Uno or Dos?

My wife and two older sons are currently touring through Europe. She had a chance to go back to Switzerland and visit her family and friends so we decided to have our two oldest boys go with her. They are also going up through Denmark. I hope to have lots of fun pictures to put online once they are back.

So during my stint as a single parent I am finding new empathy for those who do this full time. I thought at first I would have all this spare time on my hands and once I put my two youngest boys to bed after a full day I would be working on all these projects I had in mind. Well...it seems the only thing I had time to do before falling down on my sofa was to wash the dishes, do laundry, get their clothes and chocolate milk ready for the next day, etc. I have just been so drained, and on top of that have had a hard time falling asleep without my cute wife next to me and I have to wake up early.

Okay, this is starting to sound like a whine session but I better get it out now before my wife comes back so she doesn't have to hear about it. :)

Reach out and touch someone

I don't know what it is about connecting with people but it can get contagious. Every now and then I have the desire to seek out old friends. I have done this recently with Facebook and my mission web site. I remembered that there was one and so I ran through the list of people I spent time with while in Berlin and emailed some of them. One of my buddies, Karl Harwood, emailed me back and it was really good to touch base with him.

Bloggin' for Loggin'

I just took some time to help my son Perrin start his own blog. It was really fun and he is transferring all of his recipes from a notebook he has onto a blog. We'll see how it goes and what kind of ideas he gets for recipes. He is allergic to wheat so all of his recipes will be gluten free. He first found out that he is allergic when he started kindergarten but now he is pretty used to it. Go check it out!

The day she said 'Yes'

July 19, 1997
Looking at the picture of my wife and me that I have posted to the right, I decided to add that title. When we were engaged I remember saying one of the things that attracted me to her was that I liked who I was when I was with her. I'm glad that she said 'yes' and continue to thank her for that. She's the best!

Keith Christensen- CEO of SLC

CEO of SLC? Trust me, nothing could be better. I work for the government and have seen time and again the value of having what we call private sector people in office. I'll admit that I was more than a little wary of having our now Governor Huntsman take office, but now I look at what he's done and how he's been able to focus on being efficient and cutting back on government spending and all the tax surpluses we've seen. I'm impressed.

When I first saw Keith's name for mayor and found out that he was being backed by Rocky I just passed right over his name. I don't think we've had a more adversarial, confrontational, and divisive mayor than Rocky and this has helped him to get lots of media attention, but has always left a bad taste in my mouth. To that end, it has been a huge disadvantage to him since even his good ideas (yes, it's true, there are some out there) are not well received since I automatically think he's working some angle or his prior divisiveness has just left ash in my mouth and I have a hard time listening to anything else he says. Knowing this, yes, I had a hard time accepting Keith as a viable candidate, but now I am 100% for him.

Think of this...SLC has a budget of what? About 600-650 million dollars? How many employees? Though it isn't, it can easily be compared to a very large company. The skills that Keith has in private industry totally put him ahead of the game in leadership for the mayoral office. He just has a different way of doing things because in his business you either have to make it work, or you're out. And this can happen fast. I remember watching the first Ghostbusters where Dan Aykroyd is getting kicked out of his cushy office where they were living off of research grants from the University and he is scared of "making it". He tells Bill Murray, "You don't know what it's like in the private sector...they expect results.".

If you vote for Keith that is exactly what you'll get...results. He is just better equipped to solve our problems from crime to environment issues, cutting back in spending to bringing people together. Just take a look. www.keithformayor.com. Also try going to one of the mayoral debates. There is about one a week this month. Ask him a question...then you'll see what I have- a person you can vote FOR instead of voting against someone, a leader and a person who will make a positive change for SLC.

Salt Lake City's mayoral race- who's your daddy?

As you'll find out about me, I watch a lot of movies. Love 'em and don't make any excuses for it. I love the line in "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" where Angelina Jolie is giving Brad Pitt a run for his money and says, "who's your daddy now?" I also saw this star wars poster that I have to have that has Darth Vadar menacingly reaching out with the quote, "who's your daddy"?



Well, I just can't get this mayoral race out of my mind lately. It's all I can think about (sad, huh?). It is coming down to the question, "who's your daddy"? Or, as the most recent polls by Dan Jones indicate, it may turn out to be, "who's your mommy"? This position is so vital to our community. When you look back at the last 8 years of the reign of Rocky you can see how important of a decision the SLC voters have come Sept 11th. I have definitely locked into who I know will be the best mayor for SLC. Several months ago I went through the long list of candidates and did my research on all of them and tried to meet each of them and/or see them in a public debate forum. Once I got to know them, it became clear to me that Keith Christensen (http://www.keithformayor.com/) was head and shoulders above the rest. This isn't saying that the other candidates are poor choices...Keith is just the better one.



Over the next while I am most likely going to address why I am backing Keith since I can't do it all on one posting, but I would love to have some comments from people who either agree, or especially from ones who disagree and why. I have heard that there are also many "undecideds" out there and would love to bend your "e-ars" for a moment or two as to why Keith makes the most sense for SLC. I am still way new to blogging and my blogs will most likely go unnoticed so I better learn some ways to "market" my blog if I am to get comments going on it.

The Gift of Gab

In the movie, "O Brother where art thou?" John Goodman (the bible selling, union flag saving, cyclops) tells George Clooney, "I can tell, that like me, you've been blessed with the gift of gab." Seeing how my wife often tells me that you can't shut me up when it comes to certain topics, I thought starting a blog would be a great way to jot down my ideas. I most likely have an opinion on everything and like to make it known. I have several ideas of what I want to write about but first I have to sit down and figure out the best way to post them all. So, for now...welcome.


P.S. more gabbing to come

P.S.S. do people really use P.S. anymore?

P.S.S.S. I don't even think you can use this last one, or maybe even the one above, but I like to make up words and rules as I go.