My Little Phelpers

Dear Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT),

Pioneer Crossing is finished and it’s a wonderful road. I really have enjoyed how much time it has taken off my drive from Saratoga Springs to American Fork. I really love that I can avoid Lehi Main Street most of the time. It’s wonderful, really.

However, I think the Pioneer Crossing signs are a little much.

Pioneer Crossing Sign

There are a number of these signs along the roadway announcing that you have turned onto Pioneer Crossing (normal street signs weren’t enough?) and signs like this announcing that you entered Lehi City and signs announcing that you entered Saratoga Springs.

I’ll accept the signs announcing that you have changed cities. Cities often have nice signs saying “welcome to our awesome city” or “thanks for coming, come back soon.” But the signs to announce that you turned onto a road… too far.

Government spending and budgeting is a tricky business that I won’t claim to understand at all (maybe I should have done a little bit more research before writing this post–what kind of a journalism graduate am I?). It seems though, at a time when there are a lot of budget cuts in many states across the county,  the money from these signs could have been better spent elsewhere.

I don’t know how much each one of the signs cost, but depending on how much it cost, the money could have gone somewhere else (public schools, perhaps). To me, the signs just seem silly and useless. Everyone knows they are on Pioneer Crossing and if they don’t know, they can look at one of the little green signs that every other road uses to identify itself.

So, by way of sandwhiching my complaint with two nice comments before and after … UDOT, I really enjoy your current website with all the interactive maps and 3D information about how projects are going to look once they are completed. It is a really nice feature, especially with all the MANY projects going on in the places I regularly drive. Check out their cool video of the new road going from I-15 to Highland, it should be pretty nice when it is completed: http://www.udot.utah.gov/sr92/. You can also view information about the changes to I-15 and Geneva Road.

Thank you, UDOT, for your nice roads and hard work, but next time, save us all a little money and don’t invest in silly signs.

Until just recently I had never tried Salt and Vinegar potato chips.

But while we were out shopping the other day, my handsome husband wanted some chips and brought a Stax of salt and vinegar chips (for him) and sour cream and onion (for me).

As we were watching tv one evening, we needed a snack and I brought the two Stax of chips for each of us. I was curious about his chips and asked to try one.

He shared and handed me a chip. I brought it up to my mouth and put it on my tongue.

EWWWWW!

It was horrible. I hated it.

He laughed and laughed at the expression on my face and I decided that I didn’t want him to share any more of his chips with me.

Later as I was working on the computer, I was eating more of my chips not really paying attention to much else but my project. The handsome husband came over and I could smell his chips. He was chatting with me and asked me to look something up on the internets for him. I did and then reached into my Stax container for another delicious sour cream and onion chip and brought it up to my mouth, as I put it on my tongue I thought about how strong his gross chips smelled. I closed my mouth and realized what he had done.

HE PUT ONE OF HIS DISGUSTING CHIPS IN MY CONTAINER WITHOUT ME KNOWING.

Then laughed and laughed and laughed about it.

It was horrible. I can’t believe he still hates me. (remember when he hated me before?)

The Internet is a funny place. Because if the internet a lot of new words or acronyms turned words have entered into our vocabulary. Thing like: LOL, BRB, IDK and others (okay, I guess some of them came from texting too). Lately though I have been noticing some that I hate, (and yes, it is a strong word, but it is a true representation of how I feel about these words) and wish that people wouldn’t use them… Well a specific group of people shouldn’t use them.

Here’s a short list of some of the hated acronyms turned words:

OMG
SOL
BFE
LMAO
WTF

I just think that some of the people who use these “words” don’t understand what they actually mean. I’m pretty naive, but I know what they mean and deep down everyone else does too.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that no one should use these “words” (it would be better but everyone can choose). If you would normally say the phrase without editing it, then go ahead and say the acronym. I actually prefer that. But it makes me absolutely crazy when people who wouldn’t normally say the phrase without editing use these “words.” And don’t even try to say that to them it means, Oh My Gosh… No where in the whole world besides Utah Valley and Rexburg, would anyone even cosider that you were saying Oh My Gosh.

Isn’t it about avoiding the appearance of evil? If you don’t swear, then don’t use acronyms that are representative of swear words.