Summer 2009

It's been almost a year since I've posted on this blog... I'm sure no one has been following. After spending last summer remodeling and planning a wedding, we decided to spend this summer doing "fun stuff." As we have discovered, when you over plan, it's not that much relaxing. Below is a our summer in review:

OUR TRIPS

June...

...16th & 17th - Escalante, Bryce, and Zion's. We took Annabell with us and this didn't work out well as Zion's is very strict about NO DOGS on any trails. It was torture being so close to the trails we love but unable to hike. Next time, no dogs on trips to Zion's National Park. It rained one night and day we were camping and we learned this would be a trend for us the entire summer!



...30th - Adoption of Eleanor. After trying two previous times, we finally adopted a dog that really fits our home. She is a Rat Terrier/Chihuahua mix and elderly. She was adopted through Second Chance for Homeless Pets. Eleanor is manic - either really hyper or really lazy. Neither her nor Annabell have desire to be alpha... so we're still working on placing Annabell alpha.



July...

...4th - BBQ and fireworks show from Sugar House Park. This was a fun event! The highlight being the end of the show when thousands were leaving the park, walking down our street. It was like a parade that included Michael Jackson music blaring from our window and friends trying to get strangers to dance as they passed. Some did.



...8th - 11th - Wenatchee, WA. We spent a few nights and days with friends and family. I got to spend time with my nephew, Silas, whom I didn't know well. What a sweet boy. We had fun in the pool with Silas and my niece Ivy. I can't believe how tall she is! It was also really fun to spend time with my sister Kristin.



...12th - 14th - Lake Chelan, WA. Although we had planned on three nights camping at the lake, we decided to leave one day and night early as Greg was anxious to get back home to SLC. Lake Chelan was beautiful, as always, but as usual it rained one day and night we were there.



...20th - 23rd - Grand Canyon and Navajo Lake. Unfortunately we forgot to pack our camera for this trip. We purchased a disposable camera on the way into the park but I am not motivated to scanned pictures to put on this blog. What a trip to forget your camera! The Grand Canyon was amazing. We hiked the Kaibab trail and walked part of the Rim Trail. As normal for us, it rained during the day and night we were there. This was helpful, as the temperature was never over 85. On the drive home, we camped overnight at Navajo Lake in Dixie National Forest. It's more of a fishing lake than anything, but very pretty. We didn't bring the dogs on this trip and it was worth it even if we missed them greatly.

STILL TO COME - July 30th - Aug. 2nd - Bear Lake. After camping so much, we booked a condo with some friends. We are also not bringing the dogs again. This is our last outing for summer 2009.

KATE'S NEW JOB

I'll be working in the Salt Lake District teaching at Clayton Middle School. Similar to my last job, I'll be teaching English and History. The school is walking distance to our house and I'll be able to ride a bike (except during the crappy winter!).

GREG'S NEW JOB

Greg works for Tooele County School District and his previous school transferred him to another junior high with the shifting of students due to another school opening. He's happy to leave some lazy, moody teachers behind but sad to transfer schools. I've seen his new school, Tooele Junior High, and the building is completely vintage with tiled walls in the halls. It's pretty sweet... although that's pretty much all I know about the school.

THE END

In conclusion, even though this summer has been a blast, we are both anxious to get back into the groove of working. Greg and I may be in love and best friends, but it's time to have our days apart and mold some minds.

Halloween in the Hood

This was our first Halloween in the new neighborhood. We had a lot of kids, most of which came in minivans from other places. We even had a little kid steal one of our decorations on the front porch. Since Greg loves Halloween, we went all out in handing out candy. When we opened the door, we were fully dressed in our Star Wars costumes and had "The Imperial March" playing. It was great. One kid thought my mask blinded me and swiped a skull from our porch right in front of me. Jerk.

Intergalactic Family!

Gutter Slutters

We need gutters around the house. There is some wood rot forming. Not good. The process of remodeling our basement has shown us how much neighborhoods can change what should be a fair estimate. One of our plumbing estimates for the bathroom included MOVING the already set toilet... it reached $6,000. Whatever, dude.

There are gutter sluts out there; they only wish to extort money from you and you should hate them. We did some research and estimated our gutters would be about $500, including labor. One bid, a company who also can't take the hint and calls at least twice a day, put a $800 price tag on the project. When I finally found a company who didn't ask for my address first, their estimate was the closing bid, $400. The salesperson admitted that companies have prices for different neighborhoods.

Have you seen my street? Have you met my neighbors? I haven't met one who is particularly wealthy. It's madness. Remember this - gutter sluts. They are out there and they only wish to molest your budget.

Boo on Rock Port State Park, Hurray for Hyundais!

Greg and I needed some camping time away from the house. Okay, so it was mostly me who needed the time away. I was about to go insane with the endless projects in the basement. (Thank god the upstairs isn't a mess!) Being from central Washington, I associate camping with swimming. The Columbia river looks like a lake and there are endless camp sites that allow you to camp and swim. Not to mention Lake Chelan with it's glacier fed, crystal clear waters that are very refreshing on a hot summer day. YES - Washington state gets hot. NO - it doesn't rain a lot in central Washington. It's a desert.

Greg tried very hard to get us a camp site on a water source, so we packed up and headed to Rock Port. Not only did Greg pay $20 and not get his $10 change, but our site had become a parking lot for two huge vehicles. Death to Tahoes and diesel, white, extended vans!!! I know they are hard to park but placing them in another camp site = I hate them.

We drove back to get our refund, which wasn't really a refund with the incorrect change, and decided to bag the whole "let's camp on water" idea. As we made the drive to our usual campgrounds, Oak Hollow in Midway, we passed endless 350 trucks, Tahoes, and Escalates pulling boats, knowing they were headed to Rock Port. What made me get increasingly annoyed was that these vehicles were headed to an already FULL camp site and would do what the jerks had done at our site; they'd go to the boat launch, put the boat in the water, and the go park their extra vehicle at an empty camp site. Jerks - when a place is FULL this means those who reserved their site aren't there yet. God, I seriously hate those over consuming, pooping out babies, clogging the freeway, rude water breeders! I have never been around such a group.

Not once in my experiences in Washington at campgrounds on a water source, did I have my site taken as a parking lot, or heard people yell at ranger when the entrance line was taking too long. Perhaps it's the shortage of water camp sites here that brings out such frantic behavior. I've said this before, although not in a blog, "breeders" are a Utah thing. Selfish. Rude. I wish they'd sell their boats and extra large vehicles and travel the world or simply another state (Idaho excluded). They need to see how EVERYONE else lives. The worse part - they are breeding kids just like them. I'll never go back to Rock Port or Jordanelle. I hate the people who are there.

As for the Hyundai, now that it's our only vehicle, I love it's gas mileage. I love taking it camping with it's large trunk and room for the dog. Fantastic car. FAN-TAS-TIC.

Gun to my head

Kate tells me I have to make a post because it's starting to feel like the Kate Arch page and not the Arch Hogan page. Those of you that know me know that I am not really into the online communication scene that much. I use myspace and facebook as a means to an end to keep in touch with people. Of course this is limited to a message or so every six months. Regardless, I'm here and I may as well talk about something of importance: White trash idiot morons that are lazy.

I am referring to a select number of my neighbors. Specifically two houses north east of us and now the renting neighbors across the street. North house is all about the wife staying home drinking beer all day on the front porch talking to her friends on the phone at an extrememly loud volume. To make matters worse, her vocabulary is limited to someone that obviously didn't make it through high school. "Oh my god, did you hear what she said? I know. I know. Get out...." And to wrap up our trash neighbors to the north, the husband only knows one way to pick up his dog....by the collar.

Now to discuss our new renters. Divorced mother of two. And when I say two I mean one somewhat normal child and Forest Gump. She has taught her kids that everything you see belongs to us so don't worry about playing on everything. "Running out into the road? No worries. It's ok. Just don't come inside and interrupt me because I really need my semi hourly Meth fix. Anyone seen our dog in the last few days? I'm sure he'll be back."

Other then them our neighbor is full of nice, respectful, and quiet people. I'm sure as the neighborhood gets nicer and nicer we will hopefully weed these kind of idiots out. Apparently I need to wrap it up because now I'm being told I am writing too much....

The summer of X Files

This is our summer of watching the X Files box set Greg got me for my birthday. He really knows how to win my heart. I'm happy to say that Greg has been hooked on this show which makes him really want to believe that the truth is out there. As of now, we are midway through season six. This is my favorite season... and it also contains my favorite episode, "Arcadia." Good laughs, good scares, and good characters. Below is a series of clips from X Files episodes. All of you who want to believe, enjoy...



Here are some of the best scenes from, "Arcadia." I guess there are fans of this episode on youtube.



I'm trying to convince Greg that our first son should be named Fox.

It's the digital us

Greg is in pain from working on the basement. Ouch!