Day 274: "Ticket to Ride"

Mike, Jana, and the kids invited me to join them for family game night tonight. The game of choice was Ticket to Ride.

Good times were had by all.

Day 273: Tattoos

Kylee and Kenna worked together to apply these tattoos to my pasty-white arm last night:

Don't worry, Mom; they're only temporary.

Day 272: Jackson's Extreme Closeup

There is nothing else to say.

Day 271: Soccer Time with Kylee

My 14-year-old Kylee, although only a ninth grader, made it onto Layton High School's Junior Varsity soccer team this year. I have not been too consistent in attending her games, though I made it to this evening's matchup against Davis.

Kylee played about half the game and gave a great effort as the team's left forward. Layton went on to prevail 2-1, evening their record on the season to 7-7.

Day 270: Oopsie!

I committted a major boo-boo last night, bumping into my laptop, atop which my flash drive rested, in the dark. From what I gather, the laptop fell on top of the flash drive and completely mangled it, as you can clearly see from this photo:

I don't think I could have damaged it any more if I had taken a hammer and smashed it on purpose. Fortunately, Pepe tells me that the chip is intact and that we can retrieve the files I had on the drive.

Day 269: Kids in the Man Cave

Over the weekend, the family assembled for our bi-monthly dinner at Ben's and Adi's new abode in Centerville. In their basement, Ben has set up his own "man cave," which includes a couple of couches, a TV set, and Ben's Wii - pretty much all that any man cave needs.

 

The kids found their way into the cave and began a Mario Kart marathon. I discovered them there and took this photo:

 

 

Smart kids, my nieces and nephews are.

Day 268: Ribs

On Friday night, I attended my workplace's annual end-of-summer/new software launch party at Barnes Park in Kaysville. One of the best things about it was that our dinner was catered by Famous Dave's, one of my favorite local restaurants and a meat eater's paradise. By the conclusion of our activity, there remained several uneaten ribs, and I got to take 50 or 60 of them home with me.

I ended up reheating and sharing the ribs with the family at yesterdays' bi-monthly family dinner. Kenna especially enjoyed the ribs and ate more than one:

Mmm . . . ribs are good eatin'.

Day 267: Kuma, the Golden Doodle

Over the weekend, Ben and Adi added another new member to their family by adopting another dog, whom they have named Kuma. The word kuma is Japanese, meaning "bear."

Kuma is a "golden doodle," which is a mixture (I think) of a golden retriever, a labrador, and a poodle. She actually looks quite like a rather curly haired version of Rolley, the golden retriever our family  owned between 1993 and 2007 and whom, sadly, had to be put to sleep after 14 long years (which is, I'm told, quite a lifespan for a dog that size). She is also quite mellow, calm, and friendly, much like Rolley became in her later years. She's the polar opposite of Saru, Ben's and Adi's other, more-energetic puppy.

Speaking of which, Kuma and Adi have already become pretty good friends. Jackson poses with them both here:

Day 266: The Improvables vs. Laughing Stock

We had a few visitors turn up for last night's Improvables performances at the Davis Center for the Performing Arts black box: namely, three members of the Laughing Stock troupe in a head-to-head matchup against our own Ricky, Scott, and Willis.

It was an expanded, hour-and-a-half-long version of our normal performance, and we enjoyed seeing the talents of our sister troupe (Eric Jensen, who is the head honcho at Laughing Stock, also co-founded our troupe in the spring of 2008). With their appearance, they introduced to a couple of new games, including "Big, Bigger, Biggest" and "Understudy."

I may be a bit biased, but I thought our guys held their own and, likewise, put on a great performance. Good times were had by all.

Day 265: Extreme Carnival

Earlier tonight, before heading over to improv, I attended the "Extreme Carnival" hosted by the good people of our Institute class, yet another highly enjoyable activity in this mid-singles conference week for which we are having an activity every day.

This Extreme Carnival featured larger-than-life versions of several popular and classic board games and activities, including "Giant Jenga," demonstrated here by Ashley (no, she did not topple the tower; that happened later):

"Human Bowling," demonstrated here by Breann:

"Life-Size Angry Birds," designed with painstaking care by Garrett:

. . . and many more.

Good times were had by all.

Day 264: Sourpuss

I gave Jackson a new type of gum - sour gum - to try out today, as he is wont to drop by and ask for candy, gum, and other goodies. This was the result:

It's reminiscent of that same mischievous - and sour - look that we've all come to love.

Day 263: Tread Quietly

The other day at work, several signs that read "Tread Quietly" were hung all over the place:

That's good advice.

Day 262: The False Gods We Worship

When I go to my physical therapy appointments, I usually pick up a magazine or two to read while I'm either (1) waiting for the heat to do its thing before I exercise or (2) waiting for the ice and e-stem to do its stuff after exercising. Quite often, it's a People magazine. After all, I have to constantly be doing my homework for Improv and finding out who is up to what.

Whenever I do so, I am left with only this thought: It never ceases to amaze me how obsessed our culture is with celebrities who are very poor role models.

Day 261: Photo Scavenger Hunt 2012

It's mid-singles conference time again, and we are having an activity for each day this week. Tonight, it was FHE at the church, for which we divided up into teams and went out and about on a photo scavenger hunt.

I've never been on a photo scavenger hunt that I haven't liked, and tonight was certainly no exception. My group was comprised of a good group of friends, and we had a good time together, checking off most of the items on our list, such as making a human street barricade:

dancing on a street corner:

participating in a memorial service for roadkill (played by Paul):

"I can't believe we all fit in here":

putting everyone together on a slide (at Centerville Elementary School):

standing in front of a statue and mimicking the pose (at Founder's Park):

re-creating a famous scene from a movie (Garrett and I decided upon this iconic shot from Titanic):

and pointing at something orange:

Our group finished with the second-highest total of points, missing first place by just one point.

Good times, as you can clearly see, were had by all.

Day 260: Post #666/BYU vs. Utah 2012

Today marks my 666th post on Disconcertingly Choppy since starting this blog (as "The Epistle of Jon") about four years ago.

While you ponder on that, be ye superstitious or not, there was a football game played locally last night between two local universities, BYU and Utah. Perhaps you have heard something about it. It is something of the most hotly contested sporting event of the year 'round these parts.

Ben and Adi hosted a viewing party at their home for both sides of their family, which included a handful of our mutual friends, to boot. It served as a sort of housewarming party for their new abode, as we had not previously congregated there for any type of gathering.

Most of us rooted for BYU with the exception of Adi and her parents, who are die-hard U. of U. fans. Adi's mother brought Ute tortilla chips, which I didn't even know existed until now:

and red and blue drinking cups:

Ben, meanwhile, dressed up Saru in a BYU jersey:

The game was full of ups and downs, with one of the wildest finishes I've ever seen in a football game. The Utes ended up prevailing, 24-21, winning their third consecutive game in the rivalry.

Perhaps the less said about that the better. At any rate, good times were had by all.

Day 259: It's-a Mario!

Never at a loss for doing or saying something entertaining, Jackson dressed up in his Mario costume the other day and came downstairs to visit me:


Those are socks on his hands (clever kid).

I'm sure he'll be able to grow his own mustache within a few years.

Day 258: Jackson's Drawing

Jackson drew me this picture of him and me:


I think it's a pretty good likeness.

Day 257: Jury Duty, Again!

For the second time in three years, I have received a summons from the county for jury duty:

Now is not a good time (is there ever a "good" time?) to commit a felony. I'm just sayin'.

Day 256: Saru's Dinner

Ben invited me over for dinner at his new house last night, while Adi and some of her friends had a girls' night out and went to see a movie. We enjoyed a good meal together before I had to skedaddle off to Institute.

Saru, meanwhile, attempted to dine on my shoes. She's looking pretty sharp with her new haircut.

Day 255: Clearance Sale

I was browsing at the local Seagull Book today when I came across this clearance sale of University of Utah hats:


There were no BYU hats on clearance . . . just sayin'.

Happy Rivalry Week, everybody!

Day 254: I (Heart) NY

When Biz and Jeff traveled to New York a couple of months ago, they brough me back this t-shirt:

Today seemed like a good day to break it in (finally - sorry, guys). I also did the "patriotic" thing, if it can be called that, by donating plasma again.

Happy Patriot Day, everybody.

Day 253: Sunday in the Park

Last night, I accompanied Mike, Jana, and the kids for a brief excursion over to Nicholls (aka "Castle") Park in Kaysville. While I got caught up on The Hunger Games, which I have been rather lax at reading regularly - sprained ankle and all - I also sat on a bench and observed the kids having a great time and snapped a few photos.

At first, Mike, Dallin, and Jackson did some exploring on one of the trails:

As it got a bit darker, the action shifted over to the swings, where Kenna reached soaring heights:

. . . and Dallin spun Jackson around on the chair swing.

Yours truly would have tossed my cookies if I had tried that.

Good times were had by all.

Day 252: Batman to the Rescue!

I recently introduced Jackson to LEGO Batman 2, my latest favorite video game release for the Xbox 360. Jana tells me that he didn't really know anything about Batman before now, but now he's really getting into the character.

He even dressed up in (almost) full costume to play a few levels today.

Day 251: Boogers for Sale

I came across this display today while browsing among the shelves at Dollar Tree:


Can you see how they ended up at Dollar Tree? They're (I can only assume) finger-lickin' good!

Day 250: Sampling Paco's Tacos

I recently posted a picture of myself standing next to Paco's Tacos in Centerville. Earlier tonight, I actually went inside to sample the food before heading over to Improv.

It's tasty, authentic Mexican stuff. Paco himself, who I was told is the boss, was not present, unfortunately, as I was looking forward to meeting him.

Day 249: The Wheel of Morality

You remember those "Wheel of Morality" segments on "Animaniacs," in which Yakko, Wakko, and Dot would sping a wheel and randomly pick the "moral" of that day's episode?


I was reminded of this at the Real Salt Lake game that I attended last week. We arrived early enough to spend some time playing some of the games in front of Rio Tinto Stadium, including the pictured wheel.

My prize? A buy-one-get-one-free coupon for small fries at Burger King. Yes, that was worth waiting in line for.

Day 248: Bizinga!

The other day, I parked behind a car that had this license plate on it:

I had to take a picture of it for myriad reasons: (1) Many people take photos of my own car's license plate, and turnabout is fair play; (2) it would be a great license plate for Biz's car, Bunny; (3) it references "Bazinga!", catch phrase of one of my favorite TV characters (Sheldon from "The Big Bang Theory"); and (4) the driver, like me, is a Cubs fan. (The Cubs, incidentally, are having another terrible MLB season right now.)

Also, (5) I'm a nerd.

Day 247: "Ninja"

"Ninja" is not necessarily one of my favorite Improvables warmup or cool-down games, mainly due to the fact that I stink at it and am usually the first one out.


It is, however, always very entertaining to watch others play it.

Day 246: Fantasy Football Draft 2012

Football season is upon us once again, and over the weekend, Mike and Jana hosted the annual family (Jason included) barbecue and NFL fantasy players draft at their home. With only eight managers/teams taking part this year, we finished our drafting in record time.