Makes Sense to Me

Most Gundersens suffer from intense feelings of rage and inferiority. Centuries ago, family ancestors engaged in an epic battle amongst themselves, probably over who ate all the cheese. The losers of the battle became known as the "Gundersens" and the winners became the "Grandersons."

Now you know.

Eternal Gluttonous Glory at the Fargo's Fried Food Extravaganzy!

Let me tell you about the best day ever. EVER!

Last weekend, Jake and I drove down to St. George, in southern Utah. We went with Jen and Zo-fish. We left on Friday in Justin's huge Ford truck loaded up with road snacks galore -- gold fish, chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter M&Ms, and fine beverages. Despite all this, we had to stop in Beaver at the cheese factory to get squeaky cheese and ice cream. If you are ever doing a road trip in southern Utah, you've got to stop here and get you some squeaky cheese. In Beaver. Off main street. You could ask anyone for directions and you'll find it because there's only one dairy in town. In fact, you could even say, "Point me to the cheese factory!" to any given Beaver citizen and they will know exactly what you are talking about.

After stopping in Beaver we headed our way down to St. George to stay with Becky and Jeff. And we really wanted to check out their tasty little burger joint, "Fargo's Drive Thru" that just opened in March. Obviously, Jeff is from New York and has all sorts of crazy ideas that he has decided to import to the wild west. One of these was the sweet potato fries concept. Maybe sweet potato fries are not really from New York because I've had them in Fresno before but you get the idea. Sweet potato fries are not from around here.

Anyways, so our first stop in St. George was to hit up Fargo's for some free grub. Jeff kept plying us with strawberry shakes in addition to the cheeseburgers, fries, and chicken tenders. We got back to their house at about 10 pm ready to bust from a full day of noshing combined with at least two hours of straight-up pigging out. I remember thinking that I had already eaten way too much than what was good for me. But little did I know, tomorrow was going to be the best day ever. EVER!

The next morning, we got up to run a 5K mud run in New Harmony. Our name was the Mud Butts. Don't ask, it's a Jen thing. (If you noticed our t-shirts in the above photo, that's what the "M" stands for.) It was simultaneously the best and worst 5K I have ever run. For one thing, half of it was uphill. The second half was filled with military-style obstacles in mud pits. Fences in mud . . . tires in mud . . . crawling army-style through metal pipes in mud . . . log balancing in mud. It was very muddy. I still have weird bruises. There were parts where I was laughing out loud but the mud and water was so cold that you couldn't tell I was really crying. On the inside. Just a little.

So after getting hosed down (literally, with a fire hose) after the race, we cleaned up to head back down to St. George. And our next stop? Fargo's Drive Thru. For more food. Post-race double pig-out food.

Somehow, Gundersen creativity, combined with Fargo executive power, creates total insanity in food concepts. As we were all happily eating our fried chicken fingers with barbecue sauce and ranch that afternoon, we started talking about fried items such as deep-fried Snickers candy bars and deep fried Twinkies. To the Gundersens, this is just wishful thinking. But to the Fargos, this is reality waiting to happen.

Jeff decided that we needed to, no, we were required, to test the limits of fried food and immediately ordered up a fried food extravaganzy. Oops, I mean extravaganza. Except really, that was a blend of both "extravaganza" and "frenzy" to convey the true sense of what happened later that evening.

After stocking up at the local grocery, we brought back our booty to the restaurant and immediately got to work. What this means is:

1. Traci (or "Trace of Base" as I am now known in the Mud Butt team) started prepping by unwrapping and cutting food into bite-size pieces.

2. Jen started soaking the items in buttermilk and then breading them in egg and flour.

3. Zo manned the deep fat fryer and was in charge of powder-sugar sprinkling the output.

4. Jeff supervised while still running a completely functional restaurant, and went around yelling out things like "you shall now have eternal gluttonous glory!"

5. Becky laughed and took pictures.

6. Jake attended to his iphone or laptop, which was actually (and what I mean by that is not at all) crucial to our overall success.

We deep fat fried just about anything you can think of: cookie dough, brownies, cheesecake, snickers bars, Oreos, nutter butters, cheese sticks, Pillsbury crescent roll dough, Almond Joys, Reese's peanut butter cups, Twinkies . . . it was crazy. Here's the cookies, which actually did not turn out too well:

There is a deep-fried Twinkie there on the plate, and we learned the hard way that you really don't need to roll those suckers in buttermilk prior to breading them with flour. They sort of start to disintegrate in liquid. But I will say this: they are good. Very good.

But amazingly, the best was deep fried cheesecake. IT WAS SO DELICIOUS!!

Anyways, after cleaning up that night (some of the customers even got in on our fried food action, which was good, because we needed help eating all of that stuff) we rolled ourselves home. Went to bed. Slept like logs.

Seriously -- how often does a day like that happen? Not often enough.

When we got home Sunday night I weighed myself to assess the damage, which was FOUR POUNDS.

I've already been working to get it back off (in addition to some other poundage that needs work, we won't even talk about that right now).

Worth it?

WORTH IT.

BEST DAY EVER.

Tasty Tasty Crap Party!

That's right! It's time for a crap, er . . . I mean . . . CREPE party. (But proper French pronunciation dictates that we pronounce it as CRAP).

SO . . .

Crap Party at Jake & Traci's!!

Mmmmm . . . sooooooo . . . delicious . . . .

When: Sunday, October 4th

Time: Noon-Thirty (in between conference sessions)

Where: Jake & Traci's Place

1377 Magic Wand Street

Draper, UT 84020

Come eat some of the famous craps Jake can make!! He learned famous crap making skills in France. The place of authentic crap. Sooooo tasty.

Feel free to stay for afternoon conference and watch with us or just come for the crepes and company if that's more your style.

The Blog is Not Dead!! Also: Hell Freezes Over when Jake's iPhone fails to live up to expectations.

After an extended hiatus, probably due to psychological problems, the Gundy blog is now back. Back in business! The following pictures were taken at the epic Gundersen family mega-triumvirate-birthday party on Sunday for Mills, Shauna, Steve Sr., and some other people we don't know (collectively referred to as "the people") who all suspiciously timed their Birthdays to fall on August 9th, 11th, 13th, 15th, and 17th. I say suspiciously timed because Gundersens do not usually like a lot of individual "attention" and typically shy away from the limelight (except for Leonard, who poses majestically for pictures on command). I think all the August Gundersens probably got together in a birthday conspiracy and rigged the party system in an effort to avoid individual celebrations. But your obvious attempts at deflection are fooling nobody, people!

In other news, Jake's iPhone, used to photographically capture the joyous occasion, took terrible pictures. Jake's precious iPhone does everything like sing, dance, act, and help you find locations to bury the dead bodies, but it takes crappy pictures. Check it:

Jen & her man-friend, Loren Zo. Aunt Karen called him a Brad Pitt look-alike, and he says he'll accept that. The evening featured frequent ghost stories meant to send Zo running and screaming, but he passed the family scare test with flying colors. Jen -- thumbs up. This picture also features that we strictly enforce a mandatory flip-flop only party-footware policy.

This picture above demonstrates when Leonard was telling Connie about how dumb Lindsay Lohan was to turn down that role in this summer's blockbuster, "The Hangover" and Connie of course is surprised because she isn't in the celebrity gossip loop like L-fish is. But Connie shouldn't be surprised. Lindsay is obviously in no position to make good decisions right now.

That Lindsay! Such a dummy!

This blurry picture above is the ONE photo that we all wanted to turn out. It's Leonard's look of blue steel, or heavy thunder, or whatever his signature move is. I can't believe how badly this iPhone thing let us down in this critical moment. Aargh!!

Steve and Karen. This was just after they heard from Connie about how Justin broke his ankle carrying his girlfriend down the stairs. What a wuss, I know!! Below are Marilyn and Steve. Steve obviously continues to relish the comment Marilyn made about the Polynesian man that she hired the other day to trim some hedges in her yard.


Finally: Shauna and Jake on the couch. They were acting pretty normal at the time. This is unusual, however.

If I may say, this was one fun party and one that should definitely be repeated in the future. If it takes almost a year to post another entry documenting said party, well so be it, because that's just how we roll! Therefore, in order to tide you over to the next Gundersen shindig, below is photographic proof that Jake actually likes, no, LOVES, pug dogs. See who is snuggling in his lap as he works on his computer? That's right: Rumble.

It's almost too much cuteness to handle. Gundersens and pugs, oh my!

The Smore Gundersens The Better!

Hotdogs and smores... need I say more! It's party time!

It's all about Gundersens and food! We will take care of the hotdogs & fixins, smores stuff & smore sticks. Please bring a potluck side dish and your happy selves!

Time and Place:
Date: Sunday, October 26, 2008
Time: 2:00pm - 5:00pm
Location: Big Cottonwood Canyon

We will meet at the parking lot at the mouth of Big Cottonwood so we can drive up together and find the perfect location for smores. We can adjust the time/location if needed.

Party Time! Excellent!

Hey everybody! Jake is turning 30 in about a week. So I am having a little party for him at our house. Since his actual birthday is on Tuesday, Sept. 2nd (the same day as Salma Hayek's) we didn't want there to be a conflict between the two so the party will be on Monday, September 1st (Labor Day) at 5:00 pm.

Location: 1021 E. Wilson Street
Time: 5:00 pm
Date: September 1, 2008 (Monday)
Dinner: Pizza! And chocolate cake. Yum. Jake's favorite.

No gifts please. Just bring your sunny Gundersen dispositions.

Riley's Thoughts on being Knocked Up, Pet Heaven, and Social Injustices

As some of you already know, Riley the pug is knocked up. In her unwed condition she felt a lot better spending the next 9 weeks plus puppy whelping time in seclusion. To keep you updated check out her very own blog for news.

http://rileythepug.blogspot.com/