The Anticipation

You know, the week before the 4th of July when we were kids was painful. Not like Christmas or Halloween, but there was a different excitement with the 4th. (What if the Declaration of Independence was signed the day before? The 3rd of July just sounds stupid) 

As kids we would do ANYTHING to get hold of firecrackers. We lived a half hour away from San Francisco, so someone was always making a run up to Chinatown to get illegal fireworks. We would rate firecrackers- Thunderbombs were the best, then Black Cat, and Lady Fingers, well, if you had them, you didn't say anything, you wuss. Packs would sell for 25-50 cents from whoever had them. 

We never just blew off packs of firecrackers at once; we would unwrap the big long fuse that tied them all together and do each one separately. And it usually involved blowing something up- a snail, little green army men, old model airplanes, etc. We would also blow up the glass that covered the water meters. Now if the firecracker didn't go off you didn't just move on; it would be inspected to see if there were any fuse left. If there was, it was always real dicey to try and light it and bail out of the way before the blast. If the fuse was gone, we'd do a "Fizzer" which meant we'd break them , dump out a wee bit of gun powder, and have someone right there as you lit the powder. It would start fizzing then someone would stomp on it and it would pop. 

A couple experiences- Mike Stark lit an M-80 in a pile of doggy-doo and it blew all over the front of his house! His dad, Lowell, whose blood pressure was already at dangerous levels just sitting calmly in a chair drinking a Schlitz, heard the noise, came out front and about had an aneurism! I think that's the first time the four letter word for poop was hurled in the neighborhood at such decibels. 

The other classic was our friend William's big brother was at the school yard one night, in the picnic table area, smoking pot with some of his stoner buddies. It was pitch black. We had some bottle rockets. Well, we fired them in at them. They shot in, bounced all around them and blew up. Those guys were freaking out. I still don't know why they didn't kick the crap out of us.

I just thought about this today as we were driving around. Man, I miss those days.

Sweatin' in the Outfield

I was lucky enough to be asked by Jayton Wakefield to play on not just one softball team, but two softball teams this spring. One is a co-ed team in Orem, the other a men's team in Provo. We pretty much have sucked it up in the co-ed team, but have been respectable in the men's league. 

Back in the day when I was a teenager we played church softball. I have always played in the outfield because, as any Snyder will tell, we hate the infield because of the thought of taking a ball to the chops. We are famous for the mitt down-head turned short hop play. Wusses, perhaps, but our teeth are still intact. Carl did pitch, though, and was very good at it. In church ball we took regions undefeated two years in a row with a perfect regular season. In area championship play, which took in all of the Bay Area in CA we did exceptionally well, too. My shot was always right over the 2nd baseman's head.  

Fast forward a couple decades and I am still in the outfield for the same reasons, though my teeth could use a good knocking out! It has been fun running around and diving for balls; I have even caught a number of them. Last night if I had made the catch on a screaming line drive that was tailing away from me I would have been on the ESPN highlight reel. But it hit the tip of my mitt and bounced out. Crap.

The problem I have is I cannot hit to anywhere but left field now days. I don't know why!?! It is very frustrating. 

Last night's tournament game was fun and we had a good crowd of spouses and friends cheering us on. Thomas Grover, our only lefty, has been the only person on the team to nail the yellow foul pole. He was able to burn around the bases for a home run. It was great. 

But alas, we were ripped off by some extremely crappy calls by an ump who obviously had a great relationship with the other team. (I bet they went and got Slurpees after the game and had a good chuckle!) We ended up losing by 2 runs. We play again tomorrow night for the men's team. Tonight is the co-ed team. We have already lost 1 game, so if we lose tonight we are done. So, I will be sweatin' in the outfield again this evening.

Maybe the Softball Gods will let me hit to center field.

Or not.

They're probably drinking Slurpees and mocking me.

6.2 Miles

So I've been running the 5K races with my brother, and he is ticked because I keep beating him. Well, the 10K is coming up on July 4th for the Freedom Festival. Carl will be running that with his friend. Jayton Wakefield wants me to run it with him, too. The farthest I have run is a wee bit over 4 miles (not including running with my wetsuit on back in high school when I was trying to make weight for a wrestling match!).

Jayton and I ran from the mouth of Provo Canyon up to Nunn's Park and back, which is pretty much 6 miles, in the heat! I was able to do it without dying and my legs are just a little sore today. So, I will have to keep it up for the next couple weeks. I have biked a couple times to work. That helps with the lung capacity.

A side note to the picture from the last posting. Back in the summer of 1999 Tyler brought his hair clippers to work one day. I walked into the waxroom to see one of my co-workers leaning over the garbage can and Tyler buzzing his head! My hair was needing a trim, 

but not a shave. Everyone started giving me crap, so I buckled and had him shave my head, too. Everyone ended up bald that day. It was pretty funny. That's our former business manager with me. We felt like we were in the nut-house, so we acted like it, too. When I got home, my kids didn't know who

 the freak was walking in our front door, and my wife cried. But, she really loved it and begs me to do it again. I don't know if the Stake President will be happy with that.

That's me in front with the sunglasses

Cholesterol, our buddy!

Back in January I had a physical, the first in about 15 years or so, and became acquainted with Dr. Jellyfinger. They took a lot of blood and ran the tests. I got them in the mail about 2 weeks later, telling me that my cholesterol was at 246 and that I needed to change my diet. So, this coincided with a bunch of women at work who were starting their own version of The Biggest Loser, which I automatically win because, well, as my wife will say every now and again... loser! (it's usually when I make an inappropriate comment). 

Anyway, I have made some serious changes in what I eat, and how much of it I do eat. It has been very hard to not eat chips, cake, cookies, brownies, Ho Ho's, Ding Dong's, etc. every day. And cutting out the cheese has been a nightmare! I love cheese, especially pepper jack and of course, Stinking Bishop!

As the months have gone on I actually started losing weight. I started out at 164.8 pounds as of Feb. 1. At the end of the competition at the end of May I weighed in at 150.0 pounds! Pretty sweet. 

This all leads me to Saturday. I had my cholesterol checked again and it came in at..... 171!!! I was pretty surprised. I figured it would be 239 or something like that. So, I wanted to celebrate with a bacon-wrapped steak, but my wife BBQed steak for me for Father's Day.

I guess I'm a LOSER after all.

Father's Day

Though I feel Father's Day is a bit of a sham, I want to honor my dad. He passed away back in December of 1998. It's not until someone is gone that you really realize how much they meant to you. My dad was about 40 when I was born. I'm 41 now and have a daughter ready to start college, so the dynamics of our relationship were a bit different. My dad was from Oak Park, Chicago and grew up in a very different world. I feel bad that we really never knew a whole lot about my dad's past. He moved out to San Francisco while working for United Airlines in the 50's. There he joined the LDS Church, which ostracized him from his family. 

My dad loved to work on cars, especially the stupid Opal Cadet, which, I swear, we were lifting the engine out of, from a jimmy-rigged contraption looped over the rafters in the garage, every summer! My dad was always very entrepreneurial, trying to come up with some new business or idea. He actually had a prototype of the mask thing that's used at the dentist's offices for getting the nitrous oxide. A wee bit of funding and he could have made it big!

My dad worked different jobs to keep us going. 

I think the one thing that is impressive is that my mom got spinal militis back in 1979 and my dad stuck with her and took care of her until he died.

One last memory is my dad telling jokes, usually bad ones, but you'd be laughing so hard because he was laughing and couldn't get them out. 

I miss him and would love to ask him questions about life and where I am at now. I would love to have had him at my graduation last year and at my daughter's graduation. I would love to talk to him about his family history, about my grandfather, about living in Washington DC. Well, my dad wasn't perfect or the Best at one thing, but he set a great example and I am partly what I am because of his mundane but hard working existence. 

On the 7th Day...

We got home in the wee hours of the morning, so I put this off until today. I got up and did the morning rituals. I let the womenfolk sleep in. I cursed my bed one last time! I took the camera and went walking around Pennsylvania Avenue and such. I have put a few random snapshots on. It was still really hot and muggy and I was starting to sweat like a pig, so I came back to the Hotel. 

Teresa was up and going and I got Chantel up at 10:15. We packed and cleaned up a little bit. Chantel and I ran over to see the house where Lincoln died, across from the Ford's Theater, but there were huge amounts of children waiting to go in. So we jumped into a souvenir shop, bought some DC shirts and some magnets and came back. 

We loaded up, said a prayer, and went downstairs to check out. I am calling our room the McCain Memorial because the toilet paper is something they would have at a POW camp and the bed was tortuous!

We walked to the Metro one last time and were off to Union Station. Once there we bought tickets for the Marc then stopped at Sbarros for some pizza and spaghetti. We also bought cookies at a French Bakery. We walked a bit and hung out. I looked through a few shops. Why didn't I buy a Nationals pennant?! Man, I always blow it.

We finally boarded the train, which had no AC

 and was stifling hot. Our train took us to the bus which took us to BWI airport in Baltimore. We got checked in then went to the observation desk to watch for a bit. At the security check there was a mom dealing with her 2 young children and her mother. I figured we'd be seated real close to them.

Our gate was at the furthest part of the terminal and it was packed! There was a Potbelly's there, so I grabbed a shake and cookie for us to all share. The flight was supposed to leave at 5:15 PM EST, but the walkway thing that takes you to the plane was broken. It took them a long time to have us walk out onto the tarmac and up the stairs to the plane. I helped a couple ladies carry their stuff and stick it in the overhead.

And of course the lady with the 2 upset kids was in front of us!

Well, at 5:30 they announced that all flights west were delayed because of severe weather. We waited, they started the movie and passed out snacks, then waited more. We sat on the plane tight there for 3 hours! Then we got in line to take off and waited there for 30 more minutes. When we finally took off everyone clapped. It was funny.

The plane seemed angry as it jetted up and banked hard right.

Well, the flight was re-routed south before heading west. I'll tell you what, I was going nuts what with the screaming kids and the lateness of the hour. Chantel and I watched Seinfeld for an hour and 1/2. We would burst out laughing at some parts, probably ticking other passengers off. The one classic time was when Kramer was talking about the Sitcom that Jerry and George were supposed to be writing being about a circus..."Come on, a guy who's just a head, beeeyyyahhh...". It was the perfect time because we started crying we were laughing so hard!

I started getting the jimmy-legs, and I can't sleep on a plane, so I put on my iPod and cranked it up. We hit a massive turbulence and the plane dropped and people, including myself, freaked out. Ugh. The worst part was when we were still an hour and a 1/2 out. Oye!

Well, we landed 11:00 PM MST, then had to get our bags, then the shuttle to the car and then pay to get out. We stopped and picked up Abby & Madalyn, who were still up, at Carl's house, got some gas and headed home. Chelsea was still up, too. We grabbed a piece of toast and crashed at 1:30 AM!

Overall it was a great trip. I loved the time to spend with my daughter and wife. I think it brought us all a lot closer and made me see Chantel in many different situations. I realize she is beautiful, thoughtful, friendly, has a great sense of humor and is fun...F U N!

DC 6

I was having dreams of flying in very small wooden planes in the front yard of my house that I grew up in, probably from seeing the Air Mail planes. Oh, but then I'm rudely awaken by bedspring number 17 in my kidney! (My wife is right now popping an Ambien, so she'll be rather fun in about 15 minutes) Well, I let them sleep in until 9:30 to 10:15. We got all showered and dressed and then headed out the door, greeted by the already 90 degree weather and high humidity. I only have 2 dark colored shirts left, which doesn't bode well for being out in the sun. I had Teresa take a picture of me and Chantel in front of the FBI building. 

Our first, and main stop, was at the Newseum on Pennsylvania Ave. It was an expensive

 excursion, but we had a great time. We started off with checking out a couple sections of the Berlin Wall. Then we rode the tallest hydraulic elevators in the world to the 6th floor. We checked out the view and got a couple pictures and read a little history about Pennsylvania Ave. We went to the 5th floor and looked through the big exhibit there. We jumped down to the 3rd floor for a demonstration about a news studio. Some old gentleman kep

t asking rather random questions. You could feel other people cringing every time his hand went up. 

We ran back up to the 5th floor and looked at some more things then watched a

 video on this huge long screen.

The 4th floor had a big 9-11 exhibit and also info on the 1st Amendment. We then got to the 2nd floor and Chantel did a little newscast thing.

 It was pretty funny. We will be able to download it tomorrow off the internet. Maybe we will share the address. Then we went to

 the 1st floor and checked out some stuff and watched a 4-D movie. It was actually pretty cool. The whole experience was pretty cool. I thought it looked familiar from the George Stefanopolous Sunday morning show, and sure enough they shoot it there each week.

We walked out into the blasted heat! We walked up to the Capitol Building. Chantel and I wanted to go do "I'm just a Bill, stuck here on Capitol Hill", but you can't even get close to the steps now days. We walked around to the Library of Congress and went in for a looksee before they booted us all out and closed up. 

So, we walked a couple blocks and boarded the Metro. Of course there had been a train that had jumped it's tracks on the Orange Line. We had to wait an extra 20 minutes, but sitting down there is still better than walking in the heat. We made it back to the beautiful and amenity bare Hotel Harrington so the women folk could take a wee breather. I jumped out to take a few pictures of the hotel and such. 

When they finally got ready to roll, we went to Elephant & Castle for dinner. I got guilted into ordering the Bangers & Mash so that Thomas Grover wouldn't be mad at me. They were tasty, and they came with baked beans and a delicious apple chutney. I also ordered a side salad. They sausages were nothing like the sausages that I ate in New Zealand. We waited forever for our

 waiter to come back, then ordered desert. Chantel and I shared a brownie and ice cream dish called Big Ben Brownie, which we were shocked to see when they brought it out, and Teresa had an apple crisp. Totally bloated! We waited for a long time again for our waiter, got the check, paid and were done. We waddled back here and are laying around doing crossword puzzles, Soduku and this. I can't believe our trip will be done tomorrow! I think our other girls are missing us. We miss them.

My wife is now woozy and can't walk a straight line! Lightweight!