I know why I pass on sushi night.

I don't like sushi. I just don't. It doesn't gross me out, I have tried it on many occasions... I feel like it has made me sick on my occasions as well... I have tried it raw, tempura style, veggie, with the ginger, with the wasabi, at the ocean, in a casino, during happy hour in Utah, everything. I just don't like it.

When I was younger I was able to have a list of two items on it that I did not have to eat for dinner. I am pretty sure mine was fish and spanish rice. This was a plan my mother implemented to make it so that all seven of her children would have to eat what was fixed for dinner unless what was fixed was on our list. If that was the case, then we could have a sandwich.

Anyway, I figured it out after taking my wife to get some sushi tonight. We ordered four or five different rolls, a seared spicy tuna salad, and a sprite. It wasn't until the end of the meal that I figured out how I felt about it. Kristin saved the last piece of a roll for me because it was my favorite out of all of them and I told her to eat it. She was like “But it was your favorite.”

“You're right... go ahead and eat it while I try to explain.”... long pause...

I feel like right here I should explain how I feel about rice: I pretty much only eat it to get full or because my mom made me. It is like ice cream or cake. They just help stretch out the good stuff, hot fudge and icing or filling. I will take my hot fudge sundae hold the ice cream please. When I make stir fry at home I do not make rice to go with it, I just eat my favorite part, the stir fry. If I do eat rice, I typically add it very sparingly, and eat it last, after I have finished all the good part of my meal and may not be full.

Fish... don't like it. Tuna, okay sometimes when I am in a mood, from the can and with dill pickles. Salmon, no thanks. Not smoked, grilled, broiled or 'cued have I managed to work up the desire for a second helping. Halibut, cod, mahi mahi, tilapia, trout, bass, shark, calamari, no thanks... just don't like it. Sometimes I do crave fish and chips, but I think that those cravings come when my mercury level is a bit low.

Back to the story... ...long pause...

I have realized that to me, sushi is just a rice dish that tastes like fish. Two things that I rarely eat on purpose. It is just not good to me. I don't hate it. I don't think it is bad for other people to enjoy. I don't get why people love it, but I never got why people would ruin salsa by putting mangoes in it either.

I finally put my finger on how I felt about it tonight. I am pretty pleased about it. I understand that I don't like sushi, I know why, and I am okay with it.

Sorry Anthony, I am never going to fall in love with sushi. The romanticism behind eating fishy rice rolled up in salty yuck is forever lost on me. Teppanyaki, okay, I'm down. Sushi, no thanks man.

-p

Smiley bear.

Not even exactly sure what to write about. Just kind of sitting here... up late again... kind of surfing the web, kind of imagining how totally awesome this year is going to be and also mulling over the day in my head.

My comedy routine is up to two and a half jokes. Well, more like two jokes and and idea for joke but trying to see how I can make the idea make sense to a larger audience than the one that provoked the thought. I think that the funniest part of my mission to put together a comedy routine was when I was polishing a bit using my brother, unbeknownst to him, as the audience, and I was like “I am pretty sure girls invented carpooling.”

“No. Poor people invented the car pool. It was a necessity.”

“Right. Makes sense.”

That's what I get for not prepping him a bit. I am pretty sure he is so used to hearing idiotic stuff coming out of my mouth that he didn't even have to think before doing his duty as my brother and limiting my public idiocy.

I went to church today. It was nice. Talked a little bit about the baptism of Jesus. Talked a little bit about agency. There was some definite food for thought after my meetings. I never realized that some people feel like the idea of church cannot exist in a world alongside the idea of choice. As in that was the one exception. It was pretty interesting. Like I said, food for thought.

I am going to turn 29 this year. Should be cool I guess. Hope I don't have a melt down around my birthday. I guess that is pretty common around this age. I am at kind of a high risk of birthday meltdowns for the next three years or so. Any tips or tricks to avoid melting down would be nice, and welcomed.

Going to have my fifth wedding anniversary this year. Cool. I wonder if we are going to be able to go on a date on our anniversary or celebrate sometime around the week of. What am I supposed to buy Kristin for this one? Can't remember. China or a 2x4 or something like that? Can't remember. Maybe she will surprise me again by being like “Hey! I'm pregnant! Happy anniversary!”

I want to go to Alaska. It would be cool if I could make it happen this summer. I still think about when I went to New York a couple years back. I want to go back there too. That would be cool I if could make them both happen this year. Prolly not gonna happen, but it would be cool none the less.

Nope. Anniversary falls on a Saturday. Most likely going to be at work.

-p

good morning 2001. glad you made it.

Mason on a snow day contemplating the next sled run.

Clover enjoying her favorite food ever. bananas.

I feel like I need to at least acknowledge that it has been more than just a while since I have updated the book. Over a month has come and gone. Oh man. What a month it has been.

I think I want to start with what happened when I walked in the door after work tonight.

When I walked into my house tonight there was a little girl named Clover in my kitchen. When she saw me she screamed and grinned so big that her pacifier almost fell out. It melted my heart. She then proceeded to book it over to me flapping her arms with excitement so she looked kind of like she was trying to shoo a cat or birds away while squealing and running smiling and making me smile like an idiot because she likes me better than her rhinoceros blanket and was happy that I was home.

I like Clover. I miss her when I am at work too.

Work. Where to start. It has been a real learning experience. Do you remember the first time you drove a clutch? You saw whoever you were learning from do it and was like, oh it will be easy, I got this, then ended up killing the car on the first try. Then laying a patch on the second try. Then maybe killing it again a couple times before managing to get a smooth start, but killing it a the next stop because you forgot to put the clutch back in? I am not sure if that is exactly how it went for me, but I wanted to paint a clear picture for my analogy. The manager I served under as an assistant made it look easy. I mean seriously. I felt like I was going to come out of the gate ready to totally knock it out of the park. Not the case. I mean to tie it back to the clutch analogy, I killed the car a few times, I got it moving, and now I feel pretty confident in my role so long as I don't kill when I am trying to turn left on a green light... especially with people waiting behind me. I am getting the hang of my store and my crew. I am getting more comfortable in my role. I still get heartburn when I know that my district mentor will be spending a few days at my store. That is why I am posting this right now. It is about one o'clock in the morning. I woke up with Clover at about midnight and started thinking about tomorrow, and couldn't go back to sleep. I guess that I just wish things would come together a little faster for me. That is kind of what I get for being such a perfectionist. I know that although I am doing very well with my new store, I know it is not perfect... yet. I also know that although I feel like I seldom make the same mistake twice, I somehow manage to keep finding new ones to make. For example, scheduling an afternoon of interviews when my boss is going to be at my store trying to teach me something new... tomorrow. I know that if I did not make any mistakes, I would not be learning anything, and I should be grateful for every opportunity to get better. I just would like some time to kind of let the car idle for a minute before trying to put it into gear again after killing it... know what I mean?

Anyway, all in all the move and transition to a new store and new position has been good. I am growing everyday. Zupas Valley Fair is pretty busy location. It has been kind of fun to see regulars from my other store come out to the new place. It has been fun to see the crazy amount of potential this store has. It has been kind of daunting to visualize that potential as a reality. I am excited to see what the future holds.

Enough about work.

Kristin is holding it steady at home. She has been a total rock for me over that last month as I have been working longer hours than either of us expected trying to get things rolling smoothly at my work. She is a pro at keeping me looking fresh with clean clothes for work and a clean house and well behaved children when I get home. We are really enjoying having both Sunday and Monday off together. We managed to watch the whole Bones season 5 over the weekend a couple weeks ago. We have also just had fun hanging out and laughing a lot together. I love her guts and enjoy her presence in my life.

Mason is doing his thing. What is his thing? Wearing big boy underwear and going potty in the toilet like Kelton and dad (in that order). He also loves making huge messes, lots of noise and giving snuggles.

Clover is growing right up. She has started signing. She walks or runs everywhere. She only crawls if... she doesn't crawl anymore. She likes to check and make sure that Kristin and I are sill alive a few times every night by yelling at us until we are awake. Precious as ever.

I am a little bummed out because of the ratio of work/ family content on this post. It is an accurate reflection of how life has been over the last couple months. I feel like I am mostly just checking in with my children over the weekends and some evening if manage to get home before they are in bed. Same with my wife. We talk on the phone the whole way home from work because that is when we have managed to get some of our best hang out time over that last few weeks. I love my family. I miss them more than I think I should... not because I think I like them too much, but because I feel like I should be able to spend more time with them on my new schedule. I do know that when I do get a solid handle on work I should be able to spend more time at home. It has just been a wild.

Thanks for being patient. Thanks for being supportive. Thanks for everything.

-p