July 4th, 2022

 Oh happy 4th of July Jacob,

Well, actually the third as I write this. We just got home from church. It was fast Sunday today, annoyingly, I felt like I had to get up there, so I did, I think I rambled. Also, it seems like partisan patriotism is now a part of the gospel in bluffdale. I’m so sick of that ignorance.

Anyway, there was a lot of sports news this week, some annoying, some I just don’t care about. On the annoying side, USC and UCLA announced that they were leaving the PAC12 for the BIG10. Instantly social media is convinced of the demise of the PAC12. It irritates me so bad that that those so-cal teams act like they are sooo preeminent that no organization can possibly survive without them even though in the last ten years they’ve won the conference exactly the same amount of times as the Utes…and Colorado, yet they are the “power house” of the conference. UCLA hasn’t won it in forever, and don’t talk basketball, this has nothing to do with basketball. Oh, and BYU fans, they are so all-knowing in their comments, like the BIG12 has any prominence whatsoever. My hope is that the PAC12 picks up some of the better schools from like Baylor or TCU or some of the BCU busters like Houston. My fear is the Oregon and Washington will go to the BIG10 too and we’ll somehow end up in the same conference as BYU…EWW…ICCCK. I’ll keep you updated this week, it could be interesting. The only common sentiment is that Larry Scott screwed the PAC12

In other sports news, the Jazz have been busy. They got a new coach, he was an assistant for the Boston Celtics last year, he’s the same age as Mike Connelly, 34. They probably won’t retain Alex Jenson or any of the other coaching staff. I really wish Jensen had taken the Utes job. Also, they traded Rudy Gobert to Milwaukee for a whole bunch of draft picks, including 4 first rounders, unrestricted. Looks like they’re not afraid of cleaning house. And finally for your biggest disappointment, they got rid of the “Minivan,” yes, you heard it, he’s gone. Now the jazz broadcasters will have to come up with some new stupid dad joke nicknames. I wonder if they want to start from scratch or rebuild. I’m actually hoping they trade Mitchell and start over. I would admire that move.

Work was pretty nuts this week, the communication from HR came out that, for no reason at all contained pay into. For some inexplicable reason, this kid on my team felt like he had to share it with my other designers and ask for their salaries. In years past that was means for termination. And that’s what I was prepared to do, I was pissed. Apparently, there a law from 2014 that states that employees can share. But then my other designers were upset…it was just a mess. The good thing is because of it, I was able to fix a couple of things and get some things evened out. And I was able to connect with HR, which from a managerial perspective is super important.

On the other hand, I did a last minute project several weeks ago for the sales team. Honestly it was a pain in the rear end but I wanted to do a half decent job. We got it done and I didn’t think about it too much after. It was for a sales incentive sending the winners to the super bowl. Well, it turns out that because of that project sales are already up significantly. As a token, I’m getting an extra $1000 bucks next payday. Mom and I want to start saving up for our summer trip next year. One idea on the table is New York City with maybe Palmyra and the sacred grove added to it. We’ve also talked about Mexico City (of course), a Mexican cruise, Cancun, and Montreal. Right now it’s just talk, but a year from now we’ll want to have our plans set. 

It’s getting hot outside so I haven’t done much around the house. I changed the oil on my little car and rotated the tires. Yesterday Ben and I drove out to Tooele to get a new flagpole at the home depot there (all the other locations were sold out). The old one kept collapsing and the flag was ripped. Im not sure how much better the new one is, it’s pretty lightweight aluminum. But it was fun to hang out with Ben. We listened to Who’s Next on the way out, which is one of my all time favorite albums ever. Then he introduced me to the David Bowie Ziggy Stardust album. I enjoyed that even though I’m not much of a Bowie fan. 

Last night was the Bountiful fireworks show. Luckily, Joey was able to get off work a little early so we got to go to aunt Patti’s in time for dinner. Artie made grilled green chili chicken, man was it good. After dinner we headed up to the golf course for the fireworks. For some reason I got super homesick for you. Everything was the same as always, but I really enjoy those fireworks. We had decided to stay the night to avoid coming home in traffic. We stayed up till three watching movies on Artie’s giant tv. It was fun but I’m so stinking tired right now. It was so fun being together that we decided to make another day of it tomorrow. We’re going to go see Top Gun again, then Ben’s going to make Al pastor tacos and then we’ll light off Artie’s giant box of fireworks afterwards. I’m looking forward to it. We’re going to the noon movie, and we’re planning on being home by three if you can call, we remembered that you might be going to the pyramids tomorrow, so I hope we can hear from you.

Your new mission President posted your picture this week. He looks pretty nice. I listened to one of his short talks on YouTube, I’m guessing he’ll have a vastly different style and personality than your first President. 

Well, that’s all I have kid. I sure love you.

Pops