I got new clothes today for the first time in a LONG time. I mean that quite literally. I mean, I get something here and something there, but it’s been a long time since I’ve bought shirts, shoes, pants, socks…everything. We had a little money left over from school so I decided that I was going to spend some on clothes. Corinne will also be picking up some new stuff. We’re going to continue our shopping adventure tomorrow.
We decided to go to dinner at Chevy’s tonight since we were in Salt Lake and it was great. I have three words for you: Spicy Steak Tacos. Oh…my…gosh, they were wonderful. Steak chunks simmered in a habanero pepper sauce (VERY spicey) and covered in a black bean salsa with a cilantro cream sauce. I brought one home….I think I’m going to finish it now.
My step brother and his wife are were in town today. They just got back stateside from Italy (they’re in the Air Force) and are headed to their new home in Mississippi tomorrow. I drove down to Salt Lake tonight with Milaena and we hung out with them and my parents. We had a good time. We went to dinner at Chilis and we had great conversation. Mark is such a great guy and Amber has a great sense of humor. I’m sad that we didn’t get to spend more time together, but I know how things go and I know that they have a lot going on right now. Regardless of that though, I’m glad that we got to spend at least a little time together. Amber is pregnant and due in January. This will be their first child and I know that both of them are excited.
Speaking of children, everyone was so enthralled with Milaena this evening. While we were at dinner, Milaena did the signs for eat, drink, and more; everyone was floored. It was fantastic. When we got back to the house, we had a fun time watching Milaena shaker her little butt to some music that I had put on. Never in my life have I been so amazed by a child as I have been by my own; as I should I guess.
I hate useless sales. Every morning I drive past the local satellite dealer and today I saw a sign that says “Back to school sale”. What the hell does satellite TV have to do with back-to-school? Ugh! The American marketing machine never ceases to amaze - or disgust - me. I guess it goes back to the old saying that "people will do anything for a buck".
I’m waiting on some money to come through for school. We have a few things that need to be paid off, but mostly I’m excited about us having rent paid for the next few months. Okay, I’m also excited about the prospect of getting some new clothes too. I haven’t had any of those for a LONG time. Worse off, even the ones I have don’t fit all that well because of the weight I lost last semester. Mostly though, I’m awaiting the arrival of my iPod. I’ve got a whole bunch of stuff that I’m getting rid of, including my PDA, and old cell-phone, a backpack, my ANS, and a few other things. Hopefully, that will help put a little more money in our pockets as well.
Dad and Val were in town yesterday and today. We spend the afternoon with them yesterday and a good part of the day today as well. They came up here yesterday and while Corinne and Val did a little shopping, Dad and I stayed here and talked. We later went to Rainbow Gardens here in Ogden for lunch and then they headed back to Bountiful for dinner with friends. We had a really great time. Today we went to Bountiful and spent a bit of time with them. We hung around and then later met Rhoda and some of her friend at Lorena’s (our favorite mexican restaurant) for lunch. It was good to do some of the things that we used to do with them again. I miss having them here.
Yesterday was the first time that they had met Milaena. It was great. She took right to Dad and he teared up when he was holding her for the first time. It must have been an awesome experience for them to meet their grandchild for the first time. Val cried quite a bit because she wants to be here so bad and needless to say, neither one seemed to be able to get enough of the baby.
Dad and Val are thinking of moving to St. George. I personally think that this would be a great move for them and I admittedly am pushing him in that direction. He’s thinking of becoming a real-estate appraiser there and I personally think that he would do a GREAT job. We’ll see how everything turns out, but frankly, I’d love to have them close.
I’ve been starting to write in my journal again lately. If you’re reading this, you know that I do write a good bit in this weblog; however, there are really some things that are all too personal for me to be posting on the Internet. I’m not writing again because my prophet said to or because of any real religious reason. I’m doing it because I really feel that I need to be doing it and I feel so much better if I’m able to sit down and get the day’s thoughts out. Up until now, I’ve just been using various word processors to do the task; truth be told though, I’m not too happy with how they do it. I’ve got documents strung from hell to heaven and having to back up a bunch of files is just a pain.
My friend Greg and I had a spirited talk yesterday about writing journals. He told me of some software that he’d been using to do it over the past while and I wondered if there might be something like that for the Mac (of course!). I did a little Google’ing this afternoon (a little was literally all it took) and came across a program called MacJournal. Go figure. Naturally, I downloaded it and am now giving it a try. The beauty of this program is that it is just so simple. You create a new "journal" and it stores all of your entries in it. It saves everything to a single file and therefore one must only back up one file - instead of an entire folder’s contents - to save your data. It has a ton of functionality, for instance: it lets you format fonts, paragraphs, and colours; it lets you set a default template so all of your entries look the same with default formatting; it has a fully customizable toolbar; it exports to Blogger and LiveJournal and will save either the full journal OR a single entry as HTML; it allows you to format your HTML templates, it will lock your journal and even better, it will encrypt your journal; and the list goes on. If you’re a Mac user, I highly suggest you check it out.
