Thursday, August 28, 2008

The Chuck


As all of you know - I love food! All food - almost. I'm really not a picky eater, there are only a few normal things I don't like: mushrooms, sauerkraut, lobster and sweet pickles. I even might give lobster another try.

Things I won't try fall into the weird foods section: escargot, brain, feet or haggis - I really have no desire to taste haggis.

Okay - so other than that - I'm pretty open to good food. Hence my love for The Chuck and other buffets. I know a few people who look down on The Chuck, and to those people, who I so lovingly refer to as "food snobs", I would like extend this request: just try it. There are a number of fine foods to be found at The Chuck. My favorite, for example, are the cinnamon pull-a-part little roll thingy's.

Okay - that is all - I love The Chuck! :)

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

The Saddest Day . . . Part Two

Like I said before, Hank and his new tires got along great! We didn't have a single problem with them until July, 2008.

It was a nice summer night so my friend and I decided to drive Hank up in the mountains behind my house. This wasn't anything new to us - Hank and I had been up there numerous times before. The only difference from all of those other times - we were going a bit too fast on the dirt roads. Now, I know what you're thinking - Bekah, you should have known better. Well I did - I told him to slow down. Him? Yes. That's right, I let my friend drive. I always let my friends drive. Here's a little known fact about me - I'd rather be a passenger. Yes, it's true that I absolutely LOVE driving Hank. In fact, it's the only vehicle I'm not prone to crashing. Put me on a little motorcycle? I'll crash it. A four-wheeler? I'll crash it. A fifty-pound scooter that I rented in Culebra? Yep, crashed it on the way out of the parking lot. (That's a story for another day - ha ha ha) So when we're up in the mountains and doing scary stuff, I like to hand the keys over to more capable drivers. This time, however, we were going a little too fast and as a result we caught something sharp and ripped a pretty good size hole in one of Hanks wonderful tires. The next morning, when I took it to the tire shop to get it fixed, the guy told me it wasn't repairable. So the search for new tires commenced. I immediately got on the phone with Jarred - aka best brother-in-law in the whole world - and we talked about the kind of look I want for the new tires. There are so many wonderful choices!

I thought these were pretty fun, impractical, but still fun.
Can you see the skull and cross bones. :)

But after thinking about it for a couple of days I decided that since I still have 3 good tires, maybe I should just look for a couple of used tires. That way I can save some money and buy new tires in about a year.

I went straight to ksl.com to look in their classified section and not more than 5 minutes passed when I found them. This guy out in Sandy was selling 3 gently used tires with rims - they weren't Goodyears, like mine, they were BFG's which are just as good. So I called the man and asked how much he would charge for just the tires. He said $150 for all three. Wow! I thought that was a steal of a deal! Normally tires like that would be around $200 each. So to get 3 for less than the price of one - heck yes! I made arrangements with the man to come look at the tires after I got off work. The man was very agreeable. He had this high-pitched voice, he laughed a lot and he had an accent. It was kind of southern - but not really, it was more like a fake southern accent. It kind of gave me the creep out, but oh well, that's besides the point. After work I called him to get directions to his house and I drove out to Sandy.

This whole time I'd been driving on my spare tire, which, by the way was a 33, not a 35 like the rest of my tires. Just another one of my stupidest decisions, letting some tire salesman talk me into buying a used spare tire that was smaller than my other tires. Stupid! So I was ready to get that little tire off of there.

I pulled into the trailer park where the man lived and suddenly got the creep out again. It was a mixture of his high-pitched voice and the scene of small, unwashed children running around in their diapers that made me whip out my cell phone. I called my friend just to let him know where I was just in case something bad happened. You're probably thinking I am such a Davis County Snob, right? But I don't care - because I was alone and I was driving in an unfamiliar neighborhood and the mans voice really did scare me a little. Well I found his house, I knew it was his because he told me it would be the one with the corvette parked outside and not seeing any other corvette's in this neighborhood - yeah, I knew I had the right house. I called him to tell him I was there. I was expecting him to come outside to meet me but instead he said in his high-pitched, fake southern accent, creepy voice "You can jus come on inside hon, you don have ta knock or nothin'." Creepy! But of course, not wanting to sound rude by saying - no you creepo, you come out here. I just said "Um . . . okay." and I got out of my car and walked up to the trailer. The carport was stuffed full of hundreds of boxes of men's work boots and behind them was a chain link fence that you'd have to walk through to get to the front door. Behind the fence there were piles and piles of junk. Junk everywhere! I carefully stepped in between a couple of piles as I navigated my way to the door. I was getting more creeped out by the second. As I reached up to knock on the screen door all of my safety red flags went off as I saw about 5 scantily clad women mannequins inside the house. I was about to turn around right then and there but then a conversation caught my ear. It was two teenage kids just inside the door. They looked like nice kids so I continued with my knock and they told me to come on in.

When I walked through the door, the smell of dog poop hit me like a ton of bricks. Then I noticed one of the kids was holding a puppy and there were a couple more puppies running around by her feet. There was poop everywhere. And not just poop, just crap everywhere, including piles of clothes, more mannequins, a couple of couches stacked on top of each other. There was a small walkway carved out in the middle of the room. The man spoke from another room "Bekah, s'that you hon?" I looked around to see which room his voice was coming from as I answered "Yep, I've come to look at those tires." Then the man wheeled around the corner, literally. He was an older man with longer gray and white hair and he was sitting in a mechanical wheel chair. He was a big, big man, he wasn't wearing a shirt and his giant gut hung over his entire lap. If it weren't for the small patch of red fabric on either side of his hips, I would have thought he was naked. He obviously had some sort of degenerative disease, like diabetes or something because his feet were in the form of little mangled nubs. The combination of smells, gross body parts and creepy sounds made me want to vomit, but I didn't. I followed the man into another room where he said he kept the tires. That room was the same as the others I had seen, huge piles of stuff everywhere. The tires were right in front and I only had to climb over a couple of boxes to get to them. The tires were in excellent condition with about 85% tred. The only problem was - there were only 2 BFG's, the third tire was a Big O All-Terrain Big Foot, which I had no use for. I told the man I was only interested in the 2 BFG's and how much for them? He rolled his eyes and said he would sell both of them to me for $150. What? I asked him why it was the same price for 2 as it was for 3. Then he went into this long story about how he needs money, he can't work and he's on welfare and he only gets a little bit of money from that each month. So I could either buy 2 tires or take all 3 for the same price. I said fine - I'll take all three then. I had no idea what I was going to do with that stupid Big Foot, but I took it anyway.

Since I wasn't buying the rims the tires were on, we decided to roll the tires out and take them to a tire shop to be taken off those rims and mounted on mine. I tried to convince him that I was a trustworthy person and that I could put them in my Jeep, take them to the tire shop and then I'd bring his rims back. He wasn't going for it though. He said he wanted to ride with me, but I told him we wouldn't be able to fit. He looked at me like I was being completely rude and accusing him of being fat or something - even though he is. So he said fine, we'll take my Van and he wheeled over to the door, grabbed his cane and walked down the steps. Yes, he can walk on the nubs-for-feet, I knew you were wondering. I wheeled the first tire out, trying my best to avoid contact with any dog poop. The teenage boy helped me with the other two, which was extremely nice of him. The man had us load up the tires in his handi-capped van, which, turned out to be quite useful because we were able to load them up on the wheelchair lift and get them right in, no trouble at all. Then the man told me to get in and he'll drive us over there. I kindly declined and offered to follow him there in my Jeep. Again, he rolled his eyes and looked at me like I was being completely rude as he said "You can ride with me hon, I aint a rapist." Ha! A million little red safety flags just went up - it was like stranger danger to the fullest extent. I had to think quickly - I don't know why I was so worried about offending him, but I was, so I just said. "Oh, I know you're not. It's just that I want them to mount the tires on my rims right now, so I need my Jeep there anyway. I'll just follow you there." Whew! That was easy enough.

I followed him over to the tire shop and we waited for the guys to take the tires off the rims. While we were waiting, the man said to me that he really believes in karma. He is sure that his good deeds are going to get him somewhere in life. He is certain that one day, sometime soon, when he sells 3 tires to nice, young lady, for the great deal of $150, that she'll actually give him $200, because he was so nice. Right then the tire shop boy came out with the man's rims and said we were good to go. I paid him $150 and told him it was nice to meet him and thanks for the tires. He got back into his van and drove away.

Karma, huh? . . . Maybe I should have listened to him.

To be continued . . .

Thursday, August 14, 2008

I Heart TV

I have a confession:

I am one of those people who loves, loves, LOVES watching TV. It entertains me to the fullest extent. For some reason though, I feel ashamed to admit how many tv shows I love to watch. I feel like people will judge me and think I'm lazy for loving tv so much. So I came up with this plan where I will go to the gym and watch my favorite shows while I'm walking on the treadmill. That should make those judgers be okay with my enormous amounts of tv watching, right?

But there's a slight flaw with this plan.

Those of you who know me well, know that I don't like to work out and that I only do it when I'm preparing for something. Right now it's the cruise - I'll spend the next 6 weeks "training" for my cruise. That's how it goes. I will usually only go for 6 weeks straight, then I'll take the next 6 months off. 6 weeks on, 6 months off. That is my work out schedule. Oh I might go once or twice during that 6 months, when someone makes me feel guilty, but usually I stick to my schedule pretty good.

So telling people that I only watch tv while I'm at the gym is only true for those 6 weeks. The rest of the time I'm sitting on my fat butt at home and I'm enjoying every minute of it. :) But I have to ask myself - why is it that I feel so ashamed of loving tv? And why do I feel so guilty when I talk to the physically fit people who say they never watch tv? Why can't I just be happy with who I am?

Does anyone out there have the answers for me?

Just in case you were wondering what brought on this little confessional:



one of my most favorite shows of all time is starting again in September and I can't wait!

Here is a list of some of my other favorite shows:
1. Dancing with the Stars (Love It!)
2. Law and Order (All of them.)
3. Paula Deen
4. Anything else on the Food Network.
5. Chuck
6. The Office
7. Brothers and Sisters
8. Ugly Betty
9. Grey's Anatomy
10. Desperate Housewives
11. Samantha Who?
12. Alias
13. The OC
14. Gilmore Girls
15. SATC
16. America's Next Top Model
17. What I Like About You
18. Friends
19. Everybody Loves Raymond
20. Martha Stewart

. . . and the list goes on and on . . .

What are some of your favorite shows?

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Cruises

Last night while I was text-chatting with my good friend Brittney Bell Thompson, the subject of cruises came up. I couldn't believe that I had neglected to mention to her that I am going on a cruise in September. She asked me who was going so I thought I'd put together a little roster for her, and the rest of you, to look at. I also put a count down on the side of this page so everyone can be just as excited as I am. :)

First, I've got last year's cruise roster
And this year's cruise roster

Let me know if you want to come next year. :)

Thursday, August 7, 2008

The Saddest Day of My Life . . .

. . . okay so I've probably had sadder days than this, but at the moment I felt completely helpless with an overwhelming amount of anguish. I felt as if my child was horribly hurt and all I could do was watch. (I know all of you mothers out there will most assuredly make fun of me for this, but it's honestly how I felt. So, even though my Hank is not a real boy, like your children, he is real to me and there is no other way to describe it.)

I must now explain the whole story in great detail. Lets go back a little:

Christmas, 2005. Hank and I had been a pair for a little over a year now and I wanted to get him something really special. Something both he and I had wanted since the day we met, . . . new tires! There were a few things holding us back. Money, for one, and the desire to have the biggest and baddest, hard core mudders around. So, naturally, we'd need to give Hank a little bit of height before switching the tires.

I'd done my research and found what I believed to be the best looking tires out there. Toyo Open Country M/T's. Now, mudders are quite expensive so it took me a while to save up enough cash to buy them, but I did it. I even found them at a store in Bountiful for a really good price. So I called them up and snatched the last set. The only problem was, I didn't have my lift kit installed yet. Don't worry, the lift was ready to go, we just had to wait until Jarred (the best brother-in-law in the history of brother-in-laws) had a free weekend to help me (yes, when I say help me, I actually mean he would do all the work and I would watch and occasionally hand him tools.) I didn't want you thinking that I go out and buy tires without lift-kits properly installed first, all willy-nilly like.

I explained to the nice man at the tire store that I would like to purchase the tires now but I can't put them on my Jeep for 3 more weeks. Then I asked him if I should come pick them up now and bring them back when I was ready for mounting, or if he could hold them for the 3 weeks until I had the lift on. The man was so nice. He told me he would be happy to hold them for me and to give me a call the day before I was coming so he could pull them out of storage. So nice.

Two weeks passed since that conversation and Jarred and I finished the lift, a week before schedule. I was so excited! I called up the nice man at the store, expecting him to be just as excited, and told him I would be by in the morning to have my tires mounted. Yay!

. . . the phone went silent.

Not dead, as in hung up on, just silent like the person on the other end didn't even want to breathe in the hopes that I would forget about our conversation, hang up, and never call again. But I didn't hang up. Instead, I repeated the last sentence at a slower speed, thinking that maybe, in all my excitement, I spoke too quickly and he didn't have time to absorb everything I just said. It worked. He finally responded.

"Um . . . tomorrow's not gonna work for me. We're . . . um . . . really busy." His voice quivered.

"Oh. Well, that's okay. I can come on Saturday. I know I'll look really silly driving around this huge jeep with these teeny-tiny tires, but that's okay right, it's only a couple of days and it's not as if it's hurting anything, it's not going to hurt anything right?! My jeep will be okay if I keep the little tires on til then, right?!" I said with the same excited tone, which quickly turned into a mild hysteria.

"No, no, you'll be just fine driving on those tires." The man assured me. "But we're, um, busy on, um, Saturday too. Can you give me, um, like a week or so? I can, um, fit you in next Saturday." A weird sort of desperation creeped into his voice as he said this.

"A week?!" I chirped. I was shocked. How could this store be so busy that they couldn't fit me in for a whole week? "I don't really want to wait that long. That's okay, I'll just come in to get my tires and I'll take them somewhere else to get mounted. Thanks, though." I was still pretty cheerful even though now I had to figure out who I could con into letting me borrow their truck because there was no way 4 big 35x12.5 Toyo Open Country M/T tires were going to fit in my little jeep.

The phone went silent again.

"Hello? Are you still there?" I asked.

". . . well, you see . . . um . . . I don't have your tires in the store right now." He whispered. The desperation still in his voice.

"What?!!! Where are they?!!!" I was so worried.

". . . well, you see . . . they were the last set we had."

"And?!!!! "

". . . um . . . well . . . I sold them." His voice trailed off, back into a whisper.

"What?!!! How?!! I don't understand! I already paid for those tires! How can you sell something that's already been purchased?!!!" I was starting to scream then. I could actually feel the blood going to my head and I had to concentrate really hard to just breathe and calm down a little.

"I know, ma'am, I'm sorry. It's just that they were the last set we had in the store. I can get a new set by next Saturday. I'm so sorry." He was extremely apologetic, which actually helped me calm down.

I took a deep breath and said. "That's okay, I can wait a week. As long as you can get them by next Saturday, it should be okay." We ended the conversation with his promise to have the tires no later than Saturday. It really was an honest mistake. He thought he would have one more week to replace the tires. No harm done, right?

Wrong!

About two hours after hanging up with him, he called me. His voice wasn't apologetic this time. He told me that after speaking with the store manager, he found out that the Toyo Open Country M/T's were on back order. He found another store that had a set but they were $200 more than what I had already paid and that if I wanted them I was going to have to pay the difference. I was outraged! I tried to argue with him, telling him it was his fault and that the store should have to pay the difference. In the end, arguing got me no where. I even asked to speak with the manager, who was extremely rude and not the least bit apologetic for the situation. He told me that there was no way he would pay the difference. So, I gave up. I asked for a refund and started looking for new tires at a different store, right then. Then the manager then proceeded to tell me that it would be 3-4 days before he could refund the money. That fired me up again. I just didn't understand how they could immediately withdraw funds from my account using my debit card, but they couldn't possibly refund the money immediately. What was the hold up? If I wasn't getting my Toyo's, I certainly wasn't going to sit around for 3-4 days so I could pay for different tires.

But, of course, I lost that battle. I waited the 3 days that it took for the money to show up in my account and I purchased new tires.

Now, although this story was quite upsetting to me at the time, it turned out to be one of the best things that could have happened. During those 3 waiting-for-my-money days, I found new tires. Better tires! I couldn't believe I had overlooked them during my original search. The moment I saw the Goodyear Wrangler MTR's, I was hooked. Those were my tires! Sure, they were a little more expensive. $200 more than the Toyo's, but for some reason that measly little $200 was not an issue as I willingly forked over the cash for the most perfect tires I had ever seen.

Hank loved them too. It was if they were made for each other.

Hank was lookin' so good. He had a growth spurt and some shiny new digs to complement his new towering physique. Complete bliss. Not even one problem, and that's the way it's been ever since.

. . .

Until a month ago.



To be continued . . .

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Whew!

I know I've been out of it for a little while - but I have an excuse. I've been re-reading the Twilight books to prepare for the release of the fourth book in the series, Breaking Dawn. Every spare moment I've had went to reading. Now, I know what you're going to say gosh, you're a slow reader but I would contest that. I think I'm an average-paced reader. It's just that I haven't had a lot of free moments and the ones I do get are usually stolen from "working hours" ha ha ha.

Well I'm back now, I finished Breaking Dawn last night (Yes, a whole day or two after most of my friends, I know. Again, with the slow reader thing. Sheesh, ease up!) and I would now like to discuss - PLEASE! Don't worry I'm not going to spoil anything for those of you who are slower readers than I am. (Ha ha!) I'm going to start my discussion on the comment board, so don't go there if you haven't finished the book. (Or in Brittney's case, even started the series yet. Come On Already! I promise if you give it even half a chance, you'll really enjoy it.)