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/

More Gundersen Stories

Knowing that one story would only whet your appetite for more, I gathered together all the stories that Grandpa Wilford Gundersen told to John Madsen about 4 decades ago or so. (The only story I left out was the one told by Grandpa's 2nd wife Sophia. She told an odd little story about her first hustand. Let me know if you're crazy to hear that one too ... and I'll post it.)

I personally love these stories. Mostly I guess because one of my favorite childhood memories was listening to my dad Tom tell stories. In my mind I can hear my little girl voice whining, "Dad, tell me a story ... tell me a story." I'd whine until he'd start up a story for me. It would most often be about his childhood ... about William Penn School; about wrestling with his brothers; about playing in his grandpa's (Thomas Gundersen's) barn up on Gundersen Lane when he thought his grandpa wouldn't catch him at it; about dreaming he could fly and then testing his theory by jumping off the shed behind his house almost landing on a picket fence; about falling off a wagon pulling a plow, landing in a small low point in the field & being run over by the plow (resulting in the loss of an ear). His mother Ingeborg put the ear back on ... and did a pretty good job of it. Dad would always lean down at this point of the story to show me a closeup of his ear. All I could see were a few deep scars beind the ear to show what had happened. Sometimes he would draw a picture for me. He was a good artist -- he liked drawing horses and birds. Anyway, once his story started I was mezmerized ... and I always ended up laughing. Not just a little laugh. But that kind of uncontrollable laughter that wouldn't stop.

Grandpa Wilford's stories remind me of dad's stories. Dad's stories were usually a little lighter and as I thought much funnier; and his voice was a little higher pitched. But, all the same, the style is very similar. So when I listen to these stories, I'm also hearing dad's voice telling his stories. And I love it.

We started the fast!

This is just to report that Jake and I have officially started the family fast. We did it in true Gundersen style, by eating a Rhubarb Crisp made from Connie & Leonard's backyard rhubarb plant. It was so delicious. If I was a rhubarb crisp, I would definitely eat myself.

The Penguin of Death

Remember when Jen gave us the Penguin of Death? Well, I wish I had him RIGHT NOW. Because I am listening to an online CLE to keep my law license current for Indiana. And I want to kill myself. It's so boring.

Here's a sample: "The notice data you see on the website are things like the name and address of all the operators on the site or a designated operator, how the operator is using the information, how it is disclosed, and verifiable consent is an email with digital signature from a parent, a credit card used in connection with the transaction, blah blah blah BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!!!"

I spent $40 for this nonsense. If the Penguin of Death was here, and not sitting in my bookshelf four miles away, then he would put me out of my misery in at least one of 412 different ways.

Wilford Gundersen Speaks

Orson Wilford Gundersen was my grandpa. He was a tough old Norwegian ... and a Gundersen through and through! He was born in 1883 and raised on Gundersen Lane, and lived there his whole life. Grandpa had a soft spot for each of his grandchildren (and he had a lot of us!). He and grandma Ingeborg had 8 living children and (I won't take the time to count now) but there must be at least 50 grandchildren. I remember that whenever grandpa came to visit, he would grab my head in his right arm like a vise, rub the top of my head with the knuckles of his left hand and say, "You've got a good head." I don't know if this is a Norwegian custom ... or unique to grandpa Wilford, but I do know that none of his grandkids escaped this greeting! I noticed that he called all his grandkids by their first name, but when he saw me he always said my name twice. "You've got a good head, Shauna Shauna." He always said this with a little bit of a Norwegian accent (even though he didn't normally have an accent at all). My mother wondered why he said my name twice (she didn't really care for this) so one day she asked him. He told her that "Shauna" sounds like a word meaning "beautiful" in Norwegian. So he was just calling me beautiful Shauna. I liked it a lot after that.

On December 23, 1963 our cousin John Madsen (the son of Lou and Edith Gundersen Madsen) sat down with Grandpa Wilford and recorded some stories. The first one is "Neffs Canyon Chicken Hunt."



If the player does not work, try clicking here.

I think you might enjoy hearing a Gundersen story ... told in typical Gundersen style!

Must Keep Blog Alive!

Hello Everybody!

This is actually a really stupid post but drastic times call for drastic measures. It looks like the blog is getting as stale as a piece of old crusty frenchbread... it's been over 10 days since our last blog entry.

So, this question is mostly for Jake but anyone who has suggestions can respond...

Back Story: I finally found a Whey protein powder that I like. It doesn't have a weird after taste... it actually adds a delightful vanilla flavor to everything I add it to. BUT I was looking over the ingredients and I saw it is sweetened with Stevia. Although Stevia is an all natural sweetener I have heard it causes a plethora of health problems so now I feel like I need to once again shop around for 100% whey protein powder.

Question: I remember you made strawberry flavored protein shakes when we came to visit you in Dec. I liked the shakes... no after taste. So what brand and flavor protein powder do you use?

P.S. Do random people just sign up as friends on your facebook account? I don't do a lot of facebooking because I can never get the applications to work but I was messing around with it earlier today and there they were.... a bunch of random people.

I WON MY APPEAL!!

This is exciting. I finally won my case that I went back to Indiana last month to argue before the Court of Appeals. Boo-yeah!!

So here's the story:

Last summer, my landlord client had a tenant who was a total punk. He was, in every one's estimation, a whiny prima-donna, for reasons that would take too long to explain here so you'll have to take my word for it.

He was supposed to move out on the last day of his lease, but left ALL his stuff behind and the place was a total disaster when the landlord walked in to do the move-out inspection. Chicken bones in the dishwasher; a bag of trash seeping on the hardwood floor for two months (we checked to key log to determine this); hair, urine and toothpaste caked on all over the bathroom fixtures, general dirtiness, and it STUNK. The tenant wanted the landlord to let him keep all his stuff in there for two weeks until he could move into his next apartment, which was just down the hall. When the landlord said NO and by the way get your stuff out! because not only are you a terrible tenant but we have another person moving in this apartment in five days, he had a fit and told them that he was the priority over ANYONE else.

The landlord decided there was no way they were going to let him move into a new apartment down the hall because he was just too much to deal with. They told him that since his new lease didn't start for two more weeks, he should go find somewhere else to live. I was given the task of advising this tenant and his mother that the landlord was not going to honor the second lease for the apartment down the hall.

You would think, given that Bloomington is a college town, that it would not really be that hard to find another apartment. Especially since school was supposed to start in the next two weeks, the landlords know if they don't get their places rented then they're stuck with a vacancy for a year. But no. This guy was special.

His mother, who is an attorney in Chicago, calls me to explain that her son cannot live in ANY other apartment complex because he has a psychological condition. Apparently, he was robbed at knife point two years earlier and can only live in a place that has a "secured" front entry. I personally found this explanation to be pretty far-fetched, but whatever. Using my connections in real estate, I found an apartment in a half an hour that had a secured front entry that was NICER than my landlord's apartment and $25 cheaper per month. (I'm not doing this to be kind -- I'm helping my client mitigate any exposure to potential damages from the breach of the lease).

This was, unfortunately, still unacceptable to the tenant's mother. And by the way, this mother is the snottiest lawyer I have ever dealt with. I won't go into too many specifics, but she took a little too much pleasure in telling me that she was an important partner of a big law firm and had much more important things to do than deal with a small town associate like me. Although I tried to reason with her, she and the tenant sued the landlord, and used the "emergency possession" statute that tenants can use when a landlord locks them out. This was creative, but in my opinion not procedurally correct, and so I assumed the Judge would be savvy enough to know that this was not appropriate.

I was so wrong.

The judge fell all over herself for this tenant during the trial. For one, the kid conveniently omitted that the reason he got robbed at knife point was because he was storing drugs in his safe. The judge also wouldn't let me ask him questions about his medical treatment related to his supposed "condition." This condition may have had some basis in reality, but the devil is always in the details and those details are what the judge wouldn't let me get to at all. He cried big glistening alligator tears about how he would have to withdraw from school if he couldn't live in THIS particular apartment. He told the court there was no other place to live but this apartment and his post-traumatic stress disorder prevented him from living anywhere else. When I asked him why the nicer, cheaper apartment I had found wasn't acceptable, he said: "because it doesn't have the same glitter" as the landlord's place and it wasn't "close enough to bars and restaurants."

Geez. I'm sorry. This kid is such a loser. Entitlement issues up the yin-yang. And unfortunately, the judge just SPANKED us in court. I could tell we were going to lose almost from the beginning, and when we got the order back from her it was SIX PAGES LONG!!!! (Small claims orders are usually a one page form). The judge did everything she could for him, short of coming down off the bench and wiping the tears off his face.

So of course, I appealed. In fact, I wanted my landlord to disobey the judge's order (the tenant could file for contempt, but if we won on appeal this would be nullified). The landlord didn't want to do that, so they let the tenant move into the new apartment. We file the appeal, and nine months later:

TOTAL VINDICATION!

Bee-YOO-ti-full words of love!

Hi family,

This is Traci. Just letting you know what a fabulous weekend Jake and I had together. On Friday, I mowed the lawn and then mowed the nice section of weeds. Then I used round-up all over the weeds. To my amazement, my next door neighbor had mowed our joint driveway path of grass, which has never been done before. Amazing. It was a great night. I think Jake was inside either watching TV or working on the computer.

On Saturday, we went to Home Depot, bought some flowers and grass seed for the yard (we are trying to get it back in shape since we've been gone -- it still needs some love). Then hit the West Valley Wal-Mart for groceries, because that is how we roll. Later we went and roller bladed at Liberty Park for an hour. An HOUR!! Pretty good exercise for us. I did more yard work, and Jake worked on Volusion for Jen for at least 6 hours or so. We needed some time apart after all that time together at the stores and exercising. Plus, I get really irritated when Jake doesn't listen to me tell him how to drive.

Today we went to our ward here in Sugarhouse. It was the first time I've been back in four years. And let me say this. This congregation is the WORST hymn-singing congregation of ALL TIME. I defy you to find a ward that doesn't suck as bad as ours does at singing hymns. You can hear the chorister from all the way in the back! Cause she's the only one even trying! Today we sang "Beautiful Words of Love" and it was anything but.

However, the people are very friendly. We saw some familiar faces. It was nice to get such a warm reception. But the singing here is the pits. There is obviously no top-ranked music school anywhere in the vicinity, bringing talent from all over the country, who make up at least 1/2 the people in the sacrament meeting.

When we got home, and ate lunch, and were about to settle in on watching "Last Comic Standing" I realized that I had missed my step-sister's baby blessing and the BBQ was just about to start. So we headed over there for a bit, and it was alright. Kind of hot. Lots of people Jake and I didn't know. The usual.

Pretty low-key weekend.

Anyways, I realize this is not an exciting post whatsoever, but I am trying to get this party started here. What did you guys do this weekend? Anything interesting?

Oh my son-of-a-Gunder! What's this?!

Oh my son-of-a-Gunder! What's this?! A family blog... well, this is an ingenious concept. And I am proud to be one of the first Gunders to get-a-bloggin'. I didn't know there were so many famous Gundersens (see right hand side for details). Look at Gil Gundersen... does that look like a superbly bad comb-over or what?! Why haven't we tried to locate Fawn "Bunny" Gundersen for family reunions? That could be interesting.

So, I guess since I don't have kids and I don't have a picture of our new house and I've already done the Elvi pug pictures thing... it looks like I'm strapped for a topic. We can go one of two ways... 1) We can discuss in great depth the social injustice of the peons in Mexico (I just finished watching my weekly Russian propaganda film (that was the topic this week)... or 2) we just go with our all time favorite line from a movie?

This is one of my favorite movie lines from "The Raven":

Dr. Bedloe (played by Peter Lorre): But son, you know that, that everything I tried in life I was a failure. Only, only the day I joined the Brotherhood of Magicians. Oh I, I was the happiest man on earth. I still remember how happy I was. And then when, when Dr. Scarabus offered to teach me superior magical knowledge for luring Dr. Craven here, I just couldn't resist that magnificent award. But Erasamus, believe me with all my heart I regret what I have done to you.

Dr. Craven (played by Vincent Price): You are not alone in guilt sir. I too have failed at the task of living.

Look forward to reading your favorites!

P.S. If this pithy dialogue doesn't get to you, you might want to consider renting "The Raven" just to see Jack Nicholson in tights!

Lemon Garlic Shrimp

2 lbs cooked shrimp (31-40)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 to 1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
3 sprigs fresh dill or 1 sprig dry
1/4 c. olive oil
1 pinch of pepper & kosher salt
1 lemon, (zest and juice of the whole lemon)

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Ready to be served, or can be made a few hours earlier and placed in the fridge for serving later.

In the beginning . . .

Hi Gundersens! We are starting a family blog for the amazing Gundersen family. It is officially located at http://gundersenfamilie.blogspot.com and uses the actual Norwegian spelling of family, ("familie") in the web address because the English spelling of family was already taken. Hopefully, it will help us all to stay in better touch with each other! I sent invites to everyone I had emails for, (Leonard, Jake, Traci, Jen, Shawna, Mills, and Steve Jr.) If you know the emails of others, like Becky, Stacy, Aaron, Karen, Connie, Ellen (does Grandma Ellen have an email?) then please state in the comment section here what their addresses are and we will add them as blog authors so they can post too. Traci's sister Maren is pretty hilarious, so she got invited as kind of an honorary Gundersen. Other honorary Gundersens could also be added by request, if you would like.

This is where you can post the latest goings-on in your life. Or anything you want. Connie wanted Traci's Lemon Garlic Shrimp recipe, so she is going to post it so Connie can get it anytime. You could put up pictures of your kids, or your new house, or maybe even a pug doing something crazy like dressing up as an Elvis pug.

Welcome to the blog! Here's to hoping that this actually works.