Based on the available evidence, it seems that I like to blog about once a year. I cannot claim greater frequency. After all, it was around this time in 2008 that I last posted something, so if that theory is correct, it is now time to dust off the old Deep Forest Outpost and kick around a few thoughts.

The sad truth, though, is that I have a growing collection of unfinished posts that either outlived their usefulness/timeliness, or in which I lost interest because they were not that interesting to begin with. It surprises me that I do not blog more often, because I am always fascinated by my own observations and I never fail to laugh at my own jokes. I am an ideal audience for myself.

Wahahahahaha! Your jokes are so funny!

I hope this post manages to make it all the way to the internet this time, because I do want to get back to a more regular blog schedule. I spent some time earlier this year writing most of a sizable recap of our family vacation to Walt Disney World, but that took place about nine months ago, and so the statute-of-limitations has probably run out. More recently I have been working on an extensive chronicle of my recent trip to Africa as a representative of ZAGG. While I still plan on posting that soon, in multiple parts, I wanted to get something into the digital ether before it really did go past a year between postings for me.

So I decided to repeat an idea I used about a year and a half ago, and post one of my current music playlists with some notes about each of the songs. I hope to get to the end of this before any of my standard distractions (watching television, working on my book, surfing the internet, gaming, etc.) break in. I do hope it is interesting to someone besides me; but believe me, I already love it.

WARNING: SPORTS NERD POST (links to rebuttals from BYU fans are at the bottom)

With the annual rivalry battle between the University of Utah and Brigham Young University just days away, I thought it would be a perfect time to post a collection of evidence why Utah is more fun to follow than BYU.  My initial idea was to write this a few weeks ago, so fellow bloggers who are BYU fans could post replies. Unfortunately, delays-upon-delays meant that now I only have a few days before the game, which leaves a very small window for a BYU response.  If no one is able to, then I suppose Utah wins by default.  I mean, they would win anyway, but nobody likes to see a forfeit from the other team.

The big problem I encountered when compiling this list is that I enjoy watching BYU football, as well.  I have followed Utah all of my sports life, which began back when it was less of a rivalry and more of a yearly massacre at the hands of the Cougars.  After the tables began to balance and my sports fan tastes matured a bit (so to speak – people rarely use the terms “sports fan” and “mature” in the same sentence) I curiously found myself both watching and enjoying BYU football.  In fact, I even considered myself a legitimate fan of both teams for a while, which was a difficult balancing act, and could not be sustained for long.

Now I am firmly entrenched in the Utah camp, and although I looked over the fence for a while, I realize now that I never really left.  Remnants of my dual identity remain, and although I may draw ridicule from other fans for trying to follow two rival teams, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the Cougars.  Sometimes it’s a very small spot, but it is there.

With that out of the way, allow me to move on to the primary arguments:

Mice grow to terrifying proportions in Southern California

Our original intent for this blog makeover was to have it double as a sort of travelogue for our various adventures, but things haven’t quite worked out that way yet.  I imagine we will try to address that shortcoming soon, perhaps as a potential New Year’s Resolution (which, at the rate of our posting, could very well be the next entry after this), but the result of our laxity is there are now a lot of things I want to write about.  This tends to be an early indication of a blog-disaster for me, because of my tendency to be a bit bombastic.

For example, not long ago I set out to post a few thoughts and opinions following the conclusion of the 2008 Summer Olympics.  I started by outlining my 20 favorite things about the games, followed by my 10 least favorite.  Then, I made a third section of events which I would like to see more in the future, followed by those I felt were over-indulged.

I didn’t think the project was overly ambitious in the beginning, but I began to reconsider after I found myself 5,000 words into it and only halfway through the first outlined section.  I could have pressed on and finished it, but who would ever take the time to read something like that?  It sits in my files waiting for further enlightenment, which will almost certainly never come.

How could anyone resist this face?

Our posts to this blog are seasonally sporadic, by which I mean they are sporadic in the summer, winter, spring and fall. We are trying to be more frequent in our efforts, but we are also both busy enough that it is assigned a much lower priority than we may otherwise like. Besides, it’s not like anyone we know relies on this blog as a source of news about us. I was going to use this post as an opportunity to write about the new Batman movie, but an event in our lives has trumped all else, and it’s only proper for me to describe that, instead.

The story actually starts in 2005 when Sasha, our pet dog (and child substitute), tore the anterior cruciate ligament on her left rear leg as she was running in from the backyard. I watched it happen: she stepped in a gopher hole, let out a little yip, and came hobbling toward me on three legs; her ears were back in pain and worry. That misstep led to a visit to the vet, followed by X-rays, surgery, hiding antibiotics in treats, and weeks of recovery. We spent more than a few worried hours, laughed a bit, cried a bit (figuratively speaking – I don’t remember shedding actual tears, and it’s safe to say that if I didn’t, The Wandering Moose didn’t either), and lightened our bank account. It felt like a long and frustrating experience, although ultimately everything worked out fine and Sasha made a complete recovery. She even grew back all the fur on her hindquarters after a year or so, which was nice because they shaved her entire leg and hip for the surgery, leaving a bare turkey-leg shaped patch of skin. T.W. Moose had been very pessimistic about total regrowth ever happening, but it did.

I used to love ice cream. One of my favorite treats was to have a big bowl of vanilla ice cream covered in chocolate syrup and mixed until it looked like a creamy chocolate shake. Another was going to Baskin Robbins where I always had their famous Peanut Butter and Chocolate ice cream. Once in a while we’d go to Cold Stone where I’d get chocolate ice cream with brownie bits mixed in. (Apparently I’m a fan of chocolate…) However, since I have been introduced to the wonderful world of Gelato, regular old ice cream is a thing of the past.

A few months ago, I had never tried Gelato. I had only heard about the mysterious Fine Italian Ice Cream in Italy and The Venetian in Las Vegas, but never had the opportunity to know for myself what it was all about. Fortunately, some good friends of ours opened a Gelato shop a few months ago not too far from my work called Bellissimo Gelato. Before visiting, I didn’t know what to expect. I thought maybe they would have four or five flavors; chocolate, vanilla, berry something or other, maybe a caramel marble swirl or something, but I never anticipated seeing a freezer case containing dozens of flavors! Luckily they have little plastic spoons so you can taste test and make an educated decision before ordering.

I would like to apologize in advance for this post, which is very long. I hope to trim down the word count in future trip reports, or perhaps break it up into days, but I am leaving this one as is – in spite of certain warnings I have received about nobody wanting to read long posts. Thank you, and again, I’m sorry.

One of the primary reasons The Wandering Moose and I brought this blog back to life was to post trip reports of our vacations. We are big fans of travel, although in our current financial situation that means we are big fans of watching the Travel Channel. I would love to go with T.W. Moose on a historic and cultural tour of northern Europe, or take a multi-month Camera Safari through as much of Africa as possible (See our last post for a more detailed breakdown). However, we are still on a young, married couple’s mac-and-cheese budget, so instead we plan scenic road trips through Central Utah on our way to visit her dad (don’t laugh – it’s a blast and we have done it three years running now). This is why two of our current favorite places are within a reasonable distance to our home in Kearns, Utah; and relatively low-cost.

The two destinations in question are Yellowstone National Park and Disneyland. I am not sure which of the two is my very favorite, although I have pondered the question often. At the moment I would say Yellowstone is at the top of my list, although it is close. I cannot even begin to guess for T.W. Moose (her favorite may be Hawaii, actually), but I know she is also a fan of both.

The Wandering Moose and I have decided to try a new idea in posting to the DFO. We have noted that some of our favorite conversations take place in e-mail we send each other, and thought that could be a possible medium for interesting, post-able discussion. To that end, we are going to pick a subject and send some thoughts back and forth during the day, and then set it up here once we decide to be done. I hope this will turn out to be fun and thought-provoking, but it stands a good chance of being boring for anyone but the two of us. With that note of disclaimer, here is our first post.

T.L.Bear – Hello, my dear! I hope everything is going well with you, and that you are having a good day at work. I almost started this with “Hello, my deer” because the moose is a member of the deer family, and because I like lame jokes. But instead I will just tell you about how I almost did that, which probably isn’t the best idea either. So, I will just move on.

It has been a few weeks since I last posted, although my Utah Jazz Manifesto was long enough to make up for it. I also appreciate and sympathize with anyone who read it. I wouldn’t say that I got in trouble, exactly, for my burst of prolificity, but The Wandering Moose expressed her displeasure with having to read something so lengthy. In the past version of this blog she would have simply ignored it and been happy, but she feels a bit more ownership now that her name is on the blog, and wants to make sure that the product is acceptable.

TWM also predicted that nobody would want to read something I wrote that was that long, which turned out to be true. This has caused me no end of concern, as I am currently writing a book that is already many times longer than the post in question, and I would like people to read that someday. To be fair, there is a clear difference in an actual book and a foolish, self-obsessed blog post – but that didn’t keep me from worrying about it for a few days.

***WARNING – DO NOT READ THIS***

Sorry, that came out wrong. What I meant was: Feel free to read this, but it is long for a blog post and probably not very entertaining unless you are a serious sports fan (and possibly not even then). Please be advised.

Game Five of the Utah Jazz vs. Los Angeles Lakers series took place yesterday (it was going to be “tomorrow” and then “today” but I didn’t get around to posting this until the afternoon following the game) and it was another road loss for the Jazz. The Lakers lead the series at 3-2, of course, with the home team winning all games. The Jazz will be eliminated if they don’t win both of the next two games, and they haven’t won in Los Angeles since Gerald Ford was President (or something like that – the national broadcasters mentioned it about 670 times last night, but I managed to ignore them every single time).

I really, really wanted to title this post: “Welcome to the Jungle,” and even had it written that way a few times. There were plenty of good reasons for doing that, beginning with the obvious toughness and coolness factor that comes from associating something with Guns ‘n’ Roses, and then . . . well, I guess it was mostly just that, but it was enough.

However, that didn’t exactly fit with the whole Moose and Bear theme we are trying to establish, which is more of a northern hemisphere thing. Besides, this post is supposed to be introducing the new name and theme of this blog, which is Deep Forest Outpost (not Deep Jungle Outpost, in other words). Not that it really matters, one way or another. If not for the first two paragraphs, I suspect most people would have read past the title and not thought much about it. I guess if I’m being honest with myself, I only brought it up so this would sound more like an awesome rock song and less like a Winnie the Pooh story. Of course, as a devoted fan of The Walt Disney Company, I don’t really have a problem with The Pooh – he is a bear, after all.