before his birthday by awaking several times. Needless to say, we were all tired as this day of celebration began.

Thankfully, Ryan had slept for a little bit on the journey to the zoo. However, you can see he had not quite worked out all of his sleepies as he awoke to strange creatures like a barn owl.

We spent the morning at Hogle Zoo and the evening at a nearby park. The zoo has really made some improvements since the last time I was there (about 20 or so years ago). Back then me and my Mom would go to the Zoo and then after we would go to the Red Barn Hamburgers on North Temple and 9th West. Red Barn is long gone, but their legacy and pictures live on the internet (barnbuster.net Wikipedia article)

He wasn't really sure what he thought of the merry-go-round (carrousel) but his cousins enjoyed the ride. If Ryan had his choice he would rather play in the dirt and mulch around the zoo than look at the animals. By noon he was exhausted and running short on sleep and the albino alligator/crocodile (I don't know how to tell the difference) sealed the deal and he crashed.

Six hours later he was ready to go again for the next party. He enjoyed the cake but was not as messy as I wanted him to be. He enjoyed opening the gifts that were given to him and he is surprisingly good at opening things. It's a little scary truly.

Birthdays provide a good time for reflection and Tracy and I comment about how rewarding this year has been as we are learning to be parents and have greatly increased the gratitude we have for our own parents and how they raised us.

Here is to many more birthdays and loved ones to share them with....

Bubble, Cabinets, Parks, and Lake Mary

2008-07-24T07:38:00.008-06:00

	Ryan is in a phase of life where he is trying to figure things out like in this classic where he is contemplating the life-cycle of a bubble.
	Ryan has to discover everything. Like most kids, who needs toys when you have kitchen cabinets to rummage through. This is definitely one area we didn't consider child-proofing. You can see in this second picture just how much he moves around in the cabinet.
	We took Ryan to the Thanksgiving Point Museum of Ancient Life and he had fun. By far the most fun he had was playing in the sandpit at the end of the walking tour. He could have stayed there hours just picking up sand and letting it drop.
	We went up as a family recently to Lake Mary near Brighton ski resort. He enjoyed it quite a bit. Of course, who wouldn't enjoy their own personal sherpa. Well, I guess I'm not an elite mountaineer but I was sure gasping for oxygen hauling an extra 20 lbs on my back. Along the trail someone had made a mini-little snow man that I just had to take a picture of. Ryan enjoyed doing three things: Bouncing on the rock outcrops, playing in the dirt and splashing in the water. Needless to say when you mix dirt and water you get mud. His one-year birthday is coming up, maybe we should get him a cake that has MUD in the title. I'll bet he would really be happy! We just enjoyed watching him have fun and discover.
	Tracy wanted me to have more bonding time with Ryan so I decided to take him to the park to see how he would react to the slide. He seemed to just enjoy the colorful playground and did enjoy the slide. He was so energized he started doing pull-ups on the jungle-gym equipment. Doctors have always said he had good strength for such a small baby, but who knew.

Son Chips

2008-07-23T22:04:00.003-06:00

Ryan is in a phase of life where he wants to imitate *EVERYTHING* we do. Recently I grabbed a bag of Sun Chips (my favorite chip) and started eating. Over my left shoulder I caught sight of Ryan staring me down. He was intrigued by the crunch the bag made and the crunch my mouth made. Being a typical man, I thought nothing more of it, finished the bag of chips and threw it away.

A few minutes later I again looked over my shoulder and Ryan had retrieved the bag from the garbage. He managed to find some crumbs in the bag and was eating them just as I had done. I know think of that bag of Sun Chips as "Son Chips."

Who will squish the moth first?

2008-07-15T21:36:00.001-06:00

This morning I was walking around with Ryan by the french doors in the kitchen when we saw a moth. I left Ryan for a minute while I went for a tissue. I intended to squish the little thing, and was a little worried about how Ryan would take it. When I got back to the window, Ryan was poking the moth. He'd touch the moth, and it would take flight then land on the window. He touched it like this another two or three times. Then he decided to pick it up and squish it between his fingers. Guess I didn't have to worry about his tender sensitivities...

Ryan's First Fourth of July Celebration

2008-07-06T18:58:00.003-06:00

We were excited about making Ryan's first Forth of July special. The day before, I took him shopping at Walmart where we bought his first wading pool along with a big box of fireworks. I thought for the 4th, Ryan would enjoy time in the pool and a few fireworks. As it worked out I didn't take him out in the pool, but that was okay because I let him play in the pool the night before. By the time I got him ready for the day, he had a nap. When he woke up, it was super hot. I thought I'd put him in the pool after dinner, but then he went back down for a nap. That was the strangest part of the story.

Historically, Ryan pushes himself to the brink of exhaustion before he'll settle for a nap. If Ryan had a motto it would be, "Sleep is for the weak". The forth of July was no different. He had a short one hour nap in the morning, then pushed himself through the rest of the day. When Mom and Dad came over for dinner, I could tell Ryan was pretty tired. I gave him a bottle after dinner and he finally crashed. He doesn't usually sleep at 7:00, but under the circumstances I thought the nap was perfect. He'd be all rested and ready to go by the time we started the fireworks. While he slept, I played Scrabble with Mom while Steve and Dad visited in the front room. After Dad went downstairs for a little snooze, Steve joined us for a few rounds of Boggle. One hour went by, then an hour and a half. Still no sound from Ryan. We decided it was probably time for him to wake up, so we started shaking the Boggle box of cubes rather loudly. Still no sound from Ryan. It was starting to get dark, so Steve and I went in to check on Ryan. I rubbed his back and his head. He was out like a light. Steve and I started a conversation right there at his crib, but he didn't stir. I figured if he was that tired, we should let him rest. Maybe he was experiencing a growth spurt. I hoped he would wake up when we started the fireworks.

We took our chairs out to the sidewalk. I had Ryan's monitor receiver with me so I would hear him when he woke, which I was sure he would do, after the first couple of fireworks. I lit the fireworks, which popped and screamed like fireworks do. We listened at the monitor, and all I could hear was the steady tick, tick, tick from the clock in Ryan's room. We lit firework after firework and regularly ooohed and aaahed. Steve took lots of pictures with his fancy camera. All four of the neighbor boys came out in their PJs to watch the show. After what must have been at least a half an hour, we had our finale. The monitor was still silent except for the tick, tick, tic, from Ryan's clock. I saved a few fireworks to show Ryan the next day.

After our show, we watched either the Draper City or Riverton City fireworks from the front porch. We had a great view. Between our small street fireworks and the show we could see from the porch, we had the best of both worlds. After the last firework popped in the sky, we cleaned up our things, said our goodbyes and headed off to bed. I was sorry that Ryan missed the show, but was glad he was getting some much needed sleep. I brushed my teeth, got my PJs on, had my prayer and laid my weary head on my pillow. Suddenly, Ryan woke up with a cry.

Steve said I should entitle this "It was not Bombs Bursting in Air, but Pillow Hitting Hair that Awoke Ryan."

2008-06-29T22:42:00.002-06:00

One question runs through my mind. Do you think he would be smiling like this if he knew the lizard was on top of his head? I mean, I knew that lizards like red rocks, but I didn't know they liked red hair. :-)

A couple of Concerts

2008-06-29T22:01:00.004-06:00

We love going to outdoor concerts. Our favorite place for outdoor concerts is currently the Sandy Amphitheater. Maybe once a year or so we hit the Concert in the Parks series downtown at the Brigham Young Memorial Park.

Last week, we went to see a band called Fire on the Mountain. They call what they play "mountain music", I guess I would call it more in the blue-grass arena but that's just because I'm not a music aficionado.

They were good entertainers. You can tell they were used to crowds and working them over. It was a nice evening out.

The landscape photo of the water and lit stone is an example of the scenery in the park where the concert was held. I actually got out of my seat in the middle of the song when I saw this lighting. I just had to shoot the picture. This will make a nice calendar print for next year's calendar.

Last night at the Sandy Amphitheater we saw Richard Marx in concert. By far he is the best act we have seen there in the last couple of years. He still has his A-game, he still produces new music rather than riding on just hits of yesteryear and he works with the audience like calling us out for just sitting on our kiesters instead of getting on with the music.

The only downside is our little Ryan who we left with a baby-sitter and who had only slept 30 minutes all day would not go to sleep so we had to leave about 30 minutes before the end of the concert to take care of him. That's okay, because the concert was still great and we love our little guy. We would go see Richard Marx again if he came to the Amphitheater.

Oh, as an example of his presence, he mentioned that he doesn't mind if people take photos of him because he said that's what all entertainers want is to be paid attention to (nice candor). When he said this the guy in the picture to the left came running down like he just run the Showcase Showdown on the Price is Right and Richard Marx stopped to pose for him. Ha! Funny stuff.

Bath time with Ryan

2008-06-12T10:50:00.001-06:00

Thursday, June 12th, 2008

Bath time this morning was worthy of a journal entry. Ryan got up around 6:30 am. He was all excited to start his day. I fed him oatmeal with pears and pineapple for breakfast. He kept opening his mouth, so I fed him the whole bowl. He ate a big breakfast. After having a bowl of cereal myself, I took Ryan into the bathroom for bath time.

To keep him busy while I got his wash rags, clean diaper and clothes together, I gave him a bath toy to play with. Right now Ryan is working on three new teeth and has a cold that won't seem to go away. As a result, he leaves a snail trail of slobber and snot wherever he goes. While getting his clothes and such, Ryan took the bath toy out to the hall where he sucked on it and left a pool of slime. I made a mental note of it's location, and figured I'd clean it after his bath.

By this time, I smell a stinky diaper smell that lets me know Ryan needs to be cleaned up before getting into the bath. I grabbed his wipes and changing mat and brought them into the bathroom. Ryan doesn't like having his diaper changed, especially when it requires a lot of wiping. As a result, I've learned to change his diaper while he's standing next to something or crawling away as fast as his naked bum can take him. It takes a great deal of skill, I assure you. Ryan was leaning over on his hands and knees pulling wipes out of the wipes dispenser. I decided I would try cleaning him in that position. About 10 wipes later, and some weeping and wailing from Ryan, I got him cleaned up. I whisked the garbage can away as soon as I could. Ryan loves to pull dirty diapers out of the trash can liner. While whisking, Ryan stood up next to the toilet. I noticed he spit up a goodly amount of pears and oatmeal on the rug. No worries. I went to get a washcloth. I had no sooner wiped the rug clean when a stream of pee hits the side of the toilet and soaks into the rug, about where I had just cleaned it. I soaked up the pee with my rag, and decided I would wash the rug later.

Into the tub Ryan went. He had good times chewing on the rags, chewing the bath toys, playing in the running water, trying to catch the floating soap bottle. After finally catching, then sucking on a bar of soap the day before, I noticed Ryan wasn't that interested in the soap today. With fingers and toes shriveled from being in the water, I pulled Ryan out and stood him next to the tub to pat him dry. That's when he became engrossed in the shower curtain. I've had that shower curtain for three years, and never thought about washing it. Now that Ryan was wrapping, with glee, the dusty thing around his previously clean body, I was determined that the curtain, along with the peed on rug, would be washed today.

As I write this, Ryan is taking a nap, the washing machine is going, and I can't help but smile. I love our little bug.

The Power of the Many

2008-06-05T11:32:00.003-06:00

This is a before and after picture (about 5 hour time difference) of putting up fence slats. What's the significance of that?

The addage of many hands make light work is true. Over the last few weeks, my wife and I and several siblings have been helping my in-laws rebuild their wooden fence. In the matter of a maybe 5 work-days we took the existing fence down, put in new posts, treated the slats and attached them to the fence frame. Working on this with one or two people and this project could have gone on for months because of lack of dedicated time or paralysis of where to begin.

It's more than just putting more people at a problem to get it done faster. What makes us all unique is our set of strengths and weakneses. In combination, it makes the work go faster because chances are that someone else's strength is one of your weaknesses. I'm just an office worker so I'm not very good at building things--especially wood things. However, I can use a drill and I can screw in many of the 1200+ screws (12 lbs) to hold all of the fence slats. Lesson learned. Working together on an endeavor is a good thing.

The Travels of a Consumer - Wal-Mart Style

2008-05-23T21:07:00.002-06:00

I'm on a roll. As I get ready to go to sleep, I'm taking off my pedometer. I happened to notice that nearly 1/3 of all of my "steps" accrued at a visit to our new Wal-Mart. I'm not sure what this says about me:

1) I'm not a very smart shopper and wander around a lot.
2) I don't get a lot of exercise.
3) Wal-Mart builds huge stores.

Our First Family Vacation

2008-05-23T10:47:00.011-06:00

	We embarked on our first family vacation since having Ryan. Because he is standing and crawling now, we're not sure how he would deal with the multiple hour drive to Zion National Park. It turns out that with frequent stops, he maintained the cheery demeanor depicted by this picture for most of the trip. Hurray!
	We arrived at the Majestic View Lodge just before sunset. You can tell that this is one place that definitely lives up to it's name. Ryan was a little stir crazy and wanted to get out and explore his surroundings. They had a fabulous landscape and Tracy offered to help Ryan explore the rocks and man-made stream.
	It was good for the soul to see the blue sky against the red rock as captured in this panoramic picture.
	On day 2, we hit the trail. This is along the Emerald Pool Trail. All 10 of us were out on the trail enjoying the relatively good weather. It was warm but overcast which helped. You can tell the flowers were out as were the cameras too!
	It was a beautiful time of the year to visit Zion because so much was in blossom. This is a picture of some prickly pear cactus along the trail.
	Ryan finally fell asleep! He is such a curious boy that he had to experience all the new stuff. Everything from the sand eroding away from the sandstone to the colors and views of this delightful canyon. On the way down from the Emerald Pools he finally crashed for some much needed rest.
	We were confronted by some wildlife. Steve takes on this stuffed deer in a battle to death. Wait, maybe that battle has already been won. Oh well, it's a combat picture.
	Tracy and Ryan were chased by a dead bear. Notice the signs of distress and terror on their faces.
	On the last day we visited the old ghost town of Grafton. It was somewhat disappointing because many of the buildings were closed down for public access where they used to be open for wandering. The cemetary is one of the most interesting I have seen in a while.
	We went to Zion National Park last week. Ryan was inducted into the honorary club known as the Stretchy Lizard Club. Yes, Grandma and Grandpa inducted him into this club by purchasing this very green, but very flexible (and apparently tasty) lizard in one of the many Zion gift shops there in Spingdale, UT.

The UPS and downs of Airline Travel

2008-05-22T20:56:00.003-06:00

We were talking about American Airlines decision to charge for every checked bag. I heard one comment from a passenger that hates to be nickled and dimed to death by banks, cell-phone companies, etc.

Well I have a (tounge-in-cheek) solution for the airline industry. Follow the UPS shipping model. Here's how it would work:

1) Declare how you want to travel:
a) CrazyFastExpress (^tm, ^sm, patent pending) (non-stop)
b) Overnight (red-eye)
c) Two-day
d) Three-day (real or simulated weather event included)

2) Weigh yourself and your baggage. Multiple that by some amount like $0.003 per mile pound. That is your ticket fare.

Simple. No 9/11 fees, airport landing fees, fuel surcharges, baggage charges, etc. Just ship yourself like you ship all of the rest of the packages.

Let's see it in action. To fly CrazyFastExpress from:

LAX -> NYC (2482 miles) = 2482 * 200 lb * $0.003 = $993
LAX -> DEN (865 miles) = 865 * 200 lb * $0.003 = $346

Children fly cheaper because they weigh less. If you don't like the price, lose some weight instead of gaining like the rest of the nation is.

Of course if you are willing to do 2-day service, then you could also save money:

LAX -> JFK (2482 miles) = 2482 * 200 lb * $0.001 = $496
LAX -> DEN (865 miles) = 865 * 200 lb * $0.001 = $173

It ends up being a pretty good deal. When I checked FedEx, they wanted $1,237 to ship 200 lbs same day LAX->JFK.

What do you think? Will this idea ever get off the ground? ;-)

Update 05-JUN-2008
...And then I read this news story about airlines actually considering charging passengers on weight.