Adventures on State Street

So, I had kind of an interesting experience last night, and you won't be surprised to hear that it has something to do with meat. However, it was nothing that I could have ever expected. And no, it had nothing to do with me dropping ribs on the ground, although I'm sure there were some ribs involved. Anyway, I should probably just get to the story.

Our ward had a small activity last night involving a bonfire and a spiritual thought. It was really quite a nice activity. I got a ride up there with some people in the ward, but then decided that I'd like to get a ride back with a friend of mine who was going to be leaving a bit earlier than the others. So, we had a good time at the activity and then took off. The ride back was just like any other ride for the most part. We talked, laughed, sat quietly, etc. Then, out of nowhere, her truck (which is an old, small Nissan) started making a funny squeaking sound. My best guess was that it was a belt slipping somewhere, but I really don't know a whole lot about cars. Anyway, we kept driving hoping that it wasn't going to be a problem.

Well, here I am listening to the squeaking when all of a sudden a dead deer appears out of the shadows on the road ahead of us! By the time we could see what was in front of us, it was too late to try to swerve out of the way without causing more trouble, so the truck just went right over top of the deer. There was a great big bump and it was all over. Fortunately, the squeaking stopped. Unfortunately, after driving for a little bit, my friend started to notice a bad smell and then I noticed it and it kept getting worse. So, my friend pulled into a parking lot and told me that I had to get out and check things out because I was the man. She didn't really need to tell me this because I was planning on checking it out anyway, but it felt good to be called a man. Anyway, I got out and looked under the truck to find that there was a hunk of deer carcase hanging from the bottom of the truck. So, I figured that the smell was this, and other smearings of deer, burning on the hot and moving parts of the truck. Well, that mixed with the inherent stench of deer carcase.

Anyway, I went and found some sticks and used those to dislodge the hunk of deer from the bottom of the truck. We had parked next to some mexican fast food restaurant that was advertising 99 cent tostadas, so after I finished with the deer I went inside and washed my hands. I did not buy a tostada.

We got back on the road and started searching for a car wash. It took a couple of tries, but we found one that was open and that had an undercarriage wash. Trying to get into the car wash was an adventure in and of itself. It kept rejecting our money and has this annoying voice that would tell us which wash we had selected and kept demanding more money. I swear I heard the creepy electronic voice repeat "plus wash" about a hundred times. We finally got into the car wash, cleaned the truck, nearly had the roof of the truck cave in on us, and got out alive.

Anyway, that's the tale of the deer on the road. I hope all the discussion about deer carcase and such didn't gross anyone out.

Trip to Ottawa

This summer was the first non-missionary summer of my life that I have not spent some amount of time at home in Alberta. Normally I spend about a week up there sometime during the summer months. This year, however, I decided to fly out to Ottawa instead. My brother lives out there with his family and my parents were going to be visiting him, so I figured I would join them. I had a great time out there and it was great to see Patrick, Michelle and the kids. Some of the stuff we did included a picnic at Rideau Hall, a boat ride around the Thousand Islands, visiting various museums around town, going out for sushi, and just visiting and having a good time.

Emily had a great time playing with Grammy

Dad couldn't believe that, after flying across the country to visit, Patrick and I ended up playing Street Fighter

A guard in front of Rideau Hall

Getting ready for our boat ride around the Thousand Islands

Gananoque, Ontario

It was really windy on the boat.

A house on an isand

Another house on an island

The Canadian Museum of Nature

Frontside of the museum

A moose on the museum

The Canada Agriculture Museum

Before and After

So, I meant to put this up a couple of months ago, but it took me a long time to get around to putting any pictures on my computer. In fact, that's the reason behind a few posts not having gone up yet.

Anyway, I went to Lake Powell this summer for about 5 days (Monday through Friday). My roommates were shocked to see me when I came home. I wasn't ugly or anything, but it was a change from the everyday.

Before~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After

The Power of Meat

So, it's no secret that I like meat. However, over the last few days I've come to realize that meat has a great influence on my emotions. This might sound pretty silly, but it's true. Here are a few examples.

1. Last weekend we had a ward campout up around Alpine. It was fun. The people were fun, the weather was nice, and the food was good. Speaking of food, Bishop Pack cooked up a ton of bacon for breakfast. In fact, he cooked up so much that Sister Pack sent a big ol' tray of it home with me and my roommates. This made me very happy. I mean, free bacon! It was wonderful. Never before have I been able to go to the fridge looking for a snack and grab some precooked bacon. It was a amazing and made me happy every time I went to the fridge.

2. It's the end of summer term and our ward closing social was this last Monday night. I went expecting there to be some kind of dinner, but figured it would be something like hotdogs. Well, what surprise when I saw people showing up with chicken and ribs. Ribs! This was going to be one of the best church meals I had ever attended. I was so excited. I had a good time until dinner, but nothing could compare with my excitement about the ribs. So, dinner started, I got in line, got my ribs and some chicken and sat down on a bench outside to start eating. I saved my ribs for last, eating the chicken and sides first. Okay, I need to set up the scene for you now. At one point there were about 4 people crammed onto the bench, and I was sitting on the very end. By the time I finished the other food on my plate, there were only two of us on the bench and I was still sitting on the very end. Well, right as I was preparing to go for the ribs on my plate, the other guy stood up, causing the bench to act like a teeter totter, throwing my ribs to the ground. No!! My ribs were ruined! Okay, okay, they brought lots of ribs so I'll just go back and get some more. What!? There's only chicken left? No!!! I mean, the chicken was good, but I was so excited for those ribs. This really ruined the meal for me and it took me a little while before I could cheer up, swallow my pride and get some more chicken to replace the ribs that were stolen from me.

So, there you have it. A couple of examples about how meat can affect my emotions. Don't worry too much, though, there are things that I am more emotionally attached to than bacon and ribs...such as ribs wrapped in bacon.

Eliane French Bakery

I spent 2 years in France serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was tough, of course, but I loved it over there as well. One of the things that I loved was the food. The bread, pastries, cheese, crepes and so much more. I loved it.

Eliane French Bakery is located in Orem and I like to go there occasionally and buy some of my favorite pastries. Some of these favorites are chocolate eclairs, millefeuille, paris brest, and lemon tarts. The food is great there. It's not quite the same as going to a boulangerie-patisserie in France, but it's really close.

Anyway, I always love going there. Not only for the food, but also for the experience. The place is run by a Tahitian man (at least, I think he's Tahitian) and he likes to greet his customers in french and then switches over to english if needs be. Even though my french is getting rusty, it's fun to go in and order in french and talk with him a bit. I think today was the best experience I've had in there. I actually ended up ordering everything in english first because I didn't respond very quickly when he greeted me in french, so he switched over to english. However, when I was paying, I said something in french and he asked me if I speak french. After telling him that I had served in France, he got excited and started asking me how I liked the food over there and this turned into a fun conversation about pastries and cheese and crepes, all in french of course.

I think the best part was right at the end. We had been talking for a bit and he told me he wanted to show me something. He walked over to a big box he had on the counter, spun it around toward me and opened it up. Sitting inside the box was a large galette des rois (King Cake). It's a cake that is traditionally served around the New Year. There's a little porcelain figurine (feve) inside. Whoever gets the feve in their piece of cake is the king. Anyway, he seemed so excited to be able to show that to somebody who appreciated what is was.

I don't go to the bakery very often because I always want to buy a lot of stuff and its a little pricey, but it's always fun to go in. This, however, was by far my favorite visit.

New Name

So, I decided to change the name of my blog. Instead of Uncle Bob's Bloggish Life I've decided to simply go with Uncle Bob's Blog. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but the "bloggish life" part of the title has been bugging me and just didn't feel right. So, welcome to my blog, Uncle Bob's Blog.

Update

So, it's been nearly a month since my last post. It's been 10 days since my sister demanded on Facebook that I update my blog. Seriously, she said "I demand you update your blog." So, I guess it's about time I do.

So, what's been happening in my life? Well, I need to think about that a bit. I'm done with classes until the fall. I was taking one class during the spring term (Coal Combustion) and finished it quite successfully. According to the grade list that my professor posted online, I had the highest final grade in the class. I don't think that's ever happened to me since I came to BYU. Of course, there were only 13 students in the class, and half of them were up at the UofU taking the class via Skype, but it still feels good.

So, I mentioned a while back that I was going to try to be more active. I think I've done better over the last month than I did the previous eight months, but it still wasn't impressive. There was one week when I either went running or played racquetball or something similar 4 days of the week. That was great. That was the same week that I discovered Fatman Ironman. Reading his blog actually motivates me quite a bit. And I think he's funny. I particularly like when he writes about his experiences with Nemesis Hot Blonde Girl.

Anyway, I decided last week that I needed to get serious again, so I started up a regular workout again. I used to drive up to Orem and lift weights and run 2-3 times a week. I kept this up for over a year, until last fall. I started doing this again on Saturday. It felt great at the time, but my arms have been yelling at me for the last couple of days, reminding me that I hadn't lifted since August. Oh well, they'll get better.