Crazy Day, Accomplished NOTHING

Seriously, last night I got in bed and was out.  My Saturday was really busy, but I got nothing done.  I can't even figure out where the day went.  Looking back, I slept in (all the way until 7:30), hauled Nolan out of bed, cooked him a pancake, took him to the food drive, came home, made Jonathan's pancake, ran to WalMart to buy grapes for the marching band, kicked Dan and Nolan out the door to do yard work at Grandma's, watched Jonathan do homework, washed and prepped the grapes, played with Miles, then I got the fun phone call.  The THS band director called me because "we have a big problem."  Yesterday was the first official competition of Show Season; I was curious what our big problem was.  Evidently, Jared's keys for the school and band trailer were in Ogden and they needed to be in Orem.  We discussed a few potential solutions, then I sat back and waited to hear what would be decided.  It turned out that I got to participate in a "go get the keys" relay.  Alyssa, who inadvertently had the keys, drove from Ogden towards Clearfield (I think) to meet her dad and hand the keys off; then her dad headed south on I-15 while I started north to meet him for the next key exchange.  We met in Sandy, I grabbed the keys and headed as fast as semi-legally possible (while keeping an eye out for the UHP) headed to Orem.  The call time for the kids was 1:15, I pulled into the THS parking lot at 1:13!  What a relay team we were.  There were a few kids with uniform fitting complaints (funny, since they've been wearing what they were issued since June) so I reissued 3 uniforms, then headed home.  At bit later, we piled into the car and headed to Payson to watch the band compete.  They did well, and took 2nd place overall in their category.  Earlier in the day, I'd promised Miles some French Fries so we stopped by McDonald's to fulfill that promise.  He ate his fries and wanted more.  I told him he had to lick a carrot first and taste an apple.  And I thought Jonathan had a sensitive gag reflex... Miles gagged while licking the carrot.  He gagged as he chewed the apple speck (but then he kept eating it- he ate about 1/3 of an apple slice which is a huge deal for him).  But, he fulfilled my "more French Fries" requirement and was rewarded.  So, then we headed to Spanish Fork and saw Aly, Rob, and their kids (except for Shalyn who is never home!), visited with them for a while, picked up some things Aly had for us, then went home.  Came home, uploaded the band performance to YouTube and the photos to Photobucket, updated the band email lists, sent out a mass email, then I was done.  And I was tired.  So I went to bed.  The end.

Wandering Thought of a Mad Woman

Today I received an email that made me mad.  Rather than sit at home and stew about it, I decided to be productive and go for a walk.  I decided I would walk until I wasn't mad.  I walked quite a distance... almost 2 miles from home when I realized that even though I was still mad, I needed to turn back or else I'd be really far away and not make it home in time for some obligations I had.  Besides, I'd lost quite a bit of elevation and there was a big hill to climb standing between me and my house.  So, still mad, I headed home, the longer way.  While walking I realized that I was probably going to be mad for longer than my walk would last, but that was okay because my walking time-out gave me the chance to formulate a plan as to how I was going to deal with the email.  With a plan in place, I felt much better and let my mind turn to other things.  For some reason I started thinking about English language misuse.  Their and there and they're.  Its and it's.  Your and you're.  Then I hit upon my current #1 pet peeve misuse- sale and sell.  The two words, while related in meaning, are not interchangeable; they aren't even homophones.  Only in the Intermountain West have I heard these words used incorrectly.  I can't stand it when I hear (or read) "saleing a house".  "Saleing" isn't even a word.  Or how about "Who sales __________."  And then there's the infamous "Looking for a great sell on __________."  I am not a master of the English language and I make plenty of usage errors (lay, lie, lain, etc).  I am a terrible speller (and typist).  So please, help me develop patience for others' language errors.  That said, I was about a quarter mile from home when I finished mulling over "sale" and "sell".  Total walk distance?  4.7 miles.  And I'm still mad, but now I am productively mad.

Pollution = Cool Picture

Last week the air was vile; it was full of smoke from fires burning in Idaho.  The air was so nasty that Nolan's lacrosse coach even cancelled practice to keep the boys from getting sick.  As the mother of an asthmatic, I appreciated that, even though I'd already decided Nolan wasn't going to lacrosse that day.  The one good thing about the nasty air was that I took a cool picture of the sun.

Dentist Visit

You know your insurance company processes claims fast when they've paid the bill before I've blogged about the dentist visit.  A week and a half ago, the boys had their semi-annual dentist visit.  It magically and coincidentally coincided with "Dentist Week" at Miles' preschool.  Miles has never enjoyed going to the dentist.  It's been traumatic for him and I've been impressed that the dentist has been able to "examine" Miles' teeth and complete the visit with all 10 of his fingers intact.  They haven't been able to take x-rays or even brush Miles' teeth before.  This visit was very different.  He got his teeth cleaned; he had x-rays taken, the dentist was able to put the mirror in Miles' mouth, and while he was very apprehensive, Miles didn't scream!  He wasn't happy about the visit, but he did great.  We'll attribute the successful visit to consistent office visits, a bit of maturity, and the unexpected help from his preschool talking about going to the dentist.

This and That

The pumpkin thief struck again leaving me with only 9 total Jack-Be-Littles on the vine.  I harvested the 6 orange toned ones and left the 3 white ones on the vine.  Good luck to them.  I'm not the only one in the neighborhood experiencing "vanishing pumpkin syndrome".  A neighbor who grows "ghost pumpkins" told me that she is missing pumpkins as well.  I can't believe someone is stealing pumpkins- they're just a squash.

I took my resting heart rate the other night.  It was 48.  Woot!

I had to make a purchase for something needed for an up coming trip.  No local stores had what I needed in stock, so I turned to the internet.  Unfortunately, the online store that I had what I needed at the best price was Kmart.  Their online store is as yucky as their local store. 

First World Problem of the Day- Apple "forced" me to update my phone's operating system.  By "forced" I mean that everything I used my phone a screen popped up telling me the update was available and to stop the pop-up, I updated the system.  First, it got rid of Google Maps and replaced it with Apple Maps.  I've heard they are awful, so I reinstalled Google Maps. Ha!  Second, the new OS interfaces with Facebook.  Miles discovered that on his own before I did and he posted a picture of himself on my Facebook account.  I didn't know he had done it until I got a notification that someone liked my picture.  Perplexed, I clicked on the link and there was Miles' post- a picture he took of himself buckled in his car seat.  I disabled that perk, I think.

This was on the loose in Lehi on Tuesday.

Halloween is coming and, while it's not my favorite "holiday", Miles thinks it's pretty awesome.  He is really into pumpkins and skeletons this year.  Yesterday I hauled up the Halloween boxes and Miles was so excited to see the pumpkins.  Then he found the big skeleton and dragged it around for the rest of the day.  At bed time, I traded him the big skeleton for a rubber one and he had to sleep with it and a small pumpkin.  The coffee table in the living room has been covered with the pumpkin collection. 

I don't think I'll be able to put the decorations where I want them because Miles has claimed them as his own.  Last night, we went into a Halloween store and today we went back, as per Miles' request.  He's loving it!  And just so no one thinks I am a complete party pooper, earlier this week, I did sew Halloween curtains for the front door!

Fall Color

The mountains are alive with fall color.  They are beautiful.  Prettiest time of the year.  Today, Dan, Miles, and I went for a walk at Big Springs up Provo Canyon.  It was spectacular!

Like Father Like Son

Truly, these two are BFFs.  Miles wants to be just like his dad, even when sleeping!

Homecoming 2012

Last weekend was Homecoming.  Jonathan took Heather Shipp.  He said they had a great time.  Their day date was tennis at the park (and playground time) then ice cream.  For dinner, they had Italian food, then they went to the dance. 

Homecoming Frustrations

Last weekend's THS Homecoming had some rough hiccoughs. The date part went fine.  Jonathan had a lovely date- pretty, sweet, smart, personable, fun, etc.  They had a great time.  The pre-date details were a bit rough though. 

First, there was the issue with the corsage.  I frequent a florist in north Provo that does beautiful work.  I placed the corsage order as Jonathan requested- 3 red roses on a beaded wristlet.  I was told it would be $19.25 plus $3 for the wristlet.  I went to pick it up and the bill had magically blossomed to $29.88.  I asked the clerk why my bill was significantly more than I was quoted and she said that she didn't know and no longer owned the store so she couldn't do anything to help me.  Looking at the hand written order, it was obvious that my order had been changed at some point after it was placed.  I was told my options were to pay for the flowers or leave empty handed.  Well, I couldn't have Jonathan's date not have a corsage, so I paid for the flowers, took a copy of the order with me, and planned to call the shop and speak to the owner on Monday.  On Monday, I called the owner, expressed my dismay, told her that I did not appreciate having the order changed without my consent, and that I was not happy about the additional charge.  She told me that the additional charge was standard policy.  I told her that I realized the the ownership of the store had recently been transferred, but wasn't informed of the new policy.  She decided to refund me the $10 wristlet fee plus the sales tax.  I told her I was willing to pay the $3, but not anything added on in addition to that.  She refunded the full $10 plus tax and encouraged me to come again.  I'll take the $10, but I'm done with that florist.  The dishonesty doesn't set well with me.

Issue #2 was dinner.  Jonathan's group decided to go to Olive Garden in Provo for dinner.  Pictures would be taken at the botany pond at BYU, then they'd go eat.  I was asked to be the photographer.  On Friday night, I decided to go down and scope out the pond area and check out the lighting.  Driving home, I went past Olive Garden.  There were probably 50-60 people outside the restaurant waiting to be seated.  I was worried about the wait for Saturday night.  It was decided that Dan would be dropped off at Olive Garden as I drove in to take pictures.  He'd put their name on the wait list and hold their spot in line, then after pictures, hopefully they'd be near the top of the list.  On Saturday morning, Dan suggested that we call and see if Olive Garden takes reservations.  Guess what?  They do, but they were booked between 5:30 and 8:30 p.m.  A new plan needed to be formulated.  So  I decided to move the pictures to the AF amphitheater and dinner to the AF Olive Garden.  Good plan, but not executable because the AF location was also booked for most of the night.  Panic was setting in... where could they go eat that was Italian, not too expensive, and had availability?  I should mention that our paths were not scheduled to intersect with Jonathan's until late Saturday afternoon, so we needed to make arrangements without being able to consult with him.  We listed off all the Italian restaurants we could think of and started eliminating based on price.  I was afraid I was going to have to throw together a last minute dinner for his Homecoming group.  Then Dan remembered La Dulce Vita in Provo.  They were less expensive, had a 2 for $25 dinner special, and most important, had availability!  Problem solved.  Jonathan approved. I felt relief. 

Thieves!

Sometime this past week, we were robbed.  I've always said that if someone were to burglarize us, they'd leave disappointed because we don't have anything worth stealing.  Evidently I was wrong.  I am shocked though at what the thieves were after.  It took me days to discover something was missing.  Subtle little boogers.  Yesterday Amy and I were outside playing with Miles.  Miles took Amy over to the side of the backyard to show her his treasures... the "little pumpkins".  He loves his Jack-Be-Little pumpkin patch.  He loves to go out and pick pumpkins.  Last week, we counted 25 set, orange little pumpkins that were nearly ready to harvest.  Yesterday there were 16 total, including the small, growing, immature white ones.  Someone helped themselves to our pumpkins.  Lame thing to steal.  We'd have been happy to share if we'd been asked, but no, someone had to sneak into the backyard and take them.  In addition, they brought a dog who left a gift right next to the patch.

I Caught the Bad Boy

Figuratively.  All growing season, I've been whining about the deer who ate my garden.  Until yesterday, I'd only seen evidence of the four legged intruder- hoof prints, chewed off plants, and poop, but now the deer has been seen.  I looked out a family room window yesterday, and there it was-  a 3-prong buck munching on a tomato plant.  The windows were open, and I was trying to be silent as I crept over to the counter to grab my camera, but Mr. Buck heard me.  We had a stare down.  I won.  He lowered his heard , then raised it back up as if to say, "up yours", then nonchalantly sauntered over to the rock retaining wall, climbed up, and disappeared.

Lacrosse is Lame When...

... the home team doesn't mark the field with anything other and 6 cones, 4 at the corners of the field and 2 at midfield.  No chalk lines marking the sidelines.  No chalk marking for the creases.  No chalk markings for the face-off.  One crease was marked with a portable crease, the other was unmarked.  The field was measured off using the referee's paces.  At half-time, someone showed up to mark the field, so the second half was played with 2 marked creases and a crooked midfield line.  Seriously?  Someone dropped the ball, I'd say. 

Nolan's game was exciting until the 4th quarter.  Up to that point, the teams were tied, then either the other team got fired up, or Nolan's team self-destructed, but everything went downhill from there for PG.  Nolan had a good game though.  He's back to taking the face-offs, not his favorites thing to do, but he's pretty good at them.  Yesterday's game was pretty physical- he's been counting new bruises, I saw him get whacked in the bum/hip (while Dan thought it was in the kidney), and his ankle is really sore today.  All part of the game, I guess.  Battle scars are cool.

Region 8 Exhibition

"Show" season began yesterday for the Marching T-Wolves.  It opened with the Region 8 Exhibition- judges and critique, but no scoring.  I was busy taking pictures, so I didn't watch the show quickly, but Jonathan said it was their best full run-through thus far.  Their show is titled, Dreamscape, and its theme is Brahm's Lullaby and is supported by "the music of Brahms".

The Camping Trip from Hades

With all the boys, there's been one excursion that we look back and say, "that was the worst."  Jonathan's "worst" was a family reunion in Fort Bragg- cried the entire time.  Nolan's "worst" was a family reunion at Kodachrome Basin where he cried every night and not only were we in a group campsite, but his cries echoed off the canyon walls.  Dan spent 2 nights driving Nolan around the Tropic area so that his screaming didn't disturb everyone else and with the hope Nolan would sleep.  Jack rabbits ran across the highway at will and their population was reduced as it was more dangerous for Dan to try to avoid them than it was to run them over.  Jointly, Jonathan and Nolan were both hideous for a family reunion in Arnold, CA.  What is it about those two and family reunions?

We'd hoped that we'd had the "bad Miles trip" when he screamed on the red-eye flight from Salt Lake to Atlanta when he was 18 months.  That was a miserable flight for him, us, and the other 150 people on the plane.  It sounds like Friday's camping excursion may have topped the red-eye, but lucky for me, I wasn't there to witness the event.

Dan, Nolan, and Miles went up to Aspen Lakes.  The set up the tents.  Miles checked it out and it appeared that he was all for the camping adventure.  Happiness!  There was a campfire.  Miles put a stick in it as he'd planned.  He roasted a hotdog as planned.  He even got to put a marshmallow on the stick as he'd planned.  But he was getting tired and that's when his plans changed.  Dan took him to the tent and Miles started in on one of his classic "I'm too tired" antics- I want _________, so he gets what he wants, then it turns to, "All done __________, " and the cycle repeats itself over and over and over again.  Additionally, he was saying, "All done camping.  Find Mommy.  Find Miles' house."  Evidently, he was quite vocal as people started coming over to the tent and asking if everything was okay.  Well, obviously everything wasn't "okay", but what can you do about it.  "Miles tent make Miles sad."  So finally Dan decided the best thing to do was to go sit in the truck (I would have grabbed Nolan and bailed, but Dan has more patience).

At bedtime, Miles refused to put on his night diaper or his pajamas.  He'd peed multiple times that evening, and he's been staying dry at night, so Dan was hoping for the best.  Dan tells Miles that he has to sleep in his car seat.  He goes to sleep.  Dan finally falls asleep around 1 a.m.  Miles wakes him up at 1:30 saying, "All wet, need new underpants".  Lovely.  So Dan tries to put a diaper on him, but Miles refuses to wear it.  The compromise was underwear first, then diaper over it.  Dan thought it would be safe since Miles already peed.  Miles was ready to go home, but Dan said they had to wait for Nolan to wake up.  Miles said, "Wake up Nolan.  Get Miles tent.  Find Mommy."  Good solution, but wasn't practical.  So Miles tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't get comfortable in his car seat, so it was in the seat, then climb on Dan, back to the seat, back to Dan, until Miles finally fell asleep.  Dan drifts off again only to be reawakened with, "New underpants.  All wet."  Well, now there's a problem; there were no more "new underpants"  or diapers with them.  So what to do?   Well, the undies were removed and the diaper was put back on.  More attempts at sleeping occurred with more success in that department for Miles than for Dan.  So morning finally arrives, but now there's the issue of what does Miles wear?  The only option was his pajamas.  So that's what he wore.  They returned quite early yesterday.

Dan says he's done camping with Miles for a long time.  Yesterday afternoon, I heard Miles asking, "More camping, please?" 

Home Alone

Tonight is a milestone night for Miles.  His daddy decided that Miles is finally old enough to go camping.  Miles talked about it all day. His plan was to sleep in a tent, wear his crab jammies, put a stick in the fire, cook a hotdog, and put a marshmallow on a stick too.  I think many of those goals can be accomplished tonight.  Nolan went along too.  However, he informed his father that he (Nolan) was going to sleep in his own tent and not with Miles.  Truthfully, it was odd to watch my littlest drive away knowing that I won't see him until tomorrow (hopefully).  I've left him overnight before, but this is the first time he's left me.  I hope the adventure goes well. 

Jonathan didn't go along.  He's at the THS Homecoming game, playing in the pep band and showing some school spirit.  He left home at 6:20 this morning and won't be home until after 10 p.m. tonight.  He's a crazy one.

Party Sunday

My dad and 3 of his siblings were in town last weekend so we gathered as many aunts/uncles/cousins/nieces/nephews/grandchildren/spouses together as possible for an evening.  There are 8 of the "cousins" generation living nearby and 6 of us came with families in tow.  We spent a couple hours together eating ice cream and catching up.  Madsen reunions used to be big, multi-day events, but they have dissipated as the cousin generation exploded with spouses and children of their own, so this is the biggest "reunion" that wasn't a funeral that we've had in a while.  The 3rd generation liked the sand volleyball court and nearby playground, while the 1st and 2nd generations preferred standing/sitting around and talking.

Number 1,000

Yep, this is blog post number 1,000.  Nothing really special about it; no give away; no prize drawing; but I just wanted to acknowledge it.  Yippee! 

Now onward and to the next blog post...

Saturday Was a Special Day

But we didn't use it to get ready for Sunday.  Saturday was a Madsen play day.  Those of us locals plus my parents spent the afternoon together.  First we went to Lowe's Xtreme Air Sports which is a trampoline/foam pit/climbing wall place.  I decided to ignore the cesspool of germs everywhere and play.  My biggest accomplishment was climbing the rock wall then letting go and falling backwards into the foam pit.  Scared me to death; so I did it twice.  However, getting out of the foam pit proved to be quite challenging.  It was easy to get stuck and get nowhere while trying to make it to the edge.  I also jumped on the trampoline and landed in another foam pit.  Unfortunately, I landed bum first in the pit and that made it beyond hard to get out. As I made my way to the edge of the pit, I noticed 2 boys buried in the pit up to their necks.  One was happily picking his nose and wiping his snot on the foam blocks.  Once I saw that, I was done.  The kids loved swinging on the trapeze and falling into the foam, diving/flipping over soft barrier and landing in the foam, rock wall death falling, and trampolining into the foam pits.  Miles was even jumping into the foam pits from 4 feet up.

After our session was over, we went to Kiwanis Park for dinner.  Miles happily played at parks #22, #23, and #24 as we waited for dinner to arrive.

 And that was Saturday.

BFM Strikes Again

Bathroom Story Disclaimer...

That would be Big Fat Mouth, or BFM for short.  Whose BFM?  Mine.  Sometimes I amaze myself with the freedom that I allow my mouth to have.  This morning, shortly after store opening, I was in Ross with my parents and Miles.  My mom was trying something on, and, of course, Miles had to go to the bathroom.  I got him out of the cart and we found the restroom.  As we pushed open the door, we were hit in the face with a wall of poo smell.  Nasty!  I said aloud to Miles as we waded through the vapor, "Miles, it's not a good sign when this early in the day you get hit in the face with poo smell."  Then I realized that we weren't alone and someone was in one of the stalls having issues.  Embarrassing for both me and her (or whoever it was because we were out of there before that person emerged from the restroom).  Will I ever learn?  Probably not.

Nolan's Life

Pretty much, Nolan's life has been awesome lately.  First, he's got some hotties in his classes.  No details to share though.  Second, he's had some cool triumphs.  For homework in his tech class, he had to build an 8" tower out of200 linear inches of 1/8" thick balsa wood and watered down Elmer's glue that could support a minimum of 100 pounds. He drew his design and started building.  It was a real pain to get the glue to hold. 

When he was done building his tower, it looked like this.

He wasn't happy with his tower because not all the supports were aligned and the joints weren't perfectly mitered.  He turned in his tower 2 days early hoping that the extra credit would compensate for a premature tower failure.  Well, on "break the tower day" Nolan found out how good of a tower he'd built.  The silly tower broke exactly when 100 pounds were applied.  Success!  Full credit plus the extra credit.

Guess where we spent last Saturday? It's time for this again.

Nolan's team played well.  The highlight of the game for me was watching Nolan score an amazing looking goal  He said it was a panic shot, but the ball flew clear to the back for the goal.  He scored the first goal of the season for his team.  After a fairly cleanly played game, it ended with a 4-4 tie.

Quote from Nolan as I typed this... "Why are you writing about my miserable life?"

A Nice Boring Week

It's been one of those weeks... pretty much everything went according to schedule... nothing exciting or interesting to record.  It was one of those weeks that makes me wonder why I blog, but then I started thinking about how many people quit blogging or only record the big events, and then I return to the purpose of my blog.  Obviously my blog is not a money making endeavour, nor is it one that is out there to gain national notoriety.  My blog is for me; a place where I can record whatever I feel like (admittedly, what is recorded is very filtered at times).  I talk to myself through my blog.  I like seeing the pattern of life unfold as I look back at old posts.  I love finding my boys perusing past memories thanks to the blog.  My blog is the most consistent "journal" I have ever kept.  So onward, and hopefully there will be some more interesting-to-me things to record soon (like stuff happening later today and tomorrow?).

Labor Day 2012

One word- yippee!  You can read all the sarcasm you want into that, or take it at face value.  It was a day.  It should have been a "sleeping-in" day, but my boys had other plans.  Jonathan and Nolan decided on a whim to run a 5K this morning.  The THS Cross Country Team was sponsoring a fundraiser and Jonathan decided to support it, and Nolan decided it sounded like fun.  We were up at 6 to get ready because someone wanted to be there "early".  Neither of my boys had ever raced a 5 K before; neither has been training for one either.  Their training consisted of a summer of riding a bike to work 20 miles round trip (Jonathan), and lacrosse practice (Nolan).  I was expecting them to run about at about a 10 min/mile pace, so I was really surprised that they both ran a sub-25 min 5K.  Nolan finished just steps in front of Jonathan.   They had a great time.

Most of the remainder of the day was with mundane tasks... putting stuff away, organizing the computer room, repairing the vacuum (I did it!), vacuuming, bathrooms, hanging canvases, dishes, homework, tower building project, etc. (This was the sarcastic "yippee" part of the day)

This evening we went to a "S'moreBQ" and wienie roast.  Playing with fire is always fun.  Miles liked roasting hotdogs,

but instead of eating it, he carried it around with him for the rest of the evening.  I bought some huge marshmallows that were fun to roast (and eat).

Jonathan preferred the role of fire marshal and was happiest when it was time to extinguish the fire and go home.

And now?  Miles is in bed, Jonathan is reading some stuff for one of his 3 science classes, and Nolan is back at the tower building project.  Later in the week, I'll report on how that turns out.

Busy Saturday

I've been busy today, but looking at my house, you'd never know it.  I attacked several desperately needed to be done things, but they weren't things that are readily noticeable.  First, I cleaned the refrigerator (which stopped making the gurgle/growling sounds and didn't die).  Then I cleaned the front porch- it was looking far too Halloween-au-natural.  Then I began the Great Toy Purge of 2012.  I threw out a white kitchen garbage bag and a medium size packing box full of Miles' (former) treasures.  I took a bunch of toys downstairs that are hopefully headed to DI, but I need to see if he's going to miss any of them first.  I've swept the kitchen floor twice, done the dishes, picked up the produce order, pulled weeds, and checked the garden.  I bathed Miles, the bread is rising.  See, I did a lot, but I didn't do the daily pick-up, so the house looks bad.  That's what Monday is for. 

Miles has had many "difficult" moments lately.  Impressive tantrums and rages that go on and on, just like the one I posted the video of earlier this week.  Tonight he raged because I wouldn't let him pick all the Jack-Be-Little pumpkins; I thought 12 was enough, but not in his mind.  In the past, patterns of rages have preceded a big developmental achievement.  I'm hoping that is what is going on; waiting and watching...

Last night, while Jonathan was at the THS football game, we convinced Nolan to go get Indian food with us.  We went to Kohinoor because it's close by. Of the 3 Indian restaurants we go to in the valley, this one is my last favorite.  Nolan was a good sport, but didn't really like his dinner.  I asked him if he wanted to stop for a bacon cheeseburger on the way home, but he turned me down.  My food was okay.  It was fiery hot which is to say it was too hot for me to enjoy.  There were lots of leftovers to take home.  Well, the food burned going in and exiting.  Dang!  For dinner tonight, I decided to have leftovers.  Somehow the heat level was even higher tonight compared to yesterday.  I thought I was going to die.  I was lips were burning; I was sweating (including my eyelids); I had to take a break from my dinner because it was too hot to eat.  Well, I finished my dinner, but I'm wondering if that was a good idea... tomorrow could be interesting.