March 3 through 6th - 84th through 86th days

It took four more days to write because it was easy to be nice to people for the last four days.  So, if you're reading this blog instead of climbing Mount Everest, I would think twice about your decision.  In fact, I'd probably read my daughter, Kaylee's, blog instead.  She visited Italy last week and her posts are hilarious.  Now, if you're still reading my blog, you must be really hard up for entertainment, so I'll describe my last four days.  We had a blast on Wednesday night.  Amber was having a really hard day because she had spent too much money on the flight to Cancun for her honeymoon.  She went to work that night, obviously a bit melancholy.  So, we decided to cheer her up and go to Brick Oven and ask for her to be our waitress.  We were going to order two cookie monster deserts and then leave her a huge tip.  When we got to the restaurant, they said she had just left.  We were bummed!  So, we called her on her cell phone and she was very sad, because she'd had her worst day ever as a waitress.  She had only made $14 in tips.  So, we weren't going to let that stand, no siree!  We bought four chocolate chip cookies from the Brick Oven take-out, then we went to the store and bought some ice cream and some hot fudge, whip cream, and caramel.   We then called Amber and told her she had to put back on her apron and she was going to make us some cookie monsters, and if she treated us right, we would give her a big tip.   When we got home, she was all dressed in her uniform, and she made us some very tasty cookie monsters.  I asked for the bill and she wrote one up on a piece of paper that read: 2 cookie monsters, .01 cent each, tax .01 cent, for a total of .03 cents.  I then signed the bill and left her a $60 tip.  So, she made a 200,000% tip!  I'm pretty sure that will be her biggest tip ever, at least in terms of %!

Friday we went to Logan and Hunter's soccer game.  They lost, but played really quite well.  The most entertaining part of the game was when the goalie from Wasatch (the opposing team), was about to get scored on, so what did he do?  He full on tackled our striker!  He got a yellow card (should have been a red card) and the ball was placed about 10 feet in front of him for the penalty kick.  Guess what?  Our guy missed, and we lost the game by 1 point!  How do you miss a kick from 10 feet away?  I think even I could have made the kick, and I kick a soccer ball like a grandma on crutches!  Our player felt terrible, however.  At first I thought the goalie had made a stupid mistake by tackling our player.  I guess it wasn't so stupid after all!  I've also realized that it's going to be hard to keep my goal of being nice to everyone when it's soccer season.  How is it possible to be nice to a referee when he makes a bone head call?  I had to bite my tongue like 48 times, and even then I think I said, "Ref, you're a bonehead!"  at least 47 times under my breath.   However, if it doesn't actually come out of your mouth, I don't think it counts, does it?  Stay tune--soccer season may ruin me--and my goal.

On Saturday we took the Varsity scouts (14 through 16 year olds) on a 50 mile bike ride.  This was not any ordinary 50 miler, it had almost 3,000 feet of climbing.  I thought some of the boys were going to die.  There is one hill the local bikers call "The Beast".  It has an 11% grade, and we told the boys they were going to have to climb the beast about 20 miles into the ride.  Every hill that was bigger than a speed bump would inevitably provoke the question, "Is this the beast!"  I'd just laugh and say, "No, that's more like the Beast's big toe".  When we got to the actual "Beast", I said, pointing to Beast, "That's the Beast," at which point I think my son said, "I want my mommy!"   It was rewarding though, to watch them all make it up all the hills and finish the 50 mile ride.  I thought it was quite the accomplishment for a bunch of 15 year olds.

Saturday night we went out to dinner with the Andersons and the Weavers, and had a great time.  Our waiter must have thought we were crazy, because Mike stacked the ketchup and the mustard bottles on top of each other, then Rhys stacked the salt on top of the ketchup and mustard bottles.  The waiter must have thought we were 4 year olds, but we gave him a pretty big tip for all of his trouble--not a 200,000% tip, mind you,  but hey, he wasn't near as cute as my daughter!