USA

Only in Utah.. or is it Above?

When I was in the US briefly the first week of March, I made a hop on a flight between Salt Lake City and San Jose. There were about 70 people on the puddle jumper plane, and well, something that’s typical “Utah-esque” happened. During the flight, one of about 30 missionaries decided to provide us with some in flight entertainment. The thing is – had he been Moslem, people would have thought that he was going to hijack the plane… had he been anything else, he wouldn’t have been able to do this. However, he was Mormon – and Salt Lake City is the home of the LDS church – so… I provide you with photographic evidence (Thanks K for the iphone moment in time) :

in flight entertainment - aka missionary on a plane

Yes, folks, he stood up to give his testimony over the Plane’s PA.

I’ve never seen people reach up so quickly to light their “call” button to the stewardess…. and I wondered briefly if I should ask if I could go next – and then Jacqui or a few others to each testify to their own religious beliefs – to a captive audience, in a thin metal tube as it was hurling through the air. In the end, I didn’t… However, I just want to say –

There is a time and place for everything…
Welcome to Utah….

TESTIFY!

*because of the nature of this post, and the potential for offensive comments – which I don’t wish to engage in a religious debate I’ve blocked comments from this post.*

Share

The Magic of technology…where the unknown become known

While I was on my Thanksgiving vacation, I took a ton of pictures. I got photos of friends, things that I did and so on – most of these I haven’t uploaded or even processed yet. I’ll get there – I promise. Why the delay, you ask?
 

 

The answer is because while I was there I got a nice little hobby that I had to work on. You see, I’m an odd duck (yeah, no surprise) because I like to go to Cemeteries, etc when I can. This trip, I managed to hit two of them. One of which – the Bingham City (ghost town) cemetery happened to have an Boy scout (Eagle scout) project going on.
 

Bingham City Cemetery
 

 

Thing is that at the time, I didn’t realize that what I was going to do (take pictures) would actually be able to help. You see, the project they’re doing is to GPS map, identify unknown graves, restore and preserve those that are deteriorating, and just simply take care of this old cemetery.
 

 

You see, there are a ton of headstones in this old cemetery that are completely unreadable. Cemetery records weren’t kept until the turn of the century – and there are graves here from way before – some from the 1870’s. So, there are alot of unknowns – and more whose markers have become unreadable or just are missing completely.
 

 

Through the magic of technology (and me being determined to see what I could see) photoshop allowed my photos to be processed – and allow us to see a few markers – and help identify some of these settlers to Utah. I also got to see/read the inscriptions that previously were just faint grooves. Yeah, it took some time (in a couple cases well over an hour per picture) because of switching to black and white, enhansing, tone tweaking, color tweaking, blowing up, shrinking down, highlighting etc etc etc. But in the end, a few more people don’t have to be called “unknown” anymore.
 

Broken Cross knocked over Split Headstone
 

 

How cool is that? (you can click on the pictures to see a larger size AND read what suddenly became clear on them.)
 


Someday, I hope that someone would be willing to do the same for me….

Share

Gobblin goodness!

There are just certain times of year where you have to pig out. I’m sorry, but no amount of dieting, being thin, and simply denying oneself food is going to cut it. For me, one of those times is Thanksgiving. Sure, it’s time for family, it’s time for friends, and it’s time to be thankful.

It is also time to make the turkey.

Now, I’m guilty of this – I assume most of us are. There is only one time a year I actually buy an ENTIRE turkey, and quite simply go to town. It’s funny to think about – I eat turkey sandwiches, and turkey this and that… but I rarely sit down and just buy the entire turkey and roast it. Anyhow, I did the typical American thing this year – went to wal mart super center and bought a discount turkey on sale. Go ahead and laugh at me. I did.

From there, I got up at 7 am, started the stuffing (all the guys were asleep) and all the other prep – for garlic mashed potatoes, steamed asperagus, pies, the like. Yeah, it’s great being able to cook. What’s even better is when after a day of the guys watching football and playing on the computer (ok I admit Bri did help with the washing and basting of the turkey and peeling of potatoes – thanks love!) when the entire cooking area was done – and sitting down to enjoy the feast. The appreciation of a good meal, and a great movie – well, that counts for something. What’s more, the knowledge that this meal is only once a year (there are leftovers of turkey soup in the freezer, turkey sandwiches in the fridge, and turkey and cheese breakfast burritos ready to go) but can last much longer for folks that can’t cook… that makes me smile. Just knowing that I was able to make their day a little brighter. Yeah, that’s great.

Hope your “gobbling of turkey goodness” was great too.

Now, On to the black friday shopping! (yeehhhaaa!)

Share