So I just returned from Utah and a trip out to visit my new cohorts at Zorch Software.

Man, I hate flying.  Planes are just terribly cramped and my legs feel like Jello after even 2 hours.  Not to mention that fat people that always seem to end up next to me and take up 1.5 seats, seemingly.  And what's up with the cell phones?  I swear, people in and around airplanes talk extra loud when they're on their cell phones.  I visualize myself punching some of these stupid people in the face and yelling "STFU!"  I just didn't have the patience.  When the screener at the airport asked me to take my fleece off, I blurted out: "So what if I have a weapon strapped to my chest?"  Seriously though, what's the point of making me take my fleece off if you don't make me take my shirt and pants off?  What if I have a gun strapped to my leg?  Oh that's right, the metal detector would catch it.  So why the fuck do I have to take my fleece off?!?!  And seriously, you think a terrorist would be stupid enough to even try?  They'd surely come up with much more creative solutions than the obvious.  Our airport security is a joke.

Okay, enough ranting.

But anyways, Utah--around Salt Lake City, in particular--is a beautiful place.  The area where I spent my week is surrounded on both sides by huge, snow-capped mountains.  It was awesome waking up in the morning and seeing the mist move past the mountains as the sun was breaking just behind the mountains.  Simply beautiful.

Some tips for anyone going to the  Salt Lake City (SLC) area:

• Utah weather is weird.  Very weird.  When I woke up Thursday morning, my rental car was covered in 3 inches of snow.  Later that day, a huge blizzard whipped through.  Honestly, I've neve seen such a violent snowstorm (I've seen more snow, but the winds were wicked).  But then by afternoon, it was 60F and all the snow had melted.  WTF?  It was like it never snowed at all.
• Google maps is all wrong.  The exit numbers in Utah in the SLC area are all wrong.  I spent a good portion of Monday night trying to figure out where the hell I was because the directions I had were just terrible.  Brad told me that they actually made an error during construction for the Winter Olympics in 2002 with regards to the mile markers. Doh!
  
• Lots of places to eat.  So much variety and so many different choices.  Downtown SLC is just jam packed with restaurants.
• Impossible to get a hotel room during the middle of March.  So Brad only booked me for the first two days since he couldn't find anywhere to book the full week.  The hope was that people would cancel, but I wasn't so lucky.  So I spent Tuesday night calling around trying to find another place to stay.  Called like 8 hotels.  Nothing.  Which leads to...
• As I was told by Blake, Utah is the skiing Mecca.  So many people there skiing.  Wish I wasn't such a pussy

All in all, it was a fun and productive trip (and a bit frustrating at times (did I mention I hate flying?)).  Brad's house was beautiful, although incredibly hard to find.   Some genius decided to name all of the roads in the development the same name with a different suffix (i.e. Draper Woods Dr., Draper Heights St., Draper Way, etc).  Also curious is the fact that those Utes like to keep all of their street signs the same size.  So even long ass street names like "Everglade Mountain Way" got squeezed onto these fairly small signs.

Okay, I'm ranting again.

Well, anyways, I liked Utah.  I'd even consider moving out there.  If you have a chance, do visit and enjoy the sights.