"Yes, Yes, It's working Chet, I see ABBA!!.... wait a minute...THAT'S not the real ABBA!"

Crisp, Clean...and no Caffeine! Then hysteria.

I've been up to some serious business here at the Daily Item. You are all friends so I'll let you in on a little known national secret. Don't tell anyone though.

You know the economic crisis that we just we've been going through? You know how the stocks have all dropped drastically? Well a lot of that blame was on the credit and banking industry. Once that collapsed everything else snowballed. That's what CNN is saying anyway. Furthermore as our economy crashed so have the world markets.

Here on the Daily Item, I have the real reason why the stocks crashed and everything is snowballing.

I'm serious here so listen.

A while back I quit drinking caffeinated beverages. Listen, I'm not saying caffeinated beverages are all bad. They may work for you. I, however am a goldfish and will drink every and all caffeinated beverages I can find until my money is gone. That's why we don't have a VCR or DVD player anymore...I sold them for more caffeinated beverages. I used to have a Corvette...Gone...for caffeinated beverages. I stopped drinking them right before the markets crashed. I was spending a fortune on these drinks. I can't tell you how many I drank a day but let's assign this mathematical equation to it:

Coke_m = atan2(sin(lat₁) + sin(lat₂), √((cos(lat₁)+Bx)² + By²)).
That's an insane amount of money and caffeine.

Soon after quitting I began to receive calls from numerous companies...Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew etc...As it turns out my quitting caused a a stock slump of 22.07 3/4 on the NYSE the very first week. I'm not sure how they figured out it was me. It could have been from the free MP3's that you can get when you turn in a pop cap. Let's see I have 27000 MP3's and you get 1 free MP3 per every 10 pops you drinks, so that's...hmmm, let's see... Well you get the idea.

Timeline:

1. I quit caffeinated beverages
2. Loss of revenue causes Coke and Pepsi Stocks to drop dramatically
3. Chain reaction in other stocks causes them to drop
4. Global Markets Plummet.
5. Hysteria
   

Simple really.

Little did I know that our National and even Global economy were linked to the all powerful Coca Cola and Pepsi Companies (who knew?) And finally I had no idea that stopping cold turkey on these products would eventually lead to Global mass hysteria. I'm sorry so let me just say...my bad.

I feel bad about the economy and all. It's crummy that I had something to do with it. But you know I feel so much more healthy now.

I've included pictures showing me before and after my addiction.

Enjoy!

Before

After

Counselor in the Relief Society

It's Saturday in Idaho...

I see my wife begin to get a "pinched" look.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
"Nothing." She says.
"C'mon, baby tell me what's wrong." I urge soothingly.
"NOTHING!" She states firmly.
I give her "the look" that I always give her when she won't tell me something. Because....I know.
Silence.
Finally she gives in. "Well, I've got these Relief Society fliers and sign-up sheets to make...."
"Relax baby....I've got it." I boast. "I will make those fliers for you." I say.
She just looks at me with that "Quizzical Wow" look. That look that says, "you haven't done the dishes in 14 years and now you want to make my RS fliers?" You guys know what I'm talking about.
"Uh huh...oh yeah." I nod.
An hour later I finish the project on my Macbook Pro and she loves it. In fact, she is all over me like Bees on Honey.

Or in this instance...Ruth on Honey.

Salt Lake City Getaway

Our family spent the weekend in Lindon and Salt Lake City Utah. We had a great time. One of our highlights was spending time with Ron and Wendy Mitchell. Unfortunately because of copyright issues no photos of Wendy are allowed (yeah, she's that famous). So instead I'll mention that Ron (who is Ruth's brother) his wife Wendy and their darling children are great people.
Wendy is known the world over for her tremendous candy making capabilities. Indeed, her Chocolate Almond Toffee is the best in the world. I'm not kidding. Best on the whole planet. You will never eat anything as good as this stuff. This stuff is so good you wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it. Go here to see a picture of her candy and another perspective.

Angel Moroni atop the Salt Lake City Temple at dusk. Did I mention Ruth and I were married in that temple?


Looking South from the Conference Center on East Temple.LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City. This is where conference is televised.

Rob, Brian and Brent.
Rob is my potential father in-law and Brian is my brother in-law. Tremendous people.


Capital Building

The Ames Family: Best people in the whole world. They are pictured here with their lovely daughter Anna. They in fact have 4 beautiful children. For more info go here

Original members of the band, "Eat Worms and Die."

New Draper Temple from Traverse Road.

Cozy Snail living it up at the Trevi Condos.

A Day in Twin Falls

Having been assigned to work at the Twin Falls Temple Saturday night. We loaded up the family and made a day of it at Shoshone Falls State Park. (Sarah, Jake, Penny and Brent)

Sarah


Looking to the NW on the Snake River as it meanders through the canyon.
Brent
Penny



Sarah jumping at Dirkees

Brent jumping at Dirkees



Uncle Dad jumping at Hidden Lake! Look out!




Twin Falls Temple!

Favorite Swimming Hole Ever!

My favorite swimming hole as a youth. Looking eastward just off of the Saint Anthony city bridge in scenic Saint Anthony Idaho. This is the Herny's North Fork of the Snake River as it meanders through lava rock. The "sandbar" can be seen in the distance across the falls and river. The river here is narrow and deep! A fantastic place to swim

This is the famous Saint Anthony city bridge. With spectators on the left sitting on the rocks. Brent the younger is poised and ready to make the big leap to the water below. Brent is around 10 or 11 in this picture.

The Lime in the Coconut

Recently I've been listening to a bunch of Harry Nilsson songs. Harry was a fantastic lesser known artist who similar to Paul McCartney was a musical virtuoso. Harry's desire to not perform in front of people kept him out of much of the public's eye. An amazing songwriter, he wrote hits for many different groups, including: "One" by Three Dog Night and "Without Her" by Glen Campbell.

Harry Nilsson had a vocal range of three and a half octaves! He is best listened to when he is alone at the piano or acoustic guitar singing songs like "I guess the Lord must be in New York City" or "Without Her." Harry had a string of hits that included: The Lime in the Coconut, Without You, Me and My Arrow and Everybody's talking.

If you would like to see first hand the raw musical talent of this individual click on the following two hyperlinks:

Harry on the Smothers Brothers Show - http://youtube.com/watch?v=dswVK5si45M
Harry alone on the acoustic (turn this one up) http://youtube.com/watch?v=aJbizTCeJMg

Harry won critical acclaim with his concept album "The Point" which includes my personal favorite collection of Nilsson songs.

When the British press asked the Beatles in 1968 at the Apple Corps press conference, who their favorite American artist was, Lennon and McCartney both said, "Nilsson."

Odd yes, I'll give you that but there is something compelling. Take a listen and let me know what you think!

Hot Springs!

This weekend we went to Carey, Idaho to watch my oldest son Brent III play basketball in a summer tournament. Carey Idaho is near....uh....let's see...NOTHING!!

I shouldn't be so harsh. Carey is 24 miles from "Craters of the Moon" national park and 50 miles from a our country's first Nuclear Plant. Cool!!

The best thing about Carey can be found if you travel just a mere 9.2 miles east of town on Route 20. Very hidden with no signs, is a gem of a hot springs, it's only landmark is a worn turnout aside the main road. This picture (bad quality I know) was taken with Ruth's camera phone looking toward the highway (that's our old suburban parked just off the road). This hot pool is inside lava rock with a gravel bottom. Not too hot, not too cold...just right. Jake, Sarah and Penny can be seen (if you squint) playing in the pool.

Just another cool thing about Idaho!

Lunch Time In Sun Valley

One thing I miss about living in a big city is all the different opportunities you have to stuff your face. When I worked in Seattle and if I didn't bring a lunch from home, a good portion of the morning (2-3 hours) was devoted to deciding where to eat at lunchtime. My co-workers Scott, Cody, Larry. Mark and I (and sometimes Dave) would toss out ideas on where and what to eat.

Within a 5 mile range our opportunities were limitless and cheap!

My Top Ten favorite places were:

1. The Thai place on the corner of 152nd and 1st ave that was an old IHOP. ****
2. The Australian Pie Company (beef and potato)****
3. Ezells Chicken (3 piece white snack spicy)****
4. PHO - kitty corner from the Thai IHOP (I'd let Scott order for me). ***1/2
5. Bernie and Boys (Turkey Leg - (hint: stay away from the clam pizza!)) ***
6. Tacos Guaymus (Shrimp Burrito) ***
7. Dog and Cat (I never knew the real name (Chinese Food)) ***
8. Hans German Deli (Sausages - giant pretzel - snitzengruben (5 is my limit!)) ****
9. Pecos Pit (Pork, medium, spike it! (Jerry Buys...we fly) ***
10. Fred Meyer Deli (broccoli salad (we'd go here when Bernies didn't have any good side salads, which was around 98% of the time)) **

You can see why it was so difficult for us to come up with a lunch option in any less than 2 hours. If Scott would recommend, "Pho, " Larry would suggest, "dog and cat." If Cody said, "Turkey Leg, " I'd say "Thai." And round and round we would go. Work was a hindrance! How could we possibly work with so many choices and decisions to be made. Luck was ours if the decision was made for us by vendors coming into the headend to visit. Lee Kirk a Bigband Network employee and vendor (and personal friend of mine) was notorious for suggesting that he'd pay if we all had Thai. Nobody turned that deal down. Jerry Barrett was notorious at coming into the headend and saying, "I'll buy if you fly." Of course it had to be Pecos Pit and nothing else. Robert Dignum was famous for buying us all lunch that stunk and flat out sucked. He'd go to Albertson's and get "bad chicken" (which I liked) and horrible side salads. I only say horrible because we found half a "Green Grocer Cicada" bug inside the potato salads once. Of course that meant one of us unlucky blokes had eaten the other half. It got so bad that when Robert would offer to buy we'd just all say "No Thanks." Even if we had no money! Many times our dilemma was solved by just asking Mark Anderson to pick up some Ezells Chicken on the way in to work(his shift started at 11:30am) and we'd pay him back.

The beautiful thing is that the food in Burien/Seattle was somewhat inexpensive. Well, relatively speaking. I now live in Sun Valley Idaho where options aren't as plentiful and the prices are sky high. While it is possible to eat very good and well prepared food here, in many cases it requires taking out a second mortgage to pay for it. Just about every place in town has a lunch special on their menu and the price is generally $10-$15. Nasty. Too rich for me! These prices have reminded me what a good cook my wife Ruth is.

I did find a little gem of a lunch bargain here in the Gem State. It's called Atkinson's Grocery and Deli. Now here's a place that does it right. Anytime throughout the day you can go to the deli and have a sandwich custom made for your palate. Options are many and the prices are quite reasonable. You can choose whole or half and with either one you will not be disappointed.

My order usually goes something like this:

The lady greets me at the counter and says, "What would joo like?" (Peruvian)

I say, "whole sandwhich please"

"What would joo like on it?"

With wild eyes I rattle off my order in one long run-on sentence. "I'll take pastrami on marbled rye, with Swiss cheese, miracle whip (don't tell me... I know) all the vegetables including avacado with boars head sweet and sour mustard!"

The lady then says, "Would joo like peekle and cheeps? Hmmmm?"

Smiling broadly, I respond nodding my head, "Yes!!" The nice thing here is that the chips are Tim's Cascade. Made in Algona/Auburn Washington (reminds me of home).

I then wait patiently while the nice Peruvian lady whips up my order.

Smiling she returns with my sandwich, peekle and cheeps. I accept it like I've won an major award. Thank you , thank you so much!

All of this plus excellent service = $5.99 USD

Nice!