Catching up on caching

Geocaching time has been a little thin lately but I have managed to grab a couple finds in the winter months. One, pictured above, was 'can you hear the music,' a micro cache .25 miles from SNA (Orange County Airport) in a business park. I think I stuck out like a sore thumb carrying about an oversize framed picture, wrapped in Disneyland shopping bags, which I was returning to SLC with. (I was in Orange County to drop Emma off with my parents for a Disney vacation.)

I managed to stay fairly inconspicuous (I think) and grabbed the find. The second find was almost at my back door where I work. 'Legacy' was a cleverly hidden micro that was fun to turn up on a cold January day.

Pink - its my new obsession

How cool is that?  Hannah's gone all web2.0 on me and started a blog - a blog that compliments me no less.  I've been preaching "blog" for a number of years now so I'm always excited when someone sees the light and converts.  I'm even more exctied when Hannah finds blogging as a new way to break out and stay in touch.  We're pretty lucky in our family to have so many members who stay in touch on the interwebs.  I've gotta say I'm a little proud to have our little niche of the blogosphere well represented - and proud of Hannah for the great job she did on a new blog. 

http://dimplescurlsandagigglygirl.blogspot.com/

The Utah Wedge - or - Deconstructing Doug's Random Things

Because many have inquired, I have elected to expound on the 17th item of my post "25 Random Things About Doug." Number 17 states:

Doug hates the "Utah Wedge" (and that's not a hair style.)

The "Utah Wedge" is a motoring phenomenon which is actually not exclusive to Utah at all, but seems to be more prolific here, thus the moniker. The Wedge occurs on multi-lane highways when a driver occupies the outside lane and is then passed by another car. The passer does not then return to the outside lane ahead of the original driver, but also does not continue to accelerate. This results in the passing vehicle essentially driving "in formation" with the original driver where the rear bumper of the passer is inline with the front bumper of the car in the outside lane.

This process repeats it's self for the max number of lanes and soon, you have several cars passing each other in sequence but never accelerating beyond the car to their right and thus creating a "wedge" which prevents anyone else from passing in any lane and bogging down traffic.

This phenomenon can occur in mirror sequence (starting at the inside lane) and can also cascade symmetrically from the center lane.

The Utah Wedge is not to be confused with the "Utah Claw" which is a hair style prevalently popular among young women in the 90's that seemingly remained popular in Utah far longer than anywhere else. The dominant feature of this hairstyle were the bangs - curled upward and outward from the forehead, sometimes in grand flourish with a diameter of several inches. At it's peak of popularity it seemed the larger the diameter of this curl, the better. Because the bangs curled around and met the forehead at their point, the term "claw" was coined. Due to the prolonged popularity of the style in this region, it became known, mostly to outsiders, as the Utah Claw.

P.S. If I were to give the term "Utah Wedge" to a hairdo, I would assign it to the currently popular style where a woman allows her bangs to fall naturally to each side of her face, not longer than her shoulders, and then trims the hair lengths in sequentially shorter strands toward the back of the neck. This style appears to me, when observed from the side, to create a wedge. I find this style, IMHO, to be largely unflattering on the majority of women and I look forward to the day when it is no longer in vogue.

25 Random Things About Doug

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

[Editors Note: This format is specific for facebook users but many variations abound, adapt this to your favorite blogging/social network and include me in the response if you like]

1. Doug likes great architecture.
   
2. Dougs favorite big city is Chicago.
3. Doug enjoys museums.
   
4. Doug enjoys taking pictures on celluloid and used to process his own black & white prints.
5. Doug hates to admit it, but he enjoys reading those paperback Sci-Fi novels.
6. Doug still thinks the Space Shuttle is an amazing air/spacecraft.
7. Doug is amazed how many families don't make their house numbers visible nor illuminate them at night.
8. Doug still thinks Superman is the greatest Super Hero.
9. Doug thinks some of the greatest people in the world are those who allow him to buy his two items before they purchase their cart full at the supermarket.
10. Doug wishes he could get more sugar free drinks at restaurants.
11. Doug has been robbed both personally and professionally and hates being taken.
12. Doug wants to pull his hair out when forensic scientists draw weapons and take down criminals in TV dramas.
13. Doug thinks MySpace is spawn of the devil and disslikes all the crazy crap people put on thier profiles.
    
14. Doug belives DRM is a ridiculous protocol and should be elminated.
15. Doug never feels more uncomfortable than he does in a nail salon.
16. Doug often wishes Bajio, Costa Vida and other Cafe Rio knock off's would dissapear.
17. Doug hates the "Utah Wedge" (and that's not a hair style.)
18. Doug is a big fan of Robinson Helicopters
19. Doug believes that the Fender Stratocaster is still the finest solid body guitar.
20. Doug watches The Ten Commandments annualy at easter becasue he misses his Grandmother.
21. Doug thinks "The Bishops Wife" is the best Christmas movie and watches it annualy for the same reason he watches "The Ten Commandments."
22. Doug, at one time, aspired to earn a communications degree and work as a film critic.
23. Doug married his wife 93 days after thier first kiss and knew with greater confidence than he had known anything else that it was the right thing to do.
24. Doug thinks everyone should be a Beatles fan (if in fact anyone is not already.)
25. Doug owns his own bowling shoes and ball.
    

I Want To Rock

I find myself thirsting for something new, perhaps something a little different. My music library hasn't had much added to it for a while, so I'm looking for a new group or artist to latch onto. I'm looking, not just for a single thats hot, but domething I can delve into. Similar to when I finally bought a couple of John Mayer albums a couple years back and ended up listening to them constantly for the better part of a year.

Do you know a band or artist that makes you feel that way? I'd love to hear from you. I need suggestions and it seems that if you take the time to read this blog that I likely will be interested in your opinon, so lay it on me. I hope to get suggestions that don't end up often on the top 40. I still DeeJay quite a bit so popular music in most genres isn't hard for me to bump into, nor is it usually as deep and satisfying as I'm searching for.

There's lot's of great music out there (and it's not all rock) - I'm counting on you to introduce me to it.

A Giant Among (Snow) Men

Emma likes winter fun, but sometimes building a snow man on your own can be a daunting task. Emma quickly decided that building one foot snow men was just as rewarding as the four foot variety.