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By Neil, 10 February 2010

There is not much better in life than getting a snow day from work…except when you get a second snow day!!! Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it snow!!!!

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By Neil, 18 February 2009

Not only did she get an interview with US Attorney’s office for her summer internship, she was just given the “Employee of the Month” award from the Law Library . But seriously, I am really proud of Kate and all her achievements. She has really worked hard this first year in law school and is taking every advantage offered to her. She is a real trooper.

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By Neil, 4 February 2009

Last week while riding my bike home from work while talking on the cellphone. Much to my dismay, while trying to cross the 805 Freeway overpass, I crashed. Phone still in hand, I quickly pulled my self against the retainment wall before a crazed California driver hit me. I jumped up and grabbed my bike. Unfortunately my front tire was bent making the bike unridable. Feeling stupid for riding and talking, I punished myself by refusing the ride offered me by a nice lady in a Outback, and walked my bike the entire 2 miles home. Since the front tire was bent, I had to balance the bike on its rear tire the entire way home. I will never talk and ride again!

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By Kate, 23 November 2008

I have a brilliant friend. When I got home from my mission we both decided it would be a good idea to apply to work at Savers (it was). Surprisingly we had to fill out lengthy form applications. (Surprising because I’m not sure what percentage of Savers employees are literate, but from my anecdotal evidence it can’t be that high). Under the “explain a little about yourself” section she wrote, “I love to work hard.” Aside from the extreme hilarity of writing this on an application, even more so a Savers application where hard work for us meant combing racks of people’s old junk & spending our entire meager salaries on treasures like matching gold motorcycle helmets, it became a long standing joke between us… because, seriously, who likes hard work?!??!

If there is one thing that law school has taught me, it’s that I don’t like hard work. In fact, Neil and I pretty much exclusively refer to our employment as “work is for jerks.” IE “Hello. How was ‘work is for jerks’ today? Did you sell anything interesting?” “Oh, man. I have to go to ‘work is for jerks’ early today. I have to get ready for the board meeting.” I know that the advice is always given to do something you “love” as your career. But, who really goes to work thinking EVER, “man I love going to work. It is so much better than lying in a hammock without a care in the world reading a book just for fun.” Is there a person on the planet that feels like they’d rather be working than taking a fall walk with their best friend or enjoying some free time just to think important thoughts????? Is there anyone in America that does not live for their measly 2 weeks of vacation that propels them to work in bumper-to-bumper traffic everyday? Or to get home from the office so that they can watch The Office on TV and commiserate with the masses in solidarity about just how stinky & strange office work can be.

I can think of a lot of things I really do love.

Like the smell of burning candles.

Or our new bling-bling three-tiered fruit basket. Man, I love that thing.
But, I do not love hard work.

Today in my Gospel Principles class I figured out why I am such a bad pray-er & often get caught up in the rote “thanks for everything. please bless everyone so they can get home safely & please bless these doughnuts so they will nourish & strengthen our bodies” even when it’s just Neil & I at home. Prayer is hard work. It says so in the Bible Dictionary. In fact, Brigham Young said, “Prayer is often difficult & strenuous & just plain hard work. One has to break the prayer barrier.”

This is coming from perhaps the one man to grace this planet who perhaps actually enjoyed hard work. (I’m am just drawing assumptions from his stern work-loving expression). Brigham Young aside, is there any person that actually enjoys hard work? If so… let me in on the secret. Or, better yet, you should apply to work at Savers. I hear they are always hiring.

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By Kate, 24 October 2008

I just want to encourage everyone who may not have heard Dolly Parton’s song “9 to 5″ in a while to take a listen. Soon. I am workin’ in an office job that I have to commute 30+ minutes to in bumper-to-bumper traffico (another setback of SoCal) and the only way I get by is BLASTING:

Workin 9 to 5
What a way to make a livin
Barely gettin by
Its all takin
And no givin
They just use your mind
And they never give you credit
Its enough to drive you
Crazy if you let it

Let’s not be confused about my musical taste. I have none, I am tasteless & tactless when it comes to tunes. And I am a devoted Dolly fan. Lest anyone forget, I have been to Dollywood. Well, at least to the entrance of Dollywood until I found out the admission price.

When all else fails…this ol’ backwoods barbie gets me through the week.

(In case you were wondering, Dolly is now 62 years old. God bless plastic surgery. [see photo above] Pretty good for a senior citizen, eh? And, you CANNOT argue with the fashion sense!)

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By Neil, 16 October 2008

So I was running a little late for work and as I was leaving the house I had a brilliant idea…which made me even more late for work. Pulling out the old video camera, I thought to my self, “wouldn’t it be cool to tape this camera to my bike helmet and film my ride to work?” “Of course it would be cool,” I thought, “Neil you are a genius, this is your coolest idea yet, even better than man cheese.” However when I got home I realized no one was going to sit through 16 minutes of my bike ride (including my self) so I sped it up 500% and added some great music. So, here it is. Sit back and enjoy the show (if you get motion sickness you’ve been warned).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H85qlqAUQYo[/youtube]

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By Neil, 7 October 2008

I purchased a new Specialized bike last weekend so I could commute to work and free up the car for Kate. I also like to bike so that helped me make the decision. Unfortunatly the first few weeks of long distance biking can take toll on your body while you adjust to the physical demands of biking. Lets just say that at this point in my life I prefer to stand. Biking to work is loads of fun and is going to save us a lot of money. I just wished my rump would adjust sooner than later; my heart, lungs, and legs as well, for that matter. A photo of my new bike and me to come.

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By Neil, 13 April 2008

So since I’m currently “under the weather” in the employment arena I have started to do a little work with my father in law until ether he hires me full-time or I find another full-timejob. This meant that I spent the weekend with him up in Boise and McCall, Idaho running various errands in regards to the new magazine he is starting here in Utah. He has had some muchachos from El Salvador make customized magazine racks in the likeness of little cabins with the magazine logo plasma torched into steel. So basically what we had to do was load 25 of these things onto two trucks and then haul them down to Boise. The only problem is these magazine racks weigh about 300 pounds each. Amazingly two of the muchachos could carry one of them and then loaded them onto the trailer and then I pushed them into place. Once they were all loaded we headed down the hill from McCall to Boise going tops 40 miles an hour. The load was just too heavy for one of the trucks so what should have been a 2 hours drive turned out to be 6.

More or less that is all we did, but it ended up taking the better part of two days. Here are some photos from the trip including two of me with my new hat (and by new I mean a cowboy wore this thing for the better part of 3 decades and all I did was was have it reshaped).

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By Neil, 6 January 2008

“You Do not like your male instrument size. “
“Girls joke at you. “
“Your girl doesn’t admire to jazz it with you by reason of your instrument size.”
“Your chick doesn’t want to do it with you along of your instrument size.”
“Your chick does not admire to have sex with you for reason of your male device size.”

I just thought I should share some of the more enlightening spam emails from my office email account. I wonder if bullying people in terrible English is more effective in selling products than normal spam emails. I guess these spam emails are getting more of my attention than the others! So perhaps they do work.

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By Kate, 30 November 2007

I have created a new category of Kindness on this blog. I tend to rant on the blog and only have ideas about what to write when I am angry. I hope to fill this new category with kind acts of others.Today I went to a meeting at an elementary school where some of Neil’s newly arrived Somali children attend.  A teacher told me that all the children have jumped in to be their friends and help them adjust. Even though one little 2nd grade Somali boy only knows the words Yes and No the kids invite him to play soccer every recess. They watch over the Somali kids and guide them around.What a great selfless act by these little people on the West side.