Helloween

I think the Redhead and I have found our costumes for next year.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - Kitten Mittens

It's back on Thursday night. Nate, no excuses for missing it.

My Daytime Emmy

I cut together a bunch of pieces of video from our little excursion to the land of Northface. It's pretty long, but there is a great surprise at the end. And I have been blacklisted from several video hosting sites for trying to use "Send Me an Angel" as the background music. And to answer your next question, yes we did spend an evening watching RAD and eating blackberries and ice cream. The bike-dancing scene with Cru Jones and Lori Laughlin lighting it up to Send Me an Angel is one of the epic moments in cinematography. You have to go to the blogsite to see the video if you are just looking at it on Google Reader, for some reason it isn't showing up.

What's in a name

Is there really any way I can justify not buying a Honda Big Red? My track record with saying no to red is not good.

Bo Knows

Stupid hip replacement surgery.

I love it but I hate the taste

We went to the Bees game this week. I had assumed that it was a dress-up, so I went as Charlie Brown. Turns out I was wrong. D-Rock scored us the free night, and our dinner was even served by people clearly more important than us. We also received free peanuts and cracker jacks which made for a very happy customer. It seems that unhealthy food and my mood have a directly correlated relationship.

The Bees kicked the crap out of the Nashville Sound. The last time I checked, there were no geographical sounds near Nashville, so they must be talking about the music. We cashed in after the game with free 44 ounce drinks from the Sonic. We also earned free scones from Sconecutter, but really when was the last time you heard someone say 'wow, you know what sounds really good? Sconecutter.' Maybe they need a new marketing campaign.

One would assume that 90 degree weather at the baseball game would equate to summer in Utah. Not where we roam. We were caught in a great snowstorm on our drive to the Uintas this morning. It was great to be throwing snowballs at noon in the middle of August.

The snow did not deter me from stopping at the Hi-Mountain Drug for some ice cream. Make it a double chocolate and peanut butter delight. And yes, I did overhear 'wow, look at his ice cream cone.' I don't know if I should feel good or bad about that one.

Wow. Don't know if I'm ready to break this down.

It was inevitable that I would write about this, and I apologize to Norm and others who couldn't attend for not getting it up earlier. This was our first foray into the Great Pig Roast Adventure. (next year's adventure Danny). Day one started on Thursday, and it had a strange smokey hue filling the sky. Perhaps it was a sign.

Step one was digging the pit. Rob had already collected wood and moved a few things up to the campsite. He also built an excellent grate that I had to try out. We lined the pit with some river rocks on the bottom - don't really think that was all that useful. Then came day two.

We spent most of the day working on building a pavilion out of giant bales of cut grass and a ridiculously large tarp. We started burning the fire around 4:00 in the afternoon, and the always great Dirk brought up Kendra the pig for us about 7:30 or 8:00. We had it butchered (it was cheap, they removed the hair, and it alleviated Sarah's butchering fears).

Turns out that Kendra even got a tramp stamp before she came up. She was originally a black pig, but they took off all her color. I think it would have been interesting to let the local cosmetology students practice their waxing on her, but my ideas are usually shot down. Turns out she was a pretty pale pig under the black exterior.

About 4 hours of nonstop fire (think the Boulders in '98 Norm, it is my only comparison), we determined the coals were ready and prepared Kendra.

We wrapped Kendra in burlap and covered her in BBQ sauce. I love the fact that one of the key players in the pig preparation was 2-year-old Eli. The other was Skyler, a vegatarian. Just goes to show that everyone is attracted to an adventure.

Kendra is in the ground and covered. We used some sheet metal and tin to create sort of a primitive oven for her to cook.

The great unveil. Mya the dog is in the background on this one. She was the happiest dog I have ever seen after she realized that the pit was filled with steaming pork soaked in melted pig fat. She may have doubled her weight on this trip. Also, I think this is a great look for me. I will be using it more often.

The Redhead and Melany to prove they were there. Actually we were very excited that Melany, Paul, and Penny made the trip up - you guys are great.

The final result. I made up some sauces to try and I think they went pretty well. We also had beans, mac and cheese, fruits, salad, rolls, homemade rootbeer, and fat boys for dessert. I'm making myself hungry right now just listing everything.

We followed up the eating festivities with a great game of kickball. Our team was terrible, but I did get a home run and nearly knocked myself out catching a pop up. Notice the trend of background Jed.

Ryan round the bases to score. Nate was pitching to us, and there were complaints he was making them a little too bouncy. We'll never know for sure.
The Boy and background Jed. The Boy is always a crowd favorite, and I've yet to meet one of the married females in the group that isn't taken with him.

Summer and Paige making short work of a Fat Boy second from the Casper's store. Rolling up to a pig roast in rural Idaho in a Lexus can only be pulled off by a select few, and they are definitely more than capable.

I love this picture of Brynn and Jed. Brynn was one of the few that powered through the ribs with me.

Earlier in the day we played with the tractor a little bit. A good rule of thumb - if there is ever someone wearing a wife beater in a tractor, ask him to drive around as many kids under 5 as possible. Seriously, I don't know if the kids had half as much fun as I did taking them for a ride. Noah even insisted that we carry D-Rock in the bucket.

We ended up cooking certain parts of Kendra a little more just to make sure that they were the proper temperature for serving. One thing we did learn - a 161 pound pig (hanging weight) will feed a lot of people. We missed many of you. And don't tell me a black and white shot of Nate in cutoffs looking at a big grill filled with pork isn't prize worthy.

This is my second favorite picture. Rob, a knife, a fire, a bucket, and meat. Priceless.

But how could anything top this? We weren't even drinking and this card gets played. D-Rock is that spectacular.

A great thanks to everyone that helped and supported this venture. Especially those that stepped out of their box and came up - Melissa, Sean & Brynn, Paul & Melany, and many others. Great additions to the regular cast. There has already been talk about next year's event. Hopefully we can help create a story for even more people. A special thanks to Rob for helping to take crazy ideas and facilitating them into reality. I haven't been this happily exhausted for a long time.