The very Dark Knight

Man, am I far behind. I've got lots to blog about, but first I'm gonna write about what we did last night. Tracie and I finally joined the rest of America and saw "The Dark Knight."

It was "wow." Probably one of the best movies I've ever seen. (I said one of, not the best) But let me go over just a few things I loved about it.

The movie was incredible and a good movie on so many levels. It was great as an action movie, as a superhero movie, as a psychological thriller, as a philosophical piece, and others. The acting of the entire cast was superb. When your cast includes Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Heath Ledger and others, it's hard not to rock.

Heath Ledger as Joker = the best villain ever. Hands down. The role Heath Ledger might have died for was certainly the greatest part of the movie, whether or not his death had an impact on my viewing of the movie, it certainly made me sad that such a genius died so prematurely. He was incredible, adding a human element to the psychotic embodiment of evil.

Well, I want to blog more, but my nephew wants to go play legos, so I better join him. :)

Boo! Surprise!

We had a lot of fun with my family in town this weekend. Uncle David took us all out back to Outback (I've been waiting for MONTHS for an opportunity to use that) and then we got Sub Zero Ice Cream. But the fun really started when we went back to Uncle Jim's house. If it wasn't the fireworks (celebrating July 24th, of course!) or the blasting potatoes into orbit, it was the very very funny game of props. I forgot how imaginative/creative/funny my dad's side of the family is. Not that it should be any surprise, after all, we all know how extremely hilarious I am. But it was great to see practically all my cousins (but 2) and all my aunts and uncles.

It was a short visit, (btw, happy Birthday, Brett! I know how often you check this blog!) but I'm grateful I got to see them.

But that wasn't the only surprise of the weekend. (I mean good surprise. As my last post said, I was fired) On Saturday morning my best good friend in the whole wide world Justin and I were texting, planning on playing an online video game (World of Warcraft) together, mostly to visit and whatnot. Well, he texted me "I'm right here, Austin" which I assumed meant he was logged into the game, but then there was a knock at my door. I was going to tell Justin "how funny. right when you said 'I'm right here,' there was a knock at the door. But it was JUSTIN!! He and his fiancee Mandi drove down from Nebraska to see family and friends (we all know it was just to see me) and we had a lot of fun and laughs, much like we did with my other Justin who came down from Idaho earlier in the week.

So, even though you're out of a job, you can still be happy and have surprises and fun with family and friends.

You're Fired

Recently I've chosen to leave my company. Because they fired me. However, this is the first time I think I've been relieved and happy at being fired. I was not happy there, was not doing well there, but as I've said before, I liked the people I was working with and I didn't want to have to go find a new job. I have been praying and asking what I should do, but I wasn't really listening, because I didn't want to leave something that I didn't like and wasn't succeeding in, because it was easy. Well, here I am. The good thing is I already have several job interviews lined up, and I am happy not to be working at my old job anymore.

They Call the Thing Rodeo

Last night we DID something!!! I think the title gives it away, but I'll tell you anyway... We Went To The Spanish Fork Rodeo! That part was pretty cool, I'll write more about it in just a minute, but the REALLY exciting thing was that ALL my dad's siblings were there, and almost all of my cousins!!!

It was cool.

So here's what went down. We arrived in Spanish Fork, saw my grandparents at my Uncle Jim's house, they weren't feeling well and so didn't go to the Rodeo, but they gave us their tickets. So grandpa drove us to the rodeo, we went in (it was HOT!!!) and saw all the family. It was great to see my aunts & uncles & cousins, I was surprised how much they've grown. (this tall young woman walked up to me and gave me a big hug before I realized it was my cousin Kiersten) and we watched the rodeo. I think it was my first rodeo, and here are my observations: it wasn't at all as smelly as I expected. (we got a whiff of manure every now and then) We watched the bareback riders and the guys jump off a horse to bring down a young steer, and some rope the same. There were a surprising amount of commercials, people riding around the arena with a flag for the Daily Herald or Utah Community Credit Union, though surprisingly no Steak Houses or Burger Joints. After about an hour and a half we learned that my cousin Justin (as in best man and former mission companion Justin) was in town, but leaving the next day, so we left, made plans to see everyone again on the 24th (today) and went to see Justin, Kathryn, and meet their baby girl, Lily. We had a really fun visit with them, (last time we saw them, Kathryn was pregnant) and meeting their adorable baby. It made Tracie even more baby hungry, and me just a little bit. I knew I missed Justin, but I forgot just how much. So I'm very glad we got to see them for a bit. After that we went to Tracie's parents and learned how to water their lawn and visited a bit.

But hey! Look at us! Doing something to blog about! I'm so happy. That was my third joy yesterday. Joy #1-Seeing family. Joy #2-Going to the Rodeo. Joy #3-Getting to blog about it. Priceless.

National Treasure II- The Search for More Money

Last night we finally saw National Treasure 2. We rented it, as we often do, from McNeil video about a month ago, only to discover the DVD was missing. Well, it's been found so we took it again, and after a long long long long long long wait, watched it.

And I liked it.

It's strange, I've read many reviews of people hating it, many reviews of people liking it, as well as heard from different family members, all of who I respect and agree with many of their opinions (especially pertaining to movies) who disagreed that it was a waste of time and horrible, and others that said it was more fun and better than the first one.

Now, notice I didn't say I loved it. I think that like many sequels, it had the curse of living up to the first one. I mean, when you find the greatest treasure in the world the first movie, what do you do for the second? You find El Dorado, I mean Akator, I mean Cibola. Yeah. Right on.

Now, the movie was fun, I love the characters old and new (minus Ed Harris- who keeps hiring this guy? He's like Kevin Costner and John Malkovitch combined) but it just didn't have the suspense, fun and pop of the first movie. The plot was a little contrived, but not so much that it ruined my enjoyment. I was just happy to see them find the City of Gold and it NOT be run by aliens. (See, George Lucas? It CAN be done!) I told Tracie "if this movie has aliens, I will swear off movies forever." I got a little nervous when they read the book of Secrets and saw a chapter called "Area 51." But, no aliens, so I can still watch movies. Phew.

All in all, it's one of those movies that makes ME want to write movies, for the simple reason that I know I could do better.

Still, a good effort and enough to make me excited for National Treasure 3.

How Much Water is Too Much?

I've been drinking a lot of water lately. I mean 4-5 bottles a day, or 80-100 ounces. Why is that important besides me going to the bathroom a lot, and I feel healthier? It's not. But isn't that a COOL picture???

Reminds me of when I had chemo and I had to be really hydrated before I went in for treatment, and I drank and drank lots and lots and lots of water so I could get in get it over with and get out as soon as possible. It's not that I didn't like the hospital, it's that I hated it.

So, I don't have much to talk about. Can you tell? Be honest. I just really want to blog and I figure if I just start writing I'm bound to write something interesting. Maybe THIS is why people have kids. Our lives are so boring without them. The last few weeks I've been out of school, going to work, Tracie's been allowed to work from home, and in our spare time we've been alternating exercise with vegging out playing video games. It's been awesome. But I can't really blog about it.

Everyone else: Today our child did something so cute/adorable/sweet/naughty/worth writing about! Being a parent is so rewarding!

Me: Today I got my mage up to level 35 and now he's an Artisan Enchanter!

Yeah, not the same. But, hopefully soon we'll have a little bundle of joy or at least a little bundle that we can take care of and write about. In the meantime, I'm gonna keep drinking my water!

Pampering

For our Anniversary, we WERE going to go to the Anniversary Inn in Salt Lake City. I've heard that the rooms were very fun & classy, but looking on their website, they all looked really silly & tacky to me. But, we booked one, and planned to go, excited to be together. But the A.C. broke in our room, so they called us and told us the room wasn't available. So, we looked for something else fun to do.

So, with much begging on Tracie's part and much begging not to on my part, we went to a Spa on Saturday and were pampered. Tracie got a facial, a 1/2 hour massage and an hour long pedicure, I decided just going was enough, the facial would be too feminine even for me, so I got an hour long massage (heaven) and a 1/2 hour pedicure.

That's right. Austin got a pedicure. Don't judge me. Or, you can if you want to. It was nice. I'd been vehemently against pedicures, as I just didn't think they were for boys, but, as I've seen some of the feet in my family, as well as my own, I decided that a pedicure might not be a horrible idea. So I got one. They didn't paint my toenails, my feet feel better, and I'm no less of a man than I was before.

The massage was GOOOOOOOOOOD. I was surprised how relaxing it was, and how comfortable I was with a stranger massaging me. Oh well. I highly recommend it to all the boys and girls alike. You'll be glad you did.