Fat People

Yeah, that's right! This post is about fat people!

A few years ago my friend Zo and I were at the wedding luncheon for Lindsay Barrick and we were sitting at a table with people we didn't know. Sitting across from us was a very thin girl slowly picking at a salad like she was calculating how much exercise it takes to burn off radish slices. By the time I noticed how slow this girl was eating it was time for the main course, apple glazed stuffed pork chops made by Lindsay's mother-in-law. I remember the pork chops because they were fantastic! And I remember that Zo exclaimed, "these chops are fat-tastic!" The girl eating the salad looked horrified and verbally reprimanded Zo. She couldn't believe Zo would insult Lindsay's new mother-in-law on her son's wedding day. And then Zo did something that this girl couldn't comprehend. He explained that being fat wasn't an insult.

You see, among my friends, there is fat and then there is fat. Someone can be physically fat and then again someone can be mentally fat. (I'm sure there is also spiritual fatness, but we'll have to wait until the afterlife to solve that mystery.) Now physical and mental fatness are not entirely exclusive. Many people are both types of fat, but there are many mentally fat people that don't look the part on the outside. (I'm talking to you Jesse Flores. Jesse once asked if we could go to the Wendy's drive-in as we were leaving the parking lot of Taco Bell.)

Mental fatness is about a love affair with food. It is about always seeking out wonderful food and still being able to enjoy the roadside hot dog stand. (Can I get a hazaa for Pink's?!) Mental fatness is about finding tasty eateries wherever you travel. What about this quality is insulting? I am mentally fat (momentarily ignoring my physical fatitude) and proud of it. I can truly say that most of the people I call my friends are mentally fat and they are proud of it too.

And so now, as an homage to mental fatness, I have asked Staci to create the list appearing at the right of this blog. It includes all of our favorite meals/treats and I highly recommend all of the selections. So if you have the chance to try any of these restaurants, trust us.... and let your mental fat shine through!

What we do:

And, it's been a while since we added, so here we go. Things haven't been very exciting lately, so we haven't really had anything to post. Since Chicago it's been kinda the same thing. Well, let's see, we have finally gotten to the point that we are ready to share our house with people so we've added some pictures. And, we've put in some of our game time pictures. The fighting Illini home games are about the most exciting we get, unfortunately. Josh studies, and I play Ranch Rush - which if you have plenty of time to spare and you never want to leave your home again, you should try - it's really fun. It's on yahoo games. Super fun. Kinda like SimCity but your a rancher and you have to fill orders! I'm super good at it! Anyway, I put a picture of a GIANT SPIDER so that you could see what we have here in Illinois - BUGS EVERYWHERE! Over the next day or so I will take a few pictures of the surrounding area so that you can see what we see every day, but for today, our house will have to do. So, in an effort to have some comments to read let me pose this question: Of all the 305 million people in the United States is Obama and McCain HONESTLY our most qualified for the position? And, if you could pick ANYONE to be the next president, who would it be and why?

Chicago Trip

Fun right?! So I could tell you all about our chicago trip (which was a blast), but I think we all know my descriptive talents are restricted to the word awesome.

Anyway, enjoy the show...

So, open for comments.... What was your favorite trip?

Why I'm Upset That I DIDN'T Protest The Beijing Olympics

This was a HUGE post and well, I get a little annoyed with really long blogs, so here's the quick 10:

1. RAIN STOPPING CHEMICALS - They worked really well!
2. GYMNASTICS AGES - Sure, the Chinese gymnasts were 16 - that makes me still a teenager!
3. GENERAL SAFETY - People beign stabbed in mid-day at popular tourist attractions.
4. NBC ANNOUNCERS - Don't tell me wer've lost in the first 2 minutes - let me have a little hope and then help me criticize the judges for being impartial and biased - that is how American's do sports.
5. PROJECT 119 - Recruting 5 year olds for the Olympics as an act of state seems a little unethical to me.
6. GYMNASTICS SCORING - Amen to the movie Stick It.
7. LIP SYNC - How would you like it if your government told you that you weren't pretty - Jr. High doesn't seem so bad eh? - I stole this from someone and I can't remember who.
8. FIREWORKS - Special effects fireworks? Really?
9. SMOG - I'm not sure what the city looked like after watching an entire week of Olympics.
10. For now I will leave this 10th reason empty - it's still empty. So you can add your own 10th reason.

Good Friends

So, I start school in a couple days and I have to admit that I'm terrified. But maybe not how you would think. Yes, of course I'm terrified of law school, the workload and the professors, but to be honest I'm a little more scared to have to make new friends for the first time in 10 years.
I mean why should I have to make new friends?! I have fantastic friends! And I've allowed myself to develop a deep and profound cynicism due to the fact that I no longer needed to make new friends. I was well on my way to filling the grand curmudgeon shoes once my dad decided to retire. Now I have to undo years of hard work for the mere necessity of having friends that live close to me.

I am not happy about this!

But what you gonna do, right?

Well, as a testament to the quality of friends I claim as mine, I had a great group of guys to help us load the truck on moving day. And the day was not without its exciting moments. My personal favorite moment came in the form of a Rogers' lawn sitting tradition. If you've ever been to one of Mamma's Sunday dinners when cut fruit or grapes was involved then I don't have to explain the following pictures. If you haven't been to dinner... what's wrong with you?!

And so we learned that watermelon chunks do not stand up well to the fruit toss... One last lesson from the boys!

.... Last lesson for a couple years that is.

MOVING...

....Well, you probably already know this (because I've been talking about it with anyone who would listen for about a seven or eight months now), but Staci and I are moving to Illinois. (Well, we've actually already moved.) And since I'm still getting used to this whole writing for public consumption thing I think I'll just show our move through pictures.

And so the sun has set on our days in Utah. And for that matter our days near mountains. (Staci couldn't help but take about a million pictures of the mountains before we left.

We spent our last few days in Utah with friends and family trying to enjoy their good company while it was close enough to enjoy.

Well, I do have some fun stories from the morning that the guys helped load the U-haul, but I better hold onto those for now, because well, I need to stretch these posts so it looks like I write more often. :)

Alright, back to the drive....

Three Sisters might not seem that scary when you're just headed to Flaming Gorge or Evanston, but imagine staring up at this while in a heavy U-haul trying to tow a car. Gulp! Well, we made it over and I think I might've actually passed a semi somewhere along the way.

Wyoming may have some cool rock formations, but I was still way excited to see something a little more fun once we hit Nebraska. Stay tuned for the most exciting thing we saw in Nebraska....

Yep! You guessed it! The most exciting thing about Nebraska was the "Now Entering Nebraska" sign. And after that the most exciting thing we saw was.....

The Missouri River!!! Seriously, Nebraska got so bad that at one point I invented a game where you had to touch the roof of the U-haul anytime we crossed a river in between the two times we crossed the Platte River. The rules are little complicated to explain here, but let's just say that Staci and I are greatful that no Toe Goblins got to our feet before the second crossing of the Platte.

So we finally made it to Nauvoo to see Staci's parents (where we forced her dad to take this picture of us next to the U-haul for posterity's sake). The next day we had a short three hour drive to our new home ....

And here we are....

Well, sort of... We'll have better pictures and new posts from our new place soon. I promise!

About Us

Hi… This is Josh. (Yeah, I know it says Staci posted this, but that’s just because I don’t have access to post on our blog yet. I mean it is our blog so you think I’d have access, but I don’t yet. Josh will be posting on his own in the near future though. I promise.)

For our first real post I’ve decided to make it an “About Us” post. Yeah, I know, it’s generic, but this blog is a real creative stretch for me. Anyway, Staci and I have been married for 18 months and we’ve known each other for just over three years. I fell for Staci right off the bat and spent the next 17 months convincing her to marry me. Staci is a high school history teacher and I am about to begin law school. We’re moving in July to Champaign, IL for my schooling and I’m sure you’ll hear plenty of our Illinois adventures on this blog over the next three years.

We both love sports, traveling, movies, and spending time with each other. So you can expect to hear a lot about those subjects on this blog. In fact I’ll start by warning you that Staci and I are baseball fans. She’s a Yankees fan and I’m a Red Sox fan, a fact that nearly prevented the happy Josh Rogers family from ever coming to fruition. Well we worked through that and we now love to go to sporting events together. I even took Staci to New York and a few Yankees games so she could see the Stadium before they tore it down.

Since we’ve been together we’ve gone to L.A., San Diego, Disneyland, New York, Las Vegas, Dallas, Champaign, Nauvoo, and San Francisco. The New York trip was by far the biggest and craziest, but all of the trips have been a blast. Staci and I have the same ideas when it comes to traveling. We start running right from the beginning and don’t stop until we get back onto theplane or into the car. We were hoping to do some scenic driving during the move to Illinois, but my work schedule has kind of prevented it.

Staci and I also have our own hobbies. She loves to read and I love to cook. She burns through books like I go through magazines and I can’t get enough of cookbooks and the food network. Somehow we make it all work and we have fun doing it. So… please enjoy the Josh and Staci Rogers blog and have fun getting to know us.