Stein's Place

I'm sitting in front of a roaring wood-burning fire, the cackle of rain drumming on the roof, and watching Monday Night Football.

Heaven?

No, but close to it. We're at the Stein Eriksen Lodge located in Deer Valley, Utah. We've been here for a few days enjoying the mountain air, taking in some breathtaking scenery, and I've been able to watch football....with a baconbuger and fire? Does it get any better than that? No way.





Alec and Tiffany spent the weekend with us before returning down Parley's Canyon to their routines of work and school. We had a blast the other day riding "The World's Fastest/Longest/Highest Drop Zip line." We took a chairlift up to a spot on the mountian where the zip line started. There were 4 harnesses and no line (good for Keith). We all strapped in, looked over the door that would soon pop open and send us on a 55 mph thrillride. We were giggling and puckered up all at the same time. The Skier-Dude-High School Dropout hit a couple of buttons and off we went...sailing about 100' in the air down a thoroughly kick-ass ride that lasted about 45 seconds. We then hooked the kids up to ride on the bobsled. I had to opt out since the 5g whiplash around the corners would have wrecked my back/neck. Alec and Tiff had a great ride - 5th best of the day and had a top speed of 68 mph.




We also took in the Park Silly Fair which is held on weekends during September. I ran into my buddy Jack Breslin who was just wandering around with his wife and daughter, we also ran into the parents of Alec's old juniors tennis pal AJ Bartlett. And we thought we had escaped! The street fair was neat and we had a great time.

Since the living room has a fireplace and so does the bedroom, we've had fires going since we arrived. Apparently there is a new invention that one uses to lite a fire that eliminates the need for rolled up newspaper, and kindling wood. It's a packet about the size of an index card and is filled with some sort of oozy fluid/oil that works great. Even I can start a fire with this stuff.

All the bad stuff that happened last week....AIG's collapse, Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, the Eagles loss to Dallas on MNF all combined to make me not want to turn on my computer, watch the news or read a newspaper. When is all this madness going to end? I mean seriously, these executives pay themselves MILLIONS of dollars in bonuses only to drive their companies into the ground. They should be in jail. All the manipulation of stock prices and stock options....it's crimminal behavior by guys in suits and ties. It's actually comical. Millions of dollars in bonuses paid to executives who run companies that lose BILLIONS of dollars. Who is supposed to police this stuff? I ask again, "DO I HAVE TO FIGURE EVERYTHING OUT?" No wonder I'm exhausted.