Zona

The unpacking continues. Things fit, things don't fit. Downsizing and shuffling. In Canada we had huge houses that the govt paid the rent on but now when we have a house that's the perfect size for the number of people some of the stuff is gonna be out of luck.

Some boxes marked Xmas or Crafts go unopened into storage behind the door you see here. Every now and then we open a box and pull something out and go, "who's is this?" Sometimes it's claimed and sometimes we all just shrug. In about three weeks we're gonna have a garage sale.

Maggie, Jen, and the kids went to church yesterday while I stayed in the house to do some unpacking. I went into this room, unpacked some Joni Mitchell CD's and then into my bedroom and unpacked my Stephen Colbert desk calendar. I almost made it through the whole year before it was time to pick everybody up.

They have a map of the ward, or parish if you are familiar with that term. The four streets that make up our subdivision is all one ward and the family names of the church members are printed on their houses. The houses with no names are either occupied by non-members or are unoccupied. There are four houses with no names out of the 80-100 houses making up the subdivision.

I had some time so I decided to walk over to a "no name" house. There were about 30 people standing on the sidewalk singing hymns and sharing casseroles and fried chicken. I looked and saw the window shades separate ever so slightly. I waved as the singing got louder before the shades snapped closed again

Today would have been my dad's 82nd birthday. As we move into our new house me and him talk. We talk about all the "crap" the women in our lives acquired and laugh about piling a lot of it up and setting it on fire. We tolerate it though because the women in our lives have tolerated some of the "crap" we've done.

God when will this move end? It actually physically ends Monday but who knows when the last of the money due me will be paid. Maybe a couple of weeks after that.

The moving van was stopped in mid stride today because the sale was not recorded and funded until around 3PM. So we went and bought shower rods and curtains and some other bathroom stuff.

I bought a mailbox. Robert noticed that the "there's outgoing mail in here" flag was busted. So I just up and bought a new mail box. Why not I said?

So now the moving van shows tomorrow and so do the appliances and I have to be in Salt Lake at 10AM to take a test in order to be able to put in for a supervisory position. I work for the government so you know that the test has absolutely nothing to do with any supervisory stuff unless you wanted to teach basic grammar and sentence construction.

So the move ends Monday and hopefully Direct TV will be installed and the internet will be hooked up and my new mailbox will be secured in place.

The house is ours but I still feel the squatter as we wait for money to be deposited in an account so we can wire it to another. We went to city hall and did all the utility things. Eagle Mountain does it's own water, gas, electric, garbage stuff so that was pretty simple. Now on to internet and TV. I saw a picture of the mayor at city hall. She's a total babe. Has the look to be governor soon and then some old fart's running mate in 2016. Tomorrow all our stuff is supposed to show up and we haven't gotten a phone call from the movers telling us a time yet. That's a worry. The house was professionally cleaned by the sellers and met with Magaly's approval. For those of you who don't know my wife, let me just say that the house is pretty damn clean. Ask any of our kids about my wife's clean standard.

We close on the house Monday. Our things will be delivered on Wednesday . Today we will buy a fridge and a washer and dryer and have them delivered on Thursday. I gotta call the utilities and Direct TV and Maggie wants a land line now. I got the Salt Lake Tribune scheduled to start delivery on the 1st.

My 1st month's travel voucher has been paid which is a load off my mind. Things are moving along. Today is the 1st day of Spring and it's cloudy outside. Yesterday was sunny and warm.

So all I gotta do is lay out about 50K in the next week to keep on schedule. Thank god I can come up with it.

The HBO series, Big Love has infuriated the Mormon Church. They have shown an episode in which one of the wives goes through a temple ceremony. They show her dressed in white temple clothes which Mormons say is taboo to show outside of the temple. They also portray a sacred ceremony.

Now all the details of Mormon temple ceremonies have been in the public arena for many years and you too can find those details online if you look for them.

Of course here in Salt Lake City and the rest of Utah this is all big news. Everywhere else it's pretty safe to say that nobody has noticed. In fact, most non members would not have known how accurate the clothing shown was if the Mormon Church would not have said anything. Temple ceremonies are sacred to Mormons and even though I have been inactive for many years I have never, nor will I ever speak of them. I have been through some of the temple ceremonies. It did surprise me that Big Love found an ex-Mormon to consult on this episode and tell them what happens and what it looks like.

No, I don't believe that Big Love is now aligned with Satan and that everybody involved will burn in hell as many Mormons now do. I see them as somewhat hypocritical in the whole thing. Big Love is a show about a polygamous family and even though true Mormons do not practice polygamy, they still believe in it.

A worthy Mormon man can marry more than one woman in the temple and they believe if he remains worthy, he will have all of them in heaven. This would happen say, if his wife dies, or he divorces, and then he marries another woman in the temple.

Of course I believe that if he divorced a woman, she would not be forced to stay with him after this life. That's just my personal belief. Here's something else to keep in mind. The divorced wife can marry another man, but she is forbidden to marry him in the temple unless her first husband was excommunicated.

So I excitedly head up to the big golf show in Sandy. (between here and SLC) I find the expo center and pull into the parking lot. I see a bunch of people who look more like guns guns guns let's go huntin' people.

I go to look for my golf show and find the big ol' outdoor sportsman equipment show instead.

I'm all WTF and I return to the car to consult my newspaper. Maybe I'm at the wrong expo center.

Nope.

I'm a week early.

So I says to myself, "self, this huntin' and fishin' show oughta be pretty interesting and you DO have your camera".

I had an hour before the show opened and so I kinda milled around and then got in line for tix. TWELVE BUCKS?!?!?! Oh well, maybe I'll see something I want to buy. Then I read further down the sign.

Photographing exhibitors is prohibited.

Screw that!

So I drove around and stumbled on some great shots in the Sandy/Murray area.

I do not like getting my shoes shined

because I have too hold my feet straight and it hurts. I also believe that it's bad luck in my line of work. It seems that whenever an officer is killed in the line of duty it is written that he was always the guy who kept a bright shine on his shoes and belt brass. I want dirty shoes and a long life but every now and then I give in and get them shined like today.

Ouch but they look good.

Why do I still buy Rolling Stone Magazine

when I am so far out of their demographic? I see the teaser on the front about an article with Bill Maher and twenty minutes later I'm out $4.50 and staring at Taylor Swift laying on my desk wondering why I bothered. There IS a very nice shot of Lily Allen lifting her skirt to show lacy panties and a very nice ass just a few pages inside.

Thank you Lily.

Are my kids upset that the man married to their mother

mentioned a young lady showing her nice ass? Well my grandfather on the Mexican side had a rep for being a ladies man and my youngest boy says he's one so it runs in the family. I just can't do anything about it now other than sigh from time to time and glance at the menu.

Rock on kids

So the Vancouver years have now faded into the background. It's just another city now that I seem to look back on with the same feelings as I would have looking down on any city from the window of a plane.

There were some good times but I stumbled upon vancouver looking for something, that in the end, I did not find. I found other things. Some good and some bad but mainly things that were not expected or sought out initially.

Good experiences and some lasting ties and memories.

Now that I am fully into the Utah transition I realize that at my age, the significant changes are over. There should be no major moves for the next ten years at least and perhaps fifteen. This economic crisis may change my retirement plans. That might be okay but now, in my line of work I no longer have the need to worry about moving and that is a good thing because I like this place.

Zona Boy reviews the movie, Taken, starring Liam Neilson

Liam plays a retired CIA covert ops dude who's daughter is kidnapped on a trip to Europe. The initial drama is that Liam is divorced and his wife is remarried to a really rich guy. The rich dude lets Liam use a private plane to get to Paris.

Liam's bloody trail takes him through Albanian kidnappers, corrupt French police and a boat full of Middle Eastern kidnapped chick purchasers.

Car chases and lead spraying galore enthralled me as Liam killed about 30 people before rescuing his daughter and flying home on a commercial flight.

This movie was SO below Liam.

Makes me think that maybe the director's first choice was Bruce Willis and he was unavailable.

Defined by me as a tacky, low brow, maybe even unibrow, attempt to be creative. Schlock is most commonly used just as a fisherman uses a brightly colored lure to attract less educated fish to what they think is a tasty morsel. Imagine their surprise when the hook sets.

Of course in the human form the uneducated gleefully take the hook along with cotton candy and deep fried corn dogs.

Things are moving right along with the house buying. Today was the inspection and the inspector said the house was in very good shape and was impressed with how the owners had taken care of the place.

After a few days of windy and near record temps, the snow has returned to remind me that this is Utah and we are next to some of the best skiing on the planet. All that adds up to snow and a fair amount of it.

Today we have to go out to the house and meet with the inspector and then the realtor's office for a buttload of paperwork and then to the airport to get my travel voucher signed and faxed.

It's like I don't have a day off.

So there's a rumor floating around that gay rights protesters are going to decend by the thousands on Salt Lake City for the Mormon general conference in April.

I will be there with my camera of course. Some local gay rights activists have come out, no pun intended, and said that the rumors are unfounded. I tend to believe them. What I DID find out is that protesters of some sort gather in Salt Lake City for EVERY Mormon general conference.

So my devout Mormon mother will be pleased when I tell her that I went up to Salt Lake for conference. Then she'll get mad when I tell her that it wasn't to ATTEND the conference but rather to get photos of protesters.