Back in the SLC

Today I'm blogging from Park City Utah, where it is currently 40 degrees and raining. When I got off the plane, I was wearing shorts. I thought this place was supposed to be a dessert! In any case, I like the whole greater Salt Lake area. I have 2 days of meetings, and then I'll be staying the weekend with Jamie. He imported the Japanese version of Donkey Konga, so we can expect a pretty wild weekend. I'll let you know if the neighbors call the cops.

On the plane I finished Marley & Me. I enjoyed it, but it was definitely more skewed to the female demographic. It's basically the writer's autobiography, but everything is told in relation to his dog. As the title implies, Marley was about the worst dog you could have- he was always horribly misbehaved, and would destroy entire rooms of their house in an afternoon, but he was a part of the family. They even got thrown out of obedience school when the instructor couldn't control him. One of my favorite quotes appears during the second round of training. Marley passes the class, finishing in seventh place. The author writes "So what if it was out of eight participants, and the eighth place finisher was a pit bull who seemed intent on taking a human life. This was a victory." In any case, I recommend the book for dog lovers or those who like a family feel good story. Be prepared for a heart wrenching ending though- I was pretty much crying on the plane.

In other news, the guy at the front desk here's name is Zink (I realize it's spelled differently). I noticed it last time I was here, but I still find it intriguing. If I were a chemist or something I might take to naming my kids after elements, but I'd have to be choosy. Based on about 5 minutes of thought I might name a kid Copper, but not something lame like Gallium or Barium (of course you could call him Barry for short).

It's time for good technology/bad technology!
Good Technology- Car radios that automatically adjust their volume with your speed. Brilliant. I think every car should have that. If Ford can put this feature into a freaking Focus, what's stopping Honda?
Bad Technology- Overly sensitive auto-flush toilets. Sometimes as soon as I get that sani-seat cover down the damn thing flushes, taking away the 0.25 millimeters of wax paper that was going to save me from disease before I can sit down. Sometimes you can drape a piece of toilet paper over the sensor to level the playing field (and totally defeat the purpose), but other times it's just a race between man and machine.

And finally, while checking the weather I stumbled upon an add for this page, which should surprise absolutely no one.