Fiona, Kaisa & Nathan Judd

Finally, I am getting around to writing a post for our December contest.  Let’s just say…I’m going to be able to buy maybe one clearance book at Barnes & Noble when we go!  Oh well…hope Nathan enjoys what he gets.At any rate, Kaisa is sound asleep in the other room so I am going to take advantage of this moment.

On Saturday, I made my first (of many to come!) trip to Bahama Buck’s in Mesa, Arizona for some absolutely fabulous shaved ice.  Isn’t it great that I can eat shaved ice here in the middle of winter?  Temperatures are mild, and I can enjoy a little something cold without freezing my buns off.  Truth is, this is the best shaved ice I have ever had, by far.  I didn’t realize what a good thing it was until I moved to Utah.  Their little “roadside” shaved ice stands in the summer are fun, but let’s face it…I always end up eating chunks of ice and having wayyy to much flavoring at the bottom.Bahama Buck’s gets it just right.  They have a HUGE selection of flavors, and they shave the ice so fine that it’s almost like a smoothie. The flavoring is always evenly distributed so every bite is delicious from beginning to end.

However, the all time BEST thing about this place is the heavenly Bahama Rama Mama.  (Say that three times fast, it’s fun!) In their words, this is “a generous scoop of premium ice cream topped with flavord snow and finished off with a drizzle of Tropic Creme.” It costs about $1.50 extra, but trust me, it’s worth every penny!So next time you are in Mesa, Arizona, stop by and pick one up!  And let me know so I can send my punch card down with you! (Just kidding, you will probably want to get your own!)

Best Wings in Utah!

Seriously! Fiona and I are self proclaimed chicken wing connoisseurs. Every place we go with wings on the menu, no matter how dumpy or popular the place, we get them if we haven’t tried them. Fiona loves the wings at Native New Yorker in Arizona and has sought to find a comparable wing without avail (and as an internet marketer I have to say Native has an awesome website). We were very excited to go to the Rocky Mountain WingShak and have since gone back and enjoyed it, but it wasn’t quite up to par…Not the local holy grail of wings we were seeking.

WasatchWingz is tucked away in an unassuming, older business park of Sugarhouse in the Salt Lake City Valley. To give you an idea of the caliber of wings they recently won The Rocky Mountain Wing Off. I’m not sure of the reputation of this group, but I definitely agree with them. We had the Spicy Citrus, Spicy Teriyaki, and ‘Honey and Hot’ wings, a half Wasatch Cheesesteak, and some of the most delicious fries you’ll encounter. After playing a round of foosball in the restaurant we sat down to enjoy our wings. First, the cheesesteak was fantastic. I’ve never had a cheesesteak so I can’t compare it with anything. It was just good. Fries, as I said, are heavenly — hot and crispy on the outside and soft and flavorful on the inside. WasatchWingz certainly knows their food! The chicken wings are, what I consider, perfect. The wings were crispy, saucy, wrapped around juicy meat! Mmmm!

WasatchWingz is located on 2020 East 3300 South in Salt Lake, on the south side of 3300 and all the way at the back in the corner. We have finally found the best SLC Chicken Wings, nay…the best in Utah! But we’ll keep looking. We’re looking forward to visiting Trolley Wing Company and WingCoop soon. If you’re ever in southern Alberta, Canada some of the best buffalo chicken wings I’ve had come from Rossco’s Pub in Medicine Hat.

Photo courtesy of Kelsey’s

I took Fiona to the airport this morning and she arrived safely in Phoenix with Kaisa. So I’m on my own now! I think she left a few bills on the counter thinking I would pay those… we’ll see. Last time I paid something that was just sitting out it had actually already been paid, just not filed yet.

I’ve got quite a week plus ahead of me! A week of blogging, Christmas shopping, and doing odds and ends around the house. I may stay at work more…I may come home early just to enjoy the peace and quite. :)

It’s actually kind of an empty feeling coming home to a house now unoccupied. But I’m going to use the time to recharge my batteries the way I like to, doing nothing! Maybe ‘puttering‘ is a better word. I hope that Fiona and Kaisa have a good time and Grandma Wendy’s. It sounds like they have a lot of fun things they are going to do on their migratory vacation to Arizona. For as much as I didn’t say it before they left, I’m really going to miss them.

Kaisa is nearly 8 months old and I’ve given her medicine only about half a dozen times or so. I’m sure Fiona will have some witty comment in response to this post, and I know this won’t work for everyone, but here are my thoughts about getting kids to take medicine.

Tangent story: I had a great dentist growing up. It wasn’t the sort of thing that I exactly looked forward to, but it was a tolerable experience. One time the dental hygienist made the mistake of asking me if I wanted to get an x-ray of my teeth and that it “may hurt, just a bit”. Why would I want to do that? What’s this lady thinking? Since she gave me the option I said no. The next time they I went in the hygienist just did it, made no fuss, and it was nothing. Seriously…why would that even hurt? As adults we can blow these little things our of proportion.

Here are a few tips:

• Make it simple and natural
• Create a pleasant situation
• Create Curiosity

It seems to me that many times medicine is one of those things that we make a bigger deal than it really is. It’s not a big production, it’s just medicine. Fortunately, Kaisa’s at an age where she’s not defiant if she’s playing around and just being curious. If I can make her curious about the medicine then she’s going to have an easier time taking it and not freaking out when I give it to her. She doesn’t like to be forced to lie down, why would she be happy to take medicine when we’re creating a situation she doesn’t want to be in in the first place? The medicine people have tried their darnedest to make it appealing, I mean…c’mon, it’s purple, smells like bubble gum and tastes like grape, how is that not appealing? Medicine makes them better, it’s just like drinking anything else, and we’re really not trying to trick them — we’ll leave that to that “nice nurse” with the needle in her hand. Ouch!

SACtional Love
Sactionals, for us, have been the perfect piece of furniture. We wanted something modern that would last. It had to be comfortable, fun, and — oh yeah — easy to clean. Sactional is all that and more.

LoveSac is famous for casual, alternative furniture created by Shawn Nelson, Fox’s The Rebel Billionaire. LoveSac’s are filled with shredded Durafoam™, a memory foam that come in 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8 foot sizes. That’s a lot of awesome furniture! Our 6 foot sac is at my parent’s house because we needed some more space downstairs for the Sactional.

Sactionals were introduced in 2005 as a modular sofa. You can make several different pieces, a Twister, a play pen or just make it into a bed. Because of the memory foam bases, the Sactional is quite comfortable to sleep on which is good news to guys and for guests! Sactionals only have two pieces, a base and a side, that make up all these different combinations. The pieces clamp together to form a solid piece of furniture, quite awesome! G2 Sactionals, not compatible with the original Sactional, started selling after Christmas 2006.

Sactional covers are microfiber and can easily be taken off and washed. That comes in really handy with a snot nosed baby the height of the sofa, she loves to pull herself up on the side of the Sactional. We have several different covers or skins for our pieces because we got them from different places “gently used”. We have black (my favorite), red (lots of it), and a couple covers called Puppy Phur which really remind me of a stuffed stuffed polar bear I had as a kid. If you, or someone you know, has a Sactional and wants we trade (or knows where I can buy) different covers then let me know. While the Puppy Phur is fun, it’s not my favorite and I’d rather just have black. We have the first generation, G1 Sactionals, as they are known now. I’m kind of bummed because the new G2 Sactional pieces don’t fit with the original so we’re having a hard time expanding our set. But I think we have just about enough now. Because I love Sactional so much you’ll probably read about these again when we rearrange our furniture. As always, comments are always appreciated!

More pictures of our Sactional after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

• Set a time limit before you start playing.
• Don’t set an objective (I’ll be done when I do X), set time (see #1)
• If you don’t beat it the first three times, try setting the level a little easier
• Do it when you spouse isn’t there (Check!, Thanks Honey!)

That ought to give me my video game fix for a week or so, maybe… Sid Meier’s Civilization games have just the right amount of “strategery” coupled with awesome (and addictive) gameplay. It’s too bad it takes so darn long to play! Worse than any Risk or Monopoly game I’ve played, good thing you can save! Not that video games are bad, but I think I’ll just stick to Killer Bunnies this weekend.