Fireworks and Freedom Festival Fun!

Later Friday evening, I was invited to a bbq in South Salt Lake. The house where the party was being held backed up to Granite High School's football field where they were setting off the fireworks that night. So stinking cool! Other than a tree on the right, this was the most epic place to take pictures. And yes, I got trigger happy. These are a few of my favorites.

Freedom Festival Fun!!

Every Independence Day weekend, Utah goes nuts with celebrating our freedoms. It honestly is my favorite part of living in Utah. This year, with July 4th landing on a Sunday, the festival is being held Friday, Saturday, and Monday. Friday I got up early and took pictures of the Hot Air Balloon festival. Unfortunately, the weather conditions were not great and the balloons were unable to launch. But I was able to snag this photo (which I just love!).

6 degrees of seperation

I've been on this kick lately of 6 degrees of Separation. It usually happens when I meet someone famous.

So just by knowing me -- you too can be connected:

Kevin Bacon. I should probably start here. If you can get connected to him - you are connected to Hollywood. So they say. Well, I met Kenny Loggins when he performed at my work. Kenny wrote and sang the title song for Footloose and Kevin was the lead in the film, only 2 steps. And since Kevin Bacon was in a Few Good Men with Tom Cruise - I'm 3 steps away from him. The list goes on.

How about Zac Efron? Well, I met a man who's nephew played Zac's dad on High School Musical. 3 steps.

Michael Jackson -- I've gotten it down to 6 steps... I know Rick Robinson, who's former dance partner is on Dancing with the Stars, who danced with Joey McIntyre, who was in New Kids on the Block with Donnie Wahlberg, who is in a film with Rosario Dawson, who acted in Men in Black II with Michael Jackson. Pretty sweet - eh?!

I'm really just kidding with all of this. It is cool to meet famous people, and even more fun to utilize www.imdb.com to find random trivia.

Now if only I could be 1 degree from Michael Buble... ;) I love his new song "Haven't Met You Yet." If you haven't had a chance to listen to it - DO!!! Michael - if you read this "I know that it will all work out... I just haven't met you yet!"

Its been a While...

My computer crashed this summer taking all of my amor with it. But my awesome little brother built me a new one. Now, I just need to get back into the routine of writing and facebooking. Apparently I don't write very often.

So to catch everyone on my life...

Today I took family pictures for a friend. It was so pretty in the canyon. I texted some friends so I could go and take more pictures because it is going to be a fabulous weekend before we jump into winter. Oh - I hope that it isn't a long winter...

Not much else going on. Just keep on keeping on.

Freaky Flies, pt. 2

I just wanted to give everyone out there an update on the Freaky Fly situation at my house. They were here. I killed many. The flies left. And then they came back. I was really grateful for the Red Fly Swatter of Doom, until I whacked a fly so hard that it broke in a couple of places. It is not that great for whacking flies anymore. I bought more from Walmart -- Apparently they are fine with killing flies and offered me a wide variety of killing options. I chose the yellow one.

It may sound gross, but I have taken a liking to killing flies mid-air. I never knew that was possible until I was swinging around and found that my new fly swatter had a fly attached. It kind of looked like those witches you see at Halloween with their arms and legs flattened against the house or pole like structure. I have taken a habit to killing this way and let me tell you why - you don't have to wait till they land AND it kills them on the first whack. Unlike other times when it just stuns them for a second and you are shocked to see them bugging you after only a few minutes.

I wonder if there is a society of fly lovers that are going to write petitions against my killing flies and this blog? Wouldn't that be awesome?! Would it be called The Society for the Protection Musca Domestica or SPMD for short? Or how about the American Coalition for Protecting the American House Fly (ACPAHF - Aaaack Paf)? Oh, I crack me up!

For now, life will go on. "One way or another I'm gonna find ya/ I'm gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha" (For those that would like to sing along with me... It's a Blondie song!)

Freaky Flies and the Red Fly Swatter of Doom

I woke up this morning with a kamikaze fly dive bombing my head. It was enough to scare the living daylights out of me. What is with flies and my apartment? They seemed to come out of nowhere. My roommates and I have cleaned the house from top to bottom with no avail. I don't know why they seem to come back or why they like my apartment so much. I mean, I like it- but that doesn't give the flies a right to like it too. I've gotten really good at snapping towels at them, kind of like a men's locker room (only I've never been in one - so kind of like the men's locker room in a movie...) I killed 5 of them yesterday with a flick of my wrist.

When my wrist started hurting, Denae and I went to Target to find some traps that would get them to carry poison to their lair and kill them all off... But I guess Target doesn't believe in the mass murder of annoying flies because all I could find was some ant killer and a red fly swatter. Since the problem wasn't with ants, I chose the Red Fly Swatter of Doom. When I got home later that night, I let Rachel, my roommate, and Tyler, her boyfriend, have the first go at it in the kitchen. They only killed one. (I think they were doing more than just attempting to kill flies... gross).

After watching a strange movie with Rachel and Tyler, I went up to my room, fly swatter in hand. That seemed to keep them away. I think it was the bright red color. (Or they may have been frightened at the sight of me haphazardly waving the fly swatter around like Harry Potter when he learns how to use his wand for the first time.) I fell asleep with The Red Fly Swatter of Doom in my hand. It must have fallen out in the middle of the night - because that is when they started dive bombing my head. I hid as best as I could under the covers, but I really don't like my head covered when I am sleeping. When I thought it was safe, I peered out -- the coast was clear... or so I thought. Moments later there was another attack. I guess he was still upset that I took out his comrades-in-wings earlier that day. The battle to sleep was lost.

When the sun finally popped out from behind the mountains and poured light into my room, I found the fly swatter and proceeded to carry it with me the rest of the morning. That seemed to keep them away. The ones that couldn't resist following me got what they had coming to them. But there seems to be one that has out smarted me. He keeps landing on me to let me know that he hasn't forgotten about me. I find it very annoying. He lands on my laptop as if to mock me "Naner Naner - you can't catch me..." Is it wrong, but I just want him dead??

The smaller battle for my sanity may be lost for now - but the war is not over, for I still wield the Red Fly Swatter of Doom. I shall prevail!

Me and Donny...

I co-wrote a blog entry that went onto my work's blog... I thought it might be a nice addition to mine - since it was all about me... I edited down. If you want to see the whole post or other posts from my work, the address is coveycenter.blogspot.com There are some really good ones!

The "Coolest Dad in the World" award goes to Donny Osmond for flying in yesterday afternoon for 20 minutes to watch his son's sound check for that evening's Mormon Times Showcase Concert Competition and immediately flying back out for a Las Vegas performance. It was the good luck charm that Brandon needed to win the $5,000 grand prize.
During sound check, Donny was the devoted dad and afterward he gave his well wishes to the technical crew. Actually, he came up behind Jenni, our star-struck scheduling coordinator and startled her when he grabbed her shoulders, asking her to take good care of his son. Jenni shook her head and immediately sent out a dozen text messages to a handful of star-obsessed friends and family who enjoy a good laugh: "Donny Osmond touched me!"

Disclaimer: Jenni thrives off of sarcasm and will do anything to make others laugh.