unculturedswine

Man, getting engaged and working on a wedding + working a normal, FT job + spending as much time with Alicia as I can sure makes me a busy guy! I barely have time to catch my breath! But that’s okay, it’s only for a few more months, then I can catch my breath… but only for just another minute, I’m sure.

We’re having struggles with Alicia’s engagement ring. When I bought it it was a size 7 and was great aside from being just a little too big for her, so we took it back to get resized. That took a week. Then, about 3 days after (if that) one of the black diamonds had fallen out. So shortly thereafter she took it back to Morgan Jewelers to get replaced. That took another week, plus a few days cause we couldn’t make it to the mall in time to pick it up. We figured that during the shrinking process some of the prongs holding in the diamonds must have been spread open a little bit. Well, less than 3 hours after getting it back a 2nd time ANOTHER diamond has fallen out. We’re getting to the point where the Jeweler seems to have the ring more than Alicia has had the ring. It’s getting quite annoying. The nice jeweler guy did tell us that if it keeps happening we can exchange it for another build of this ring, or just trade it in towards the wedding ring that I’ll be buying. I kinda hope that we just get a ring that the diamonds stay in on…..

Now. In the title I mentioned I was confused. In Elementary School I remember learning about plants, about photosynthesis, about how plants make oxygen. And you know what else I remember? Carbon Dioxide, or, CO2 is plants favorite food! So, makes me wonder, what’s with all the hype AGAINST CO2 from the enviro-nuts? People spending money to ‘offset’ their ‘carbon footprint’, which I find to be the freaking stupidest scam since ever. I mean really, how can you not figure that it’s a giant profit-making scheme.

OH, and let’s not get started about profits. The big rally cry from Liberals today is ‘greedy capitalist and their exorbitant profits ruining the world’. So I have to ask – do they not like money? When they have an opportunity to generate some wealth and revenue for themselves do they shudder at the thought? I’m pretty sure they don’t – I’m pretty darn positively sure that given an opportunity to make millions of dollars they’d jump on that horse faster than you would notice! So why, then, do they love to characterize big companies as big greedy things because they happen to have amassed fortunes? I just don’t get it!

Come to think of it, there really isn’t anything in the thought-process of liberals that I actually understand. I’m sorry if this post is offensive to anyone, but I really am just confused by the general hypocrisy and shallow thinking that seems to be infecting too many people.

In happy news, I’m just a few days shy from my wedding. Planning is coming along. We’re getting things figured out, food prep’d, flowers planted, dress bought, honeymoon planned (Eastern Caribbean Cruise, in case you’re wondering). I’m pretty excited about the cruise! Heck yes!

I’m engaged. That’s item #1 and I’ll just drop it out there nice and quick. I told the story of it on the Photoblog section of the website, but haven’t done any admitting to things on this half of the site. And it’s nice to be engaged. I really enjoy it, and I really enjoy dating Alicia. She’s pretty darn amazing. We’ve known each other for a few years now as friends, she liked me off and on over the past 2 years and I just happened to wizen up and figure out that I liked her too, a lot more than I realized that I did.

THE DETAILS: You’re going to ask, so I’m going to tell. We’re getting married on August 11, 2010 at the Salt Lake Temple. I’m waiting to hear back from my Mission President if he’s going to be able to perform the sealing for us; he’s a member of the First Quorum of the 70 and is able to perform sealing. I really hope that he can. It would be really special to me.

The next day (Thursday) is when we are going to have the reception in my parents backyard in Alpine. It’s a beautiful setting and it should be a pretty beautiful day to do it on. Katie had her open house there before it was even half finished and it went quite smoothly, so I imagine the same for me.

IN OTHER THINGS: Work is a mess, I’m stretched pretty thin and hope that I can make it out the other end. I’m working quite a few different projects and have been pretty stressed as of late, which is pretty new to me because I don’t get stressed out very often. I’ll keep you informed. I’d like to get into the habit of journaling more on here dangit!

A GOAL: I’ve decided I’d like to read the Book of Mormon one last time as single guy, so I started a few days ago and hope to be finished by the wedding day. Of all the times in my life to boost my spiritual level, now would be it. Anybody wanna join me?

For the last few months I’ve been renting Kurt’s town home in PG from him with a few friends. It’s a good deal, a nice place, good location, I like it. Since it’s a town home Kurt also has the awesome responsibility of paying HOA fees to the local Communist Club of Homeowners. Included in these forced obligations is TV and Internet, which has been a pretty nice deal.

Until now. As of May 14 the HOA is cutting off the TV and Internet services. Now, this isn’t that big of a deal, or it shouldn’t be, but the HOA is not decreasing the monthly HOA fee amount to compensate for this lack of service. So, now everyone in the little community gets to tack an extra $60/month to their already tight monthly budgets just to keep their TV and internet services.

This is such a scam. I talked to Kurt about this and he said the HOA plans to save away the money that was formally used for the TV and internet. Bull Crap. Save for what? A leadership cruise? That’s probably several thousand dollars a month in savings – where does it need to go? Let’s say that they now save $3,000/month because of this, what on earth do they need $36,000 year for extra? If I understand correctly, the HOA fees covers water, sewer, snow removal, lawn care, garbage and… anything else? (Maybe electricity cause I’ve never seen an electricity bill, and neither has Kurt). Nevertheless, what are they going to do with this extra money?

It’s a downright dirty scam. How are HOA’s legal? If I buy my property, who are they to tell me what to do with my property? I’ve heard pathetic stories of veterans being asked to remove American Flags hanging from their balconies, to an elderly couple who took in a 7 year old grand daughter who’s parents were druggies being evicted from their self-owned home inside a retirement community because the HOA rules said no one under 55 could live there. What on earth is wrong with people? It’s such a pathetic power grab.

Just give me 50 acres in the middle of nowhere and I’ll do whatever I darn well please.