World's Best Mom

My mom just left to go back home today. As usual, when she comes to visit I end up having to work pretty much every night. However, it does have its benefits. She brings me food for dinner. Good food: ribs, terriyaki beef (my favorite), fresh corn, watermelon, potato salad, homemade pie, carrot cake. Yes, I do gain weight when mom comes to town. At work the other night I mentioned to my co-worker how great it is having my mom around and cooking all my meals for a few days. His response: Now you know how it feels to be a guy.

Day of Reckoning

Definition of resident in the state of Utah:

1. Enter the state with intention of making Utah your home

2. Are gainfully employed in Utah

I was afraid this day would come. After living in Utah for 6 years now, I have to accept the fact that I may, indeed, be a Utah resident. It's getting harder and harder each year to do my taxes and explain to California why I'm not giving them any income tax. And it's only going to get harder next year since now I own a house. I know, not only do I live in Utah, I own a piece of it! I can't deny my residency any longer, so I went to DMV and applied for a Utah driver's license. It was a 3 hour ordeal, killed my day off, and was heart breaking to lose my California license. I still can't accept that I'm a Utah resident, and I will always claim California as home.

However, I do have a secret confession. *I love Utah* I know, I'm eating my words. I still refuse to live here forever, but the truth is, it's not so bad! I'm learning to love the 4 seasons, snow can be quite fun, the mountains are so pretty, there's tons of things to do, and I can afford to live here. It's a great place to live. For right now at least. It's only taken 6 years to accept and admit this.

My precious CA license (which I just deleted for privacy issues). I realized today why license pictures look so bad. After waiting for hours in a hot room full of gross people, sweaty and irritated, who could take a good picture?! Also, please note, I love my new house, but no address will ever be as cool as "Bel Air Drive."

Not sure why I look so happy. I'm crying inside. And it was really bright outside.

Sqeezing the Lemmon

Okay, so I was a little tired of my married friends having all the fun blogging. As though you have to be married and/or have kids in order to have something to say. I did have to convince Angela to do this with me though because, well, I didn't want to be all alone in the blogging world!

My latest trip wasn't a big one like normal and people seemed disappointed when they asked where I was going and all I had to say was "Tucson." So although it wasn't very far away, and some thought it was dumb heading to Arizona in July, it was incredibly fun.
Our new favorite game, it doesn't have a name (but it should be called 'Whipper' for good reason), but we all try to get on the slack line and see who can stay on the longest. In reality, the winner is the loser because you usually get thrown from the line and whipped.
Most impressive self-portrait ever! You can't tell, but we're all on the line.

Climbing at Mt. Lemmon