John Adams: Our Fantastic But Kinda Douchey Founding Father

So, I picked up the John Adams miniseries that aired last year on HBO, and the little woman and I have been watching an episode or two most every night after putting the kids to bed, and all I can say is wow. I love movies, and I see a lot of them, but this is some of the best filmmaking I've ever seen. Everything about it is fantastic. And it's a story that's worth becoming acquainted with. Adams has never gotten the accolades he deserves, probably because he was such an incorrigible prick at times, but if you ever want to come to a deeper respect for the commitment and sacrifice of the Founding Fathers, this is very worthwhile stuff. Adams is one of the most complex characters in our history. He was prickly and could be exceedingly arrogant. But he was also a brilliant and amazingly high-integrity man who valued doing the right thing over scoring political points, and cared deeply for the future of the country, and he deserves to be mentioned with Jefferson, Washington, and Franklin. Be warned that sporadically throughout the series there is some very harsh violence and other disturbing imagery that probably would border on an R rating. I find it well worth it since it's integral to the story. Aaron sez: see it, peoples.

That is a tasty burger!

Again I'm without anything earth-shattering to say today, but feeling the need to post anyway. Can I just say how much I like beef? Red meat is truly one of life's greatest pleasures. Today I picked up some Six Dollar Burgers for dinner and they were spectacular. Thank you, cows, for giving your lives that I might slap cheese, bacon, and guacamole on you for a well-balanced meal. Thank you, ranchers, for raising these dogies up for our enjoyment. And thank you, slaughterhouses, for not caving in to the hippies.

We pillage and plunder, we rifle and loot, Drink up me hearties, yo ho...

So, in the last couple of months Seth has taken to stealing Rolos every time he goes grocery shopping with Amy. It's always at Smith's, always when he's in the cart with the play truck up front, and always Rolos. It has happened five times now. I don't quite get it. I think there are a lot better candies out there. But I am proud that he learned the first lesson I taught him: don't get caught. Amy only finds out after he's started helping himself to them, so she has to pay for them, and she hates caramel (which should tell you right there that she ain't quite right), and I don't want to ingest all the sugar myself. So somewhere in the house are three partially eaten rolls of Rolos that we don't want to give him because we don't want to give tacit approval of his rascalism.

Enough of winter!

So, here we are on Presidents' Day. I hadn't planned to take the day off, but was sick all weekend and I'm still dealing with it. Mostly I love me some holidays, but I'd prefer that we just make the first two days of March Madness a national holiday instead, or at least something to kick off the spring. We bought a little house this past September which we love, but we're on a corner, so I get to shovel lots more, and I hates it. It's been two years in a row now that we have just gotten POUNDED in Utah. I'm usually not such a Negative Nancy, but in February and August I start whining worse than Anakin Skywalker. I love all the seasons, but I'm pretty much moderate in everything: my politics, my weather... and, well, I guess that's it. But I live in Utah, so the joke's on me, because NOTHING is moderate here. I'm just busting at the seams to go enjoy some more outdoor activity, and I know my boys and our obnoxious dog are too. I never knew this about wiener dogs, but they are burrowers. Ike can spend 12 hours under a mountain of blankets without coming up for air. I don't mind it, except it's usually in our bed, and I feel the little ferret needs to know his place.

We did have a nice early Valentine's Day date Friday (a day early, when we were just starting to feel the effects of a cold). We had a nice dinner at Mimi's and then went to Chuck E. Cheese for some Skee-Ball and timed free throws, whatever it's called. The only way it could have been better would have been if they had air hockey and pool (although Amy doesn't share my love of billiards).

In other news, I had the single dumbest dream of my life Saturday night. I was on an LDS mission in Africa with all sorts of random people and we baptized some guy and everybody sang a big production version of "The Greatest Love of All". I was into it, and belting it out like I was in High School Musical or something. I don't know what on earth that was all about, but I feel stupid for even dreaming it. NyQuil does some funky stuff to you. Anyway, this is my first real blog entry, and it's been kind of disjointed, but that's the kind of week it's been. I wish you all an early spring, and invite you to come back often.

25 Random Things About Me

Some of you may have seen this on Facebook a few days ago, but since I could only tag a few people, and since I need to get this blog started and I don't have anything in particular on my mind today, read on:

1. I feel like I've got an unusually easy marriage. When I was dating Amy, there were no head games or mixed messages and that's still what I like best about her.

2. I love kids and usually they love me. Sometimes at church I pick a random kid to play games with instead of, you know, worship. I especially love my own two boys, and really love it when they both bombard me at once.

3. I have to sit on the left at movie theaters. It's the damnedest thing. I don't know why, but if someone is sitting to my left, I'm like, "hey, what are you doing?"

4. I dislike people getting on their soapbox and acting all high and mighty. I'm a live and let live kind of guy and figure most people already know their weaknesses. Don't point out my occasional use of profanity and I won't point out that you're using antipsychotic drugs or not wearing enough deodorant.

5. My freshman year at Ricks was the funnest year of my life. I still have friends I keep in touch with from the dorms, and feel like I really came into my own.

6. I served a mission and was in a little country in Africa for seven months of it and have loved everything African ever since, and find Africans to be some of the best people on earth.

7. I love good food. If you want to get in my good graces, take me out for lunch or dinner, even if you've just insulted my mother or run over my dog, and I'll love you for it.

8. I forgive really easy. I might say harsh things and rant for a few minutes, then it's pretty much over.

9. I love the country. Country people, country music, rodeo, everything. I find life is much more simple there and I would live somewhere really rural if it were practical.

10. I am LDS and love the Church but hate how some people's misinterpretations cause them to act. I find it bothersome that some members are focused only on social issues instead of basic virtues like acceptance, kindness, generosity, etc.

11. I am up for almost anything, as long as it's not prohibitively expensive or insanely stupid. In the past year I have awakened at 5 am on Saturday in the dead of winter for a sparring session, gone branding, and eaten a Rocky Mountain Oyster, among other things.

12. I am a pretty good pianist and took lessons for nine years. I love jamming and teaching myself to play popular music. During my mission, I was known as the elder who could play November Rain from start to finish, and would have greenies and other missionaries I'd never met come up to me and ask me to play it, and I would be like, "who the hell are you?"

13. In college I became well-known for my impersonation of Kronk from The Emperor's New Groove. I had a couple of friends who really hyped it up, so I don't know if the accolades were fully deserved, but people always seem to enjoy it no matter how many times they've heard it.

14. I hate chewing gum. But I hate bad breath and other body odors even worse, and am very self-conscious if I think I might be the offending party, so I'll chew it if there are no breath mints or tic tacs or other alternatives. But you can be sure I'll have spit it out within two minutes.

15. I find rail-thin supermodels disgusting. I like some curves on my women... er, woman.

16. Last year I decided to like pickles on sheer willpower. I'd never liked them, but thought I was missing out because everybody who liked them REALLY liked them, so I overcame my mind and now I eat them on sandwiches and burgers regularly.

17. Other points of view really don't bother me. Religious, political, whatever. Even if you're stone cold crazy, I can still like you, as long as you have a sense of humor and can laugh at the absurdity of life. Yes, I'm talking to you, Sean Penn.

18. Cats suck as pets. That's not even an opinion, it's a fact. Cats are devious, skulking little creatures, and for my money, a pet that's cold, aloof, and considers itself master of the house isn't worth having. If you feed, shelter, and love a dog, it will take a bullet for you. Loyalty matters.

19. As far back as I can remember, I've always loved movies, and I think Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, and Morgan Freeman are three of the coolest people ever.

20. The physical characteristic I dislike most about myself is male pattern baldness. It has gotten worse in the past year and a half and I've started to thin out in the back. My dad and my maternal grandfather are/were both bald as a cue ball, so I had no chance. Thanks, mom and dad.

21. I am a bread and soup snob. Ever since returning from Portugal (where my mission was based), I can barely choke down enriched crap like Wonder Bread and a lot of canned soup that passes for real food here in the States. I frequently get bread that costs $5 a loaf and I don't care, and my wife and I try new soup recipes every fall through spring that are sometimes a little expensive to find the ingredients for, but it's pretty much a non-negotiable.

22. I have a heart-shaped mole on my back which Amy discovered when we were engaged and is in love with. No, it's not a gross, sticky-outy one.

23. After Ricks, I transferred to Utah State, although I never liked it growing up because almost everyone from my high school went there and I considered it Box Elder University. But I now consider it by far to be the best campus, basketball team, and college town in the state. That's not really debatable either. UVSC is second-rate, maybe even third-rate, and I refuse to ever call it UVU.

24. My most embarrassing moment occurred at Willard Bay when I was 14 or 15. It was a Young Men/Young Women combined activity and I was being dragged behind a motorboat on a tube and lost my trunks. Needless to say, I was hesitant to get back in the boat, and a lady drove up on her boat holding my trunks and asking if they belonged to anyone. Oh, and there was a girl that I really liked in the boat at the time.

25. The day after finishing my junior year of high school, I broke my foot while shooting baskets in the backyard. I got the ball caught between the rim and backboard, and ran and jumped to punch it out, and landed awkwardly on the grass and heard two loud snaps. I spent the entire summer in a cast as a gimp, but still went camping a couple of times and was forced by the Nazis in my family to walk up Mount Timpanogos in my walking cast.

Ta-da!

I am officially the last person left on Earth without a blog, and I've finally been worn down. My sister swears blogging is therapeutic, so I will be sure to keep all you peoples informed of my every move. For my next trick, I will make this entire pencil disappear... volunteers?