The Golden Spike and Other Things

I meant to get this posted sooner, but this week has been one of THOSE weeks. You know, the ones where there are not enough hours in the day or days in the week. I find myself with a few moments though, so I thought I'd get this sketched out.


Grammy and Grandpa came down for a visit over last weekend. After visiting some of the standard local tourist attractions (the waterfalls, Balanced Rock, etc) we decided to go see something new. On Saturday we loaded up and made the two hour drive to Utah to visit the Golden Spike National Historic Site.


For those who are not history buff this is where the two great east and west railroad lines came together to complete a railroad that stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Despite all the cool history and information on railroads, Jack's favorite part was the pea gravel in the landscaping. It took some serious coaxing to convince him to put down the rocks and walk away without a scream-fest. He also was a fan of turning the crank on the smashed penny machine. In April the replica steam locomotives they have are still in winter storage so we didn't get to see those. We'll have to go back in the summer when they are up and running.




On the way back from Golden Spike we stopped at the ATK Rocket Display. ATK builds solid booster Rockets for the Space Shuttles.




Probably the funniest event of the weekend was the garbage disposal 'repair,' though Jack smacking into the side of the couch because he was wandering around with his blanket over his head was funny too. Anyways, our Garbage Disposal stopped working a few weeks ago after a power outage. We flipped all the breakers in the box with no success so we figured there must have been a power surge that fried something when the electricity came back on. Then Kevin was sick, and since we really don't use the disposal with any consistency it was just put on the back burner. Finally on Sunday Kevin gets out a screwdriver and starts poking around. Of course my Dad is like, "What-cha Doing?" I explained to him about the disposal and that glint appears in his eye. You that know him have seen it. It's that glint that says "I-know-something-you-don't-and-I'm-not-going-to-tell-you...I'm-going-to-SHOW-you!" He raises his pointer finger high and walks into the kitchen grinning, sticks his hand under the kitchen counter and seconds later the disposal growls to life. Turns out the disposal itself has its own breaker on the bottom of the device and it just needed reset.

Other notable events..Mom and I downloaded new songs to her iPod. This has become a tradition when she visits. We pick out new songs and we update her playlist. She says it is less of a hassle for me to do it than to mess with iTunes on her own computer. Carrie will be so proud *grins sarcastically*! We got Ringo, Tell Laura I Love Her, The Yellow Bandanna, Ebony Eyes, and The Three Bells...just to name a few. Carrie is rolling her eyes now I'm sure. She thinks it's weird that I like the 'old' stuff that Mom does. Well, considering how much Dickey Lee, Crystal Gayle, Johnny Horton, and so forth that mom played when we were kids, it not surprising that it 'stuck' with one of us.

Lastly, next time you have to catch a mouse. Try tying a Cashew to the trap as bait. I was in the shed last week and picked up a pair of clipper then dropped them again as a mouse skittered across the counter the clippers were on. Apparently they were drawn to some weed 'n' seed that was on that counter. Well, Dad insisted that Cashews were they way to go and I said 'Hey, knock yourself out.' With a single trap he caught four mice in two days. I didn't even realize there were that many mice in the shed. Apparently weed 'n' seed is tasty stuff...not to mention the Cashews.

Please Note: The above picture is not our Mouse, but we HAVE caught it in a mousetrap before!