Jeff's Blahg

Me: Allie, what do you want for your birthday? (June 26th)

Allie: An elephant with a button on it and when you push the button it eats cow poop.

Anyone know where I can get one of those?

Well, well, well. Who would have ever thought this could be so much fun? We called a month or so ago about getting a well dug (ok, drilled) on our land. We were told that the price was $48 / foot and they wouldn’t be able to get to us until next spring.

No problem. We knew we were going to have to wait a bit… time to save some money for it.

Well… they called a week or so ago and asked: “Can you meet us at your land in 30 minutes?”. I guess they had some other job fall though and since our land is close to where the drill was they wanted to come do it NOW. Wow. That’s cool and all, don’t get me wrong, but the thought of finding that extra 10K to pay for it right now was a big unnerving. But more unnerving that that was having no idea how deep this sucker was really going to have to go… 120′, 166′, 200′, 300′, 400′ ??? We have people around us at all those different depths… one even down to 700′!!! Now that is a pricy hole in the ground.

Well… a couple days later they were at it. I just sat back and watched them go… $4 per inch… every pound of the drill … cha-ching. Every 20′ casing that went down.. $960 worth of cha-ching. Wow, that was nerve racking to me.

Well… It all turned out well and we only had to go down to 157′, which was nice because I was planning on around 200′. So, we didn’t have to spend quite as much as I was planning on.

Man, I wish I wasn’t such a worry wart sometimes! But, on the flip side, I now know quite a bit about the whole process… which probably won’t come in handy anytime soon.

This might make you cry

Kristie and I decided it was time for a vacation… with no kids. So here we are, in Cheyenne, WY. You might wonder why we would choose here of all places. Well, it turns out that there is quite a bit going on here for the next week or so with the annual Cheyenne Frontier Days.

First of all, the Rodeo is the main draw… it is the largest outdoor rodeo there is. I had no idea they even had rodeo grounds so big… I am not sure the exact capacity, but it is over 25 thousand. We went to the rodeo yesterday – there were 16 events. They cycle through the events, doing most of them at least 2 times. A cool thing is that they keep the thing moving… its not like a track meet .

They have concerts every night. So, here is where the nice bonuses come in. The night we got here we went to the Bon Jovi concert. I have always wanted to see them in concert, I even had tickets once when I lived in Tucson, AZ - but wasn’t able to go in the end. You have to understand, the Slippery When Wet album was the FIRST cassette tape I ever purchased. I remember getting home and having my Dad looking it up and down and sitting and listening to every song with me to make sure it was OK for me to have. It passed the test for the most part… besides that suggestive beginning to ‘Social Disease’. Anyway, from that point on, they were my favorite band for long time… until Def Leppard took the title away some years later (they have since lost it). I even had the poster to the right hanging in my room for while… until it just disappeared one day (thanks Mom). Well…. onto the concert. I have been to quite a few concerts, everything from Def Leppard (6 times), to Neil Diamond to U2. I must say that Bon Jovi is right there with the best… which I would say is U2. They really know how to work with the fans and get people into the concert and involved. It was a blast. They sang many of the great old songs, and 3 from their new album, Lost Highway (which is actually VERY good). My only complaint at all is that they only played for an hour and a half… a little on the short side.

The next concert we are going to is Reba McEntire. Kristie is a big fan of hers, and I happen to like her music too. So, I’ll give a review of that concert in a coming post.

We have just bummed around and relaxed. There is a huge railroad influence here… Union Pacific. They have a very nice station down town. We also went the ‘Wrangler’ store… now that was funny. Hicks galore. I have taken a number of pictures that might get posted someday… wow… beautiful mullets and lots of drunk cowboys… .

My little Allie turned 1 year old yesterday! We will be having a big party tonight… where she will be keeping the tradition alive by getting a full cake to play in / eat until her heart is content. Mom was up late last night getting it just right.

Everyone says she looks just like me… you be the judge.

Love you Allie

Is it possible? I have picked up the game this year and have become pretty much obsessed with it.

I bought some nice TaylorMade clubs which have been working out nicely (shout out to Mitch for letting me borrow his while I was figuring out what to buy).

I have been getting in about 36 holes a week – on average. I had a punch pass for the Spanish Oaks Golf Course, but I was going through them rather quickly so I went ahead and bought a 5-day season pass. Now that Kristie is picking it up as well we added her onto my season pass. She is getting better too… and we are part of a couple’s league that plays each Friday night.

Seeings this is our first year, we are still pretty pathetic by some peoples standards. My best so far for 9 holes is a 42. I have a goal to get into the 30′s (39) before the year is over… I’ll keep you posted.

Sydney Ruth Hansen

Alot has been going on… that is an understatement. Its been hard to find time to do much of anything outside the required regiment. Anyway, some cool things that have happened:

• HiValley is now an LLC. No more sole-proprietorships for me!
• Added 2 new AlarmTrax customers.
• Travis is taking over day-to-day operations of AlarmTrax.
• Kristie and I did our estate planning. I suggest you do this if you haven’t already.
• Been coaching the vault at BYU.
• Still can’t find a decent house to buy.

I am in Albuquerque right now with the track team. The vault is tomorrow at 11 AM. We should do very well… but hey, we always say that. After the meet tomorrow I fly to Oklahoma City (via Denver) to spend the next week at the WFLO Institute:

Established in 1965, the WFLO Institute offers a three-year program, with three and a half days of instruction each year devoted to helping warehouse and food distribution professionals better understand the many facets of the PRW industry. Nearly forty classes are offered at the Institute, divided among seven tracks—Facilities Management, Finance and Productivity, Food Science/Food Safety, Human Resources, Logistics Management, Risk Management, and Warehouse Technology. Whether you’re in operations, administration, engineering, human resources, or some other area in the industry, experience how the Institute can broaden your understanding of all aspects of the PRW business.

This is for SafeTrax. There will be some great networking possibilities for us while there… since everyone there (minus existing customers who will be there) can really use our services. Sandie and I are going as well as my Dad. I try to post some exiting highlights from the week.

out

My Cadillac CTS is real-wheel drive. What is up with that? It really doesn’t help when there is a foot of snow on the ground… glad I have a Chevy Silverado as a backup.

I benched 360 this week… thanks to some SuperPump 250 (wife cringes).

I have still been coaching the vault at BYU. It has been going rather well. Believe it or not I actually vaulted for the first time in 4 1/2 years a week or so ago. I jumped on small poles from a short run… but I think I surprised some people, including myself.

Looks like I’ll be traveling to the BYU track meets to coach.

My brother Jared and his family flew in from Baltimore last week. They were supposed to leave 3 days ago for Denver. Thanks to the weather there they won’t be getting there until the day AFTER Christmas now.

SafeTrax signed 2 companies up this month.

AlarmTrax added a customer as well.

Battlefield 2 is a great game… especially when you are playing it when you don’t really have time to get all your real work done. Here are my stats.

I spoke in church last Sunday. Topic: Faith, Hope, Charity. Went well, glad its done.

The MacBook Pro is treating me awesome.

I’ve learned that my nearly 3 year old daughter Sydney really cares about me. How? Well, she wants the best for me…

Me: “Sydney, I love you, have a good day.”
Sydney: “I love you too Dad.. go to work and eat some candy, ok?”

I feel loved…