My Brush with Greatness

So, the other night I was helping my best friend, Justin, and his wife, Kat, pick up some furniture for their new house. I drove with Eric, Justin's dad, from house to house and helped load a washer, dryer, a table, four large bar stools, two couches, a bench, a few mirrors, a lazy-boy style recliner, and as the finale to all muscle straining beasts, a large, leather sectional. (Good crimany... how many comments did that sentence have??)

The sectional, though, was owned by a musician. Or, this is what the wife of the musician told Kat when she called about buying it from the classified ads. We all figured the kid studied music at BYU, or perhaps was a dealer of some shady substance and used the "musician" thing as a cover. I mean, heck, who doesn't like playing a little music while getting high?

(Of course I'm kidding. I've only ever been high once and that was due to the woodstock-esque quantities of marijuana being smoked in front of me at an Aerosmith concert. In fact, it wasn't even high... more around a soft buzz.)

Anyway, we pull up to the house and this guy answers the door and instananeously, in my mind, I think, "5 Browns." Yeah. Just that fast I recognized this kid as one of the 5 sibling bandmembers of a piano quintet called "The 5 Browns." If you've never heard of them, they're stunning. I think they've been #1 on the billboard classical list for quite some time now. You can check them out here:



Anyway, Justin had his iPhone with him and took a picture of Kat and Ryan, the owner of the sectional, and youngest of the five.


I thought about asking for a picture with him as well, but didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable or anything. After the picture, though, he played for us on his beautiful Steinway piano. I don't know what it was, but he played it remarkably well.

So yeah... that was pretty cool.

-Barry

Pictures from when I won my Harley!!!

Remember when, a few Friday's ago, I won a Harley? Well, today I got the pictures from work. So, ladies and gentlemen who have not yet seen nor heard my Harley, here is living proof that I now own one. Behold, and feast your eyes on the sheer excitement and stunning spontaneity of a moment of good fortune in the life of a humble web developer.

There she stands - like a dream that is only barely tangible.

Here, the owner of the company begins to draw names from the "Great Cooler of Glorious Fate"...

Jubilant employees cheer those who have had their names called.

In this picture, it's down to me and maybe four others. You can see from my face, that I'm nervous. I'm beginning to realize that this might actually happen.

Oh, boy.... the two finalists. I could do little more than nervously laugh at the implications of my situation.

"Barry Cann!" And then the throngs of employees went wild with applause... Awesome!

Celebration.

Posing on the bike. Dang... I look pretty good, no? ; )

The transfer of ownership. Ahh.... I still can't believe it.

-Barry

The Fire!

When I drove home from work today, south mountain was on fire. I literally swerved my car into oncoming traffic in disgust! Who started this fire!? Why would they destroy the beautiful mountains that greeted me every morning when I went to work? Why would they burn the lush, nature-filled hills that I had hiked up so many times on random day hikes? Those hills were chock-full of little animals! What would they do? These and other thoughts coursed through my head as fast as the cars swerved around me. I could tell the other drivers were angry, but I'm sure they understood my intentions.

Anyway, when I got home I scrambled up onto the roof of my parent's house and shot some pictures. Behold, the glory of south mountain... burned in a day! *gasp*

No really... the air is so bad it leaves you gasping.

-Barry

Graffiti

I used to decorate the walls of my friend's facebook profiles with pictures. It's been a long time since I've done this, but I thought I'd share with you guys some of my favorites. I've decided I really need to take it up again because I had so much fun with it! The medium is a fun one to experiment with, so I look forward to once again experimenting and developing my technique. If you have a facebook account and would like me to draw some graffiti for you, let me know. I'd be happy to decorate it with something!

Enjoy...


-Barry

When Luck Smiles

There I am. Standing in front of the entire company with another employee - a bearded guy with a black shirt. I don't know who he is, but he looks familiar. He's relatively calm considering the circumstances. I smile encouragingly at him, but wish I could be as disinterested in this as he looks. My heart races like an Olympian's. My hands sweat. My feet sweat. I shift with a volatile mixture of excitement and nervousness as I glance behind me at the prize - a brand new Harley Davidson Sportster. It's blue and silver and glimmering beautifully even under the harsh fluorescent lighting of our building. I've never won anything big like this. In an effort to calm myself, I take a deep breath, but feel no relief.

The CEO of the company stands behind me on an elevated platform and reaches into a small container to pull out the winners name. The room is silent. I hear the paper crinkling in his fingers - the sound whispering my fate in a language I don't comprehend. He speaks, "And the winner of the Harley Davidson is..."

...

...

...

"Barry Cann!"

NO FREAKING WAY!!! I clench my fists and jump up and down. Everybody is cheering. The CEO of the company extends his hand to me in congratulations. After we shake hands he hands me the keys, the title, and the owner's manual. I take it graciously and shake his hand again. I still can't believe this is happening. My body brims with adrenaline - an adrenal high unlike anything I've felt in a very long time. Matt, one of the managers in the company, holds a digital camera and asks me to get on the bike for pictures. He doesn't need to ask me to smile. I've been smiling for the past 5 minutes. Some people in the now dwindling crowd ask what I'm going to do with the bike and I say I'm probably going to sell it. Some cheer. Some boo. It's all good, though, because I am now the proud owner of this bike.

I still can't believe I won.

-Barry

Camping!

Last night I went up to the Spruces to meet the family for some good ol' family camping! There's nothing like escaping the city for the fresh pine valleys and lingering smoky aroma of the mountains! I've decided that man must, on occasion, return to the roots of civilization and enjoy the simplicities of fire, meat, and marshmallows. In fact, had there been a body of icy water, I would have gladly thrown myself into it for the simple opportunity to return to the primal nature of my long lost ancestors... and scream like a little girl.

That opportunity wasn't presented as no large body of water existed. We had a great time, though, and I look forward to when we can go camping again. Enjoy the pictures, folks...

The squirrels were EVERYWHERE! They were fairly tame for squirrels which makes me wonder if maybe somebody didn't train them to steal all of our food. I can see some bearded fellow off in the bushes: "Yes, my pretties, bring me a scrumptious Dorito! No, damn you! Don't EAT it! Oh... I'm so hungry..."

Salad in a pan. Camping is all about creatively using everything you have.

Here, we have cheese bread warming by the fire, and riblets stewing in a sweet, succulent barbecue sauce in the dutch oven. Mmmm.

This is our quaint little peice of National Forest Service heaven. :)

Mr. Squirrel (possibly the same one as shot one?) enjoys the greatest meal since the Johnson family left him an entire watermelon in '05.

This is the rarely seen "Beeflower." Hehe, nah, it's actually just a bee on a flower.

Dad and Andrew discuss the fire and the thermodynamic properties of decaying wood gasses.

This is Shan, my sister, and her husband, Andrew. You can see there blog here.

Tyler and I look over pictures he took. Shan seems to have captured me cleaning food from my teeth or something. It almost makes me look like I have a mustache. No?

Here I demonstrate my skills with a hatchet, as I turn a stick into a marshmallow roaster.

Oh sweet mother of golden marshmallow...

Shan likes a little cancer with her mallow.

YES! Tyler approves!

We played Phase 10 late into the night. And by "late into the night" I mean till about 10:30 when everyone started to get cold.

My poker face. Also my "I'm gonna kick yo @*%$" face.

I swear Shannon cheated. She had a wild nearly EVERY hand!

And that concludes this post. Thanks for reading. :)

-Barry

Great Weekend

I want to begin this blog by welcoming back my best friend, Justin, and his wife, Kathryn, back to the states. They've been in Australia for the past year and just returned to the USA on Friday. Justin's parents hosted a delicious barbecue with a plentiful assortment of roasted meats (hamburgers and hotdogs) and a plethora of diced fruit, potato salad, chips, fluffy green stuff, and drinks. We had a great time catching up and making ourselves merry. No, there was no alcohol involved, but I did drink my fair share of Vanilla Coke. (Mmm. Sweet nectar of the gods.) It was so great to see Justin and Katt! I'm excited for them to settle down in Utah for a little while. It'll be good times.

Anyway, this is short and sweet and sadly I have no pictures to back up the wonderful description of the barbecue. I brought my camera but completely forgot I had it till late. I promise pictures another time, though. Really. An extravaganza of pictures. A fiesta of photos. Ole!

-Barry