This picture's a little out of focus, but pretty clever. And that's exactly how I've felt the last couple weeks; just a little out of focus, but still pretty clever. I've thought of a dozen different things to blog about, and have even written a few posts, but haven't finished any of them because I can't think of how to end them.

For some reason it's been really hard to stay focused on anything since the assessment season ended at work. I can think of millions of things I want to start working on, or doing, or participating in, but just can't focus on any one thing long enough to actually do anything about it.

On the list of things to pursue:

1. Get my hunter's safety certification so that, if I ever choose to go shoot things other than cans, I can do so. (I'm not worried about actually being safe, but about being able to get an actual license to kill things.)
   
2. Get an amateur radio operator's license. I've heard it's pretty easy to do. You don't even have to learn Morse Code anymore (but I know it pretty well anyway). I just have to actually get out and do it.
3. Plan out where to go and what to see on our upcoming trip to Italy. I have various thoughts floating around in my head, but haven't written anything down. The normal me would have already made a spreadsheet showing when each site is open, the cost, what bus lines reach them, etc. I've sort of started a list.
4. Plant a couple letterboxes around Tooele. I even know where I want to plant them, I just can't focus long enough to go out and do it.
5. Finish painting the fence. I have a pretty good excuse for this one, though. It's been raining so much lately that I haven't had an opportunity. But I'm sure that I won't do it even when I get an opportunity.
6. Evict the birds living in our barbecue grill.
7. Start working on various projects at work. There's plenty to do, and not much time to do it, but I can't quite seem to get motivated to start into some of the projects I need to do. Well, I'm not getting much support from above anyway.
8. Get off the couch and go to bed. Maybe I'll accomplish this one.

The adventurers have returned, and we saw quite a few incredible things. In addition to the largest potato in the world and the Idaho Falls Temple, we added two more temples to our list off temples we've visited: The Rexburg temple (not pictured, even though it's really pretty), and the Billings temple (pictured below). Unfortunately, the Billings Temple was closed for cleaning. We're still hoping nobody called the police when we climbed up on the fence to take this picture.

Among the other wonders we witnessed was a horse made entirely out of chain. Pretty impressive. We also saw some Clydesdale horses that could have kicked this chain horse's butt. Seriously, they're huge.

We also went to the top of Pompey's Pillar. For those of you who haven't heard of it (like us a week ago), Lewis and Clark climbed to the top of this big rock to get a good view of the area. They probably climbed on top of a lot of rocks, but what makes this one unique is that Clark signed his name into this one, and the signature still exists today. And there really is a great view from the top of the rock. (Pompey's Pillar is the one behind me, not the one I'm standing on).We also found the one place in southeastern Wyoming worth taking a picture:
And, after all that adventuring, you can imagine my exhaustion.

The view from our Idaho Falls hotel room.

"Big Mike" at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana.
And the highlight of our time in Idaho: the biggest baked potato in the whole world!More to come...

Leave a picture up at work long enough in a quiet location and the black pens come out...The blacked-out tooth is pretty predictable.

The little girl's booger is easy to do.

The mustache is always a classic (although a handlebar mustache seems to be the norm).

Tears are always fun to draw.

Making women look like football players = classic.

Cat whiskers; I haven't seen cat whiskers in a long time.

The eye-out-of-socket is pretty hard to pull off.

The eye patch can be used to cover up mistakes made when trying to pull off the eye-out-of-socket.

What's your favorite way to deface a picture?

That's right; I have a hearing today. It should be a blast. I've always wondered, though, would a deaf person have to call it a "seeing"?

If you had to choose just one utensil to use for the rest of your life, which one would it be? A fork, spoon, or knife?
There are valid reasons to choose each one of them. Let's start with the fork:

I would consider the fork to be the most used piece of silverware in the drawer. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is the stigma associated with someone who isn't able to handle eating with a fork (think Dirty Rotten Scoundrels).

Forks are generally associated with "Man Food", and I'm not talking Manwich (which would be hard to eat with a fork). With a fork, you can cut the food, mash the food, stab the food, or manipulate the food in any way you'd like. A fork lets you take charge of what you eat, to kill it if it's not already dead. That's what a fork does.

With a fork, there's very little you can't eat. You can eat beef, pork, chicken, lamb, snake, or pretty much any other meat. You can eat potatoes, tomatoes, radishes, celery, lettuce, corn, beans, and peas. Pretty versatile, eh?

The only real limitation that a fork has is soup. You can still eat the chunks out of soup (and isn't that why you eat soup anyway?) but you can't get the broth, which is pretty good, too. You can always just drink the soup, though, if it's too runny to be eaten with a fork.

The Spoon.

Spoons are a little more tricky. They can help you eat pretty much all the same things, but don't allow you to stab anything. That means that all your food has to be cut up into small pieces that will fit on a spoon. You know, like how you cut up your kids' food because they can't be trusted not to poke their eye out with a fork. (For purposes of this post I'm assuming that your food could be prepared with whatever utensil necessary, but you'd be limited to one utensil at the table. That seems like a reasonable assumption.)

Of course, spoons make eating soup a lot easier, unless you're eating chicken noodle soup. But, really, how are you supposed to eat chicken noodle soup anyway? You almost have to use a fork or the noodles fall right off your spoon. Maybe someone should develop an entirely unique utensil for eating chicken noodle soup. How about it, science?

Spoons are great for eating melons, too. They allow you to eat the juicy goodness of the melon without getting melon juice on your cheeks and forehead (you eat it how you want, I'll eat it how I want). But, then again, a fork works pretty well for watermelon, but I'd have to give the "melon edge" to the spoon.

The Knife

In my world, it's an option. You'd be surprised how much you can eat with a knife. Peas, for instance (this was supposed to include a link to Homer Simpson eating peas with a knife, but I couldn't find one. Use your imagination). Butter would be another food item that you could eat easily with a knife. Hummus, jelly (in all its varieties), peanut butter, uhh... Lots of things. Plus, if that's all you had, you'd probably find a way to eat everything you like to eat with a knife.

So which utensil wins? It depends on who you are. If you're a soup lover, you'll probably want to stick with the spoon (and stay away from Chicken Noodle Soup). If you like meat, a fork is probably going to be your utensil of choice (as long as it comes pre-cut. Or, as an alternative, you could pair up with someone who chose the knife!) If you really enjoy peas and spreads of every kind, go with the knife.

Which utensil is my favorite? Chopsticks.

With chopsticks you can pick up individual pieces of food and put them right in your mouth! It's like using your fingers, but your fingers don't get dirty or burned! They're great! Oh, didn't I give you that option? My bad.

An additional benefit of chopsticks is that you don't have to smelt metal ore create them. If you were trapped on an island somewhere you could make chopsticks pretty easily, as long as you could find a tree. I once whittled chopsticks out of a boat I was trying to whittle. It would be much harder to make your own spoon, and harder still to make a fork.

The only thing that would make chopsticks better is what I call "Super Chopsticks". They're just like ordinary chopsticks, except there's a spoon on the top end of one of them, and a fork on the top end of the other. Oh, and the outside edge of one of spoon-ended chopstick is a knife. That's what I pick. I want the "Super Chopsticks"

I've just created a summary of the words most used on my blog with the help of www.Wordle.Net You should check it out and see what it can do for you!

Who needs to go to church when you can find the All Mighty in the store?
Now with time released freshness!

I love descriptive warning signs. They're so much more interesting than just a sign that says, "Hey, be careful." My favorites are the ones that show a hand with the fingers detached or mangled. I found this other gem last night:

It makes it seem like the electricity is an actual, evil being seeking out victims and killing them. Well, shocking, burning, or killing them, according to the warning label. It's like an introduction to a supervillain: "Meet Shockman! Created when a transformer explosion mutated him into an amorphous electrical blob. He roams around shocking, burning, and causing death. Will ever be able to stop him?"

Anyway, if you see him, try to steer clear.