So instead of a weekend away from home (and the kids), I've spent most of my time doing work around the house and the yard (yes, I'm a guy who knows how to have a good time).

I had to replace the ancient light fixture in my "office" this morning (er, um, yesterday morning--I have no idea why I'm still up this late). It's one of those small brass fixtures, with a pull cord, that dangles from the ceiling by both electrical wires, and one of the wires broke last night as I was turning the light off just before going to bed. I learned an important lesson--don't use an all-metal tool, such as the Leatherman I was using, when working with live electrical wiring. It didn't seem worth resetting all the clocks in my house just to wire in a new light fixture, but the jolt I got when my pinky finger accidentally touched one of the wires while I tightened the screw on the other wire left me wishing for just that.

I also made some repairs to the sprinkler system in the front yard, but I've still got a lot left to do. The work I did today was necessary in order for me to pour a new sidewalk where this pathway once existed. I had to remove a sprinkler head and several other fittings and joints and replaced it with one long pipe that runs under where the sidewalk will go. When I get back to the rest of the system, I'll have to dig that pipe up again, cut and thread it, then install a new sprinkler head and continue the line out to the front of the yard. I also replaced the old, pitiful plywood boxes that protected the sprinkler valves with new plastic ones.

My mom has been thinning down some of the plants in her flower garden, and she gave me several iris and daisy plants. I planted the irises in the front yard to replace the ones that got dug up last year, and the daisies went in the back yard. I've never really been big on landscaping and plants in my yard, but this year I've slowly been working on getting it looking good.

Ok, so it looks like Nutty Putty Cave might close after all. I'm going to try to get out there in the next week for one last excursion. I was originally thinking of a weekend night, but I might just do it on a weekday and combine it with a trip into the office in Provo (they apparently miss me there).

I just happened upon KSL Blog this evening. It's definitely some interesting stuff, reading about the behind-the-scenes goings-on at KSL Radio, possibly even worthy of reading on a daily basis.

This just goes to show you how far out of my league my new truck is: I was checking the oil, trans. fluid, etc., yesterday, and I just barely noticed that it has TWO batteries. The one on the driver's side is buried beneath the air intake, so I just never noticed it before. Man, I can already tell that maintenance on this thing is going to be expensive. I also realized that it's already got a K&N air filter, so that's one less thing that I'll need to worry about.

Traci and I had plans to spend tomorrow night in West Valley City at Mike's, but our babysitter had to back out, so we're left with no plans for the weekend. I'd love to go place some new caches and find some others, but I'm not sure it's worth spending that much money on fuel. I haven't even driven my truck much lately--I've still got a tank and a half from when I filled up in Green River two weeks ago. I finally got around to figuring out the truck's fuel mileage, and it's getting around 19 MPG with mixed highway and off-road driving (and a negligible 500-pound payload, not including passengers). Not bad for a 7.3L engine, especially considering that the 3.0L Toyota engine gets about comparable mileage.

I took a little spin up to Miller Flat Reservoir just for the hell of it this evening. I've been curious how much snow was left up there and how cold it's been getting, and I was surprised that it was really nice up there. I guess I was expecting a winter wonderland still, but it was lush and green, and all the runoff was making for some nice waterfalls.

I was very disappointed to see that the Forest Service has turned every single camping spot into a pay site. I guess they think the addition of a concrete fire ring is worth $3/night--I'm not so sure it is. Granted, they've created some new spots that are really nice, but I rather enjoyed staying at the undeveloped sites.

I received and placed both Jeep travel bugs today. I'm sure glad somebody saw fit to get some of them moving down here. I wasn't sure if any had been slated for release in Emery County (none have showed up yet), so I brought one to Castle Dale and dropped it off at the Wickershams' house.

I've just been realizing lately how much my personality (or parts of it) has changed over the past couple of years. I used to be pretty antisocial and introverted, but lately I've been just the opposite. It used to be that when I met new people, it was through no fault of my own. Now, it seems as though I've met a lot of new people and made some new friends, and it was all of my own choosing. Maybe it's all just part of growing up (though I've never really felt like a grown up).

Bradley's gonna be two years old on Sunday. It's an even more sobering thought that Michael is going to be five years old next year and will be starting kindergarten. Anyway, both Traci and I have still got a few things left to do to get ready for his party this weekend. I've been burned out on any type of work lately (I need a looooong vacation), but I've got to buckle down and get this stuff done. I think that when the next weekend comes around, I might take some time off work and get far away from home for awhile. Maybe then, Monday won't seem so bad.

I've already had a full weekend, and it's only half over. I took half a day off work yesterday and took my family on a little road trip. We went to Green River first for a couple of dashpoints, then found a few caches around Highway 24 on the way to Goblin Valley. At Goblin Valley, we ate lunch and did some hiking around the park, then took off toward Hanksville for one more dashpoint. On the way back north, we stopped and got some of these rocks. Diesel fuel was so much cheaper in Green River than anywhere else, even Price, so I filled up both tanks in the truck before heading back to Price. I think we were away from home for more than 10 hours, and it was a pretty exhausting day for everybody.

I had a problem with my camera while we were out and about--all my custom settings got wiped out and the camera reverted back to the factory defaults. Apparently this isn't uncommon. I took some pictures at one of the geocaches we visited, then put the camera back in its case for about 30 minutes while we drove to Goblin Valley, and along the way I stopped to take some video of two antelope tangling horns. When I turned the camera on, the default Canon logo appeared on the screen instead of the image I'd created, but it wasn't until even later that I realized the image size and quality settings had also changed. If it happens again, I think I'm going to try getting it fixed or replaced under warranty.

I haven't done much of anything today, and I don't have plans for tomorrow either. I may do some target shooting, because my wife's uncle gave me three boxes of 9mm FMJ in exchange for fixing his computer. Somebody is sending me two brand-new Jeep travel bugs, which I want to place in caches around Price as soon as they arrive, so I'll probably be doing some 4-wheeling in the mud on Monday to get them out there (if this rainy weather keeps up).

Ahh...I sure did miss having a 4-wheel drive vehicle for the past few years. We took the truck to the Mounds area today and put it through its paces. With all the rain we've had lately, I was very worried about getting stuck, but I think that's because I've become used to driving 4x2 pieces of shit. It performed flawlessly in the mud, but now it badly needs a run through the car wash.

We collected about 400 pounds (or so) of rocks for our yard, and found two places that are just littered with fossils. Tomorrow we're going to fill the truck bed up with firewood from near Airport Road. We've finally run out of the firewood from the trees I cut down in the back yard more than five years ago. Traci and I have decided that we're going to get our money's worth out of this truck, and so far, we're off to a good start.