Jodi and I are back in Utah now from California. We had a good time in California but it is always good to come home, the weather was perfect there, it was in the 70s and 80s and sunny every day. I even wore shorts one day! We didn’t pay attention to the Utah weather while we were there so we were not really sure what we were going to be coming back to but we didn’t expect it to be as nice as what we had in California.

We flew back to SLC on the 13th in the evening. Our plane was supposed to leave around 6:30pm but it didn’t leave till after 7pm because it was late arriving from SLC. We heard it was delayed leaving SLC because of weather but we were hoping it would be over with by the time we needed to land. When the time came to land, the pilot came over the intercom and told us that there were some weather conditions at the airport and we were going to have to circle around while they cleaned the runway off for us. At this point we noticed that there was a lot of snow rushing by the plane as we flew through it. After about 45 minutes of this we finally went in for the landing. I am amazed that we were able to land because it looked like the runway was covered in snow! We didn’t seem to have any problems stopping though but after we slowed down they came over the intercom and welcomed us to SLC and said they were impressed with the landing. We landed at a runway at the east end of the airport that was usually for corporate use but it was the only one open at the time because of the weather. Taxiing to the gate took some time because we landed so far away and because the taxi ways were very click, we could feel the plane sliding a little bit every once in a while. The pilot was careful and went slowly so we didn’t have any problems. They also played some Jack Johnson for us on the intercom while we taxied to the gate.

We had no idea what we were getting ourselves in to back in Utah. We had left our Accord parked in the long term parking at the airport so we did not need to contact anyone to come and pick us up but some people around us were making calls to people and found out that the roads were a complete mess. One girl by us said her husband had been stuck on the freeway by Lehi for over 2 hours! She also said some people had been stuck for over 6 hours by then! It sounded like most of the problems were in northern Utah County. We drove home without any problems but did go through some areas that we probably could not have started going again if we would have stopped because of the snow. When we arrived home I had a little trouble getting my car in to the driveway. My first attempt did not get us far enough up so I backed up and tried again, I still didn’t get up as far as I usually do but it was good enough. We probably had a good 4 inches of snow at that point. I shoveled our driveway when we got home at around midnight and then I had to shovel again in the morning because we had another 4 inches again!

We are glad to be back home again but being in the 70 and 80 degree weather was sure a lot nicer than this snow and 30 degree weather! According to the weather reports it may actually not snow again for the next week and the temperatures might get in to the 40s every day!

Jodi and I are in Anaheim, California now, we arrived here on Wednesday. Jodi had to come for CHA Winter 2008, a convention that her company has an exhibit at. I decided to come awhile ago before I was working at Essential Learning but because of the flexibility of my new job it works out well for me to be able to travel and still work. It doesn’t really matter where I am for me to be able to get my job done. Even though I am out of town I still will have plenty of time to work, Jodi always has full days with the convention.

The weather here has been beautiful! It has been in the upper 70s and sunny! It is a nice change from the constant snow and cold in Salt Lake that we have been getting for the past couple of months. We have been going to dinner at some nice places since we have been here, our first night we went to Ruth’s Chris and I had one of the best steaks I have ever had in my life. The next night we went to Bubba Gump which is almost just like Joe’s Crab Shack. On Saturday night we went to a local place called Anaheim White House. We found it online and it had some good ratings, but I guess we should have looked in to it more before we went. It was a much nicer place than we were expecting, we felt very under-dressed in our jeans and shirts. The food we decent but not great and the place had a really bad smell, but that may have been from all the old people that were eating there. Last night we had The Cheesecake Factory, I got a steak from there but it was nowhere near as good as the one I had from Ruth’s Chris last week.

Jodi works with some good people that are fun to travel with so that makes these things a lot more fun even though the days are not too exciting. I am glad that my new job allows me to come along.

My friend Rachel tagged me. I don’t usually participate in these kinds of things because frankly they annoy me a little. But I’m bored and I love Rachel so I decided to humor everyone!
6 habits, things I like to do, or things about myself:

1. I have a love hate relationship with my shoes. My philosophy is you can never have too many shoes. However the first thing I do when I get home from work is take my shoes off and avoid putting them back on at all costs. Anytime I go somewhere and can appropriately take my shoes off I do. At work under my desk, socked feet all the way.

2. Dr. Pepper. I can’t live without it. Anyone that knows me very well can attest to that. I try not to drink it everyday. Recently I’ve only been drinking it on the weekends. But when I’m stressed or have a headache nothing is better than a cold Dr. Pepper. On our wedding day I got so thirsty between wedding ceremony and photos that by the time we got to our wedding dinner I downed several glasses for DP. Bernd quickly learned that I should not have caffeine after about 7:00pm or else I don’t sleep!

3. I LOVE ice cream. Chocolate based ice cream is the best but really I’m not picky, ice cream is ice cream in my book. I have been sick for going on six days now. The first really bad day of my sickness Bernd got on WebMD to try and figure out how to help me feel better. One thing he read said that you should avoid dairy products when you are congested. So what does Bernd do tonight? He asked me if I want a fruit bar (in case you don’t know what fruit bars are they are the best popsicles in the world). So as I’m sitting in the bedroom eating my fruit bar I hear the clang of a spoon and a bowl coming from the office. Bernd is eating ice cream without me. I’ve gone six days without ice cream and he knows its killing me but he eats it in front of me anyway. Rude!

4. I have recently been told that I have a strange habit of looking in things like pop cans and sauce bottles to see how much is left inside. This really bothers Bernd because usually the object is see through but I always look in through the opening at the top, squint one eye and check it out. I had no idea I did this until recently but apparently I do it a lot.

5. I like to color coordinate things. At some point in my childhood education I learned all the colors of the rainbow and the order they appear. Ever since then I can’t not put things in rainbow order. When I highlight things at work it has to be pink (red), orange, yellow, green, blue in that order. My closet, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. It’s crazy I know.

6. Another of my ODC habits is arranging money. When I have cash in my wallet it has to be arranged smallest bills to largest, all of the money has to be facing the same way and turned in the same direction. All of the corners need to be unfolded. Unfortunately this extends beyond my wallet. Monopoly, Life, Masterpiece, any game that has play money I have to arrange all of the money before I can fully enjoy the game.

So that’s probably more than anyone every wanted to know about my crazy brain and my boring life! I’m supposed to tag 5 more people. I fully understand if you don’t want to participate but I feel obligated to play the game! Bernd, Josh or Sabrina (or both), Marisa, Mom, and Margaret.