end of an era

It’s taken me a few days to be able to sit down and write this post. This week I had to do one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. Say goodbye to my best friend of more than 16 years.

Sydney came into my life through a comedy of errors that included talking a co-worker into being a translator, a drive late at night into one of the worst neighborhoods of East LA and negotiating the sale with a 12 year old girl with special needs who only spoke English as a second language. It was under those auspicious circumstances that a handful of fur and wrinkles sporting a wet nose became my sidekick through thick and thin.

 

I joke that Sydney is my longest lasting relationship, but the truth is…she was. She moved with me from one coast to another several times, living in So Cal, Cleveland, NYC, Connecticut, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Southern Utah. She knew what it meant when the moving boxes came out, and took it all in stride. She definitely saw me at my highs and my lows, but through both extremes never judged me. It was probably because her only focus in life was food, but I like to think it was unconditional love.

Anyone who ever met Sydney has a story. Don’t get my dad started because you’ll get a recounting of the time she jumped from the back of the couch to the table to devour $80 worth of Berolina’s Bakery Christmas cookies, or he’ll go on about how she loved to eat entire bars of Ivory soap out of the shower whenever we were visiting. She earned the nickname “Sydmonster” from my then three year old niece, and for good reason.

Despite my explicit and repeated warnings never to leave anything accessible to her, anyone who ever babysat for Sydney has a story of how they didn’t think she could “jump/shimmy/unzip/unlock/decode” the “purse/bag/high school locker combo/suitcase/kitchen counter” to get into whatever they were trying to keep her away from. But she could. That list included bubble gum, entire loaves of bread, Subway sandwiches, Axe Body Spray, Ambien and many other items that if consumed should have killed her. But they didn’t. The dog had a stomach of steel. And more than nine lives. She was also a connoseuir of cheap beer. She only liked Bud Light, and if you put anything else in her bowl (especially Coors), she would snub it. Clearly she was my dog.

 

In the end, I joked that Sydney was my little Evita. Her mind and spirit were as strong as the day she came into my life. She liked nothing better than to carry around a ball or a chew toy and have you try to get it from her. She jockeyed for position with the other two girls to always be in the thick of things, even as they knocked her down and ran over her. Her little body just couldn’t keep going, and it was finally time to say goodbye. After an afternoon cheeseburger and fries from In-N-Out, she left this world in what I believe was her ideal state…fat and happy.

 

I said goodbye to my best friend this week. Five months shy of her 17th birthday. It’s a struggle to imagine life without her, and I have a hard time remembering life before her. She’s been a constant to me, and the emptiness in the house is glaring. I know it will get better with time, but I also know there will always be an empty spot where I expect her to be snoring away while she waits for her next meal…or opportunity to steal a meal.

Thanks, Syd, for all the memories and good times. I love you more than my luggage, and you’ll always have a place in my heart.

not in this century…

Ok, so it wasn’t actually a Century this year. Our weekend up north to ride in the annual Bike MS charity ride for the Utah/Idaho chapter of the MS Society turned into a bit more pre-partying than expected, and it definitely had an impact on my ride.

We normally don’t participate in the ride every year. I prefer to ride every-other year so that I’m not harassing my friends, family and colleagues every year for donations. Since I earned a spot in the 150 Club last year, I decided we’d do the ride this year and planned on just self-donating the minimum so that I didn’t have to bug anyone. I ended up sending a single fundraising email to my network and pulling in nearly $1000 in a couple days, so thank you thank you thank you to all my generous friends for the support.

Col and I talked Lisa and Jer into doing the ride this year by convincing them the 45 mile leg would be a piece of cake. Col set out intending to do the 75 mile leg, and I decided to just play it by ear. In a flashback to my first year of the ride, I ended up with a bad dental problem in the days before the event, so I needed to see how it would play out once I was on the bike.

We loaded up the Jeep with our gear and bikes on Friday and headed up to Salt Lake City. Hotels in Logan were sold out, so we planned to stay in SLC and just drive up early for the ride on Saturday morning and then spend the night back in SLC again for some post-ride partying. The plan for Friday night was a low key dinner and an early bedtime since we had to be up at 4AM to head up to Logan. Yeah…right.

Lisa and Jer had never been to Lucky 13, so we took Trax down to the stadium and set out to enjoy some amazing burgers and “just one” beer. Lisa had been on a fast of sorts for the previous month, so she was enjoying her first beer in nearly 30 days. Well, as usual with the Good Times Gang, one led to four, and we left Lucky 13 not for the hotel, but for a bar. We ended up at The Beerhive until about midnight, which meant Trax wasn’t running (seriously, SLC get a clue!). We decided to get a jump on our bike ride and rented Green Bikes to get back to the hotel. Probably not the brightest idea, but it sure was hysterical.

With only 3 hours of sleep, we made the trek up to Logan, arriving a little late due to my incorrect start time and a little detour I accidentally took us on.  We set out to do the 45 mile ride, but when we got to the turnaround it was still pretty early and we all felt good, so Lisa, Jer and I decided to join Col on the 75 mile ride. It was nice enough, but my mouth was really hurting which made for slow going, and I was holding the rest of the group back. Lisa had a run in with a dog (an actual run in), which was a pretty funny war story. We made the lunch stop a nice long break and eventually got back into the fair grounds around 4PM.

Cheryl and Jeanne flew up on Saturday to have a fun SLC night with us. We made it back to the hotel dirty, tired and sunburned, but they had cold beer waiting for us. We cleaned up and then went to dinner at another of my favorites, Rusted Sun Pizzeria. From there we tried out Ty Burrell’s new Beer Bar downtown. It is a really cool concept, but was so loud it made any conversation nearly impossible. We enjoyed a couple of the beer choices, then headed back to the hotel to relax.

Sunday morning we met Col’s parents and Amanda for brunch at Squatters, and then headed out. It was a liver busting weekend for sure, but it was fun to do the ride again. It’s an amazingly well supported event, and accounts for nearly all the funding the chapter receives for the year. Our little group raised nearly $2k among us, so we felt pretty good about our contribution. Thanks again to everyone who donated, and if anyone else is still inclined, my fundraising page is open until 31 July!

i’m in it for the commercials

We missed our normal New Year’s party at Happy Fish this year. With the holiday falling mid-week, resetting PTO banks and just all around difficulties coordinating, we did NYE in town and avoided the hassle. Since our last group outing to the cabin was back in July, we thought celebrating Super Bowl Sunday at Happy Fish sounded like a great plan.

We made plans for everyone to arrive either Friday or Saturday and head home Sunday or Monday. Lisa, Jeanne, Jer, Cheryl and Rob all made it to the cabin Friday, while Col and I drove up from SGU Saturday after he got off work. We also invited Hayley and Lance for their first Happy Fish trip, and they drove down from SLC on Saturday.

 

There was a pretty good amount of snow on the ground when we arrived, and the temperatures were pretty frigid. The lake didn’t look to be completely frozen yet, which was surprising given how cold our winter has been. Lisa said she can’t remember another time it wasn’t frozen all the way out. Even with the snow, everyone was able to get their cars all the way in, so no snow shoeing and hauling supplies was necessary. It snowed a couple times over the weekend, and some of us were hoping we’d get snowed in and not be able to leave Monday. But, there was no such luck.

 

We enjoyed a fun Saturday night drinking, playing games and having fun (for some of us a little too much fun). On Sunday we spent the morning decorating for the game and getting all our food ready. We probably overdid it with our menu planning, but we enjoyed all the traditional game day snacks and delicacies…queso dip (2 kinds!), cocktail weenies and meatballs. I also made a big pot of chicken cilantro soup that came out really good.

 

For once we actually had fans on both sides of the game. So, the rivalry and trash talk promised to be good. That was, until there simply wasn’t a game. It became clear very early on that it would have just been mean to trash talk Denver, so we mostly all just enjoyed the commercials and hoped Cheryl didn’t go on a rampage on us. We lucked out and nobody was injured.

This was Kendall’s first Happy Fish trip, and she had a blast. We had been wondering what she would do unleashed in deep snow, and she cracked us up hopping through it. She didn’t seem to like the really deep stuff and would get nervous if she got too far into it. She loved playing around the cabin and hanging out on the deck, even though it was cold out. I think she’ll really enjoy our summer trips up when she can run loose in the meadow. It was quite the dog weekend with four pups in the cabin always underfoot…especially when there was activity in the kitchen.

 

We spent Monday morning playing darts and hanging out before starting the inevitable (and always hated) process of cleaning and packing to go home. Luckily the weather was pretty nice for the drive home, so we didn’t have to worry about bad road conditions.

 

It was fun to have a new reason to party at Happy Fish. As usual, it’s a special place for us all, and good times reigned supreme.

 

bee boppin

It all started with Lisa and Jeanne. They showed up one night at ‘Bout Time with a new Jeep Wrangler.

Anyone who knows me knows that the Wolfe genes run strong and deep inside me. One of those genes is passed directly to me from my father and his father, and that gene is the “new car gene.” My grandparents lived in Arizona for most of my life, and I remember every time they came to visit my grandfather had a different car. The joke that was as soon as the new car smell was gone, so was the car. If he had been a smoker, it was likely he would have gotten a new car anytime the ashtray filled up. So, shortly after New Year’s I headed to the dealership and before I knew it I had traded in my trusty little Escape for a new Jeep Wrangler.

The specific Wrangler I picked out had some pretty nice wheels and tires on it, but after going back and forth with the dealer for the ridiculous amount of money they wanted for the package, I told them just to put the stock wheels back on. Little did I know how dramatic the difference would be, and when I returned to pick up the Wrangler I was sure it was not the same one. This meant the top priority was to get new wheels and tires, and about a week later the Jeep was looking good again.

We wasted no time taking it out with Lisa, Jeanne and Jer for some dirt road fun. The first outing was to the Joshua Tree Scenic Byway that starts very close to our house. The roads aren’t super intense, but they are bumpy, dirty and fun, and the scenery is pretty awesome. We took Kendall on the first trip, and she had a blast during our many “water” breaks.

 

We took a detour out to the Bloomington Cave entrance. The entrance is blocked by a locked gate, and you have to visit the BLM office to get the code. But, after seeing the map and the entrance, I’m intrigued. Against my better judgement and my claustrophobia, I really want to make a go of the cave.

 

 

About a week later, MPK and Roger were in town, so we took them on the same outing. MPK is in love with joshua trees, so it was a great afternoon for him. The fact we could top it off in Mesquite for some Bingo and slots was just the icing on the cake. And, Roger was a Bingo winner, so it was well worth the trip!

 

 

A couple weekends later, we decided to bee bop with the girls and Jer again. We hit a backroad that winds through the Red Cliffs Preserve. The road is about 20 miles from St. George to Leeds, and sections of it were quite muddy and rough.

 

There was still some snow on parts of the road. Along the way we ended up at an amazing canyon that we didn’t even know existed. The views of the steep rocks were spectacular, and we spent about an hour testing the echo while we enjoyed our “water.”

 

So far, the Wrangler has been awesome. I have wanted a four door model for years, and have always missed my 2000 two door model that I owned for a few years. I’m excited about many more years of bee boppin adventures! There really is nothing like a Jeep.

 

 

 

 

brrrrr….

It doesn’t snow often in Southern Utah, and when it does it’s usually a dusting. On Saturday we got nailed with an arctic storm that dumped a lot of white fluffy flakes. It pretty much shut down the city since there are no snow plows or salt trucks to keep the roads clear. It caused a lot of hassles, but on Sunday the day was sunny and clear, and the snow was really amazing!