My mom loved this spoon. Scattered around her house are many of the homemade gifts I've given her. After elementary school, teachers no longer set aside special projects for their students. So starting in junior high, I was left with coming up with an idea on my own, buying her a gift or making dinner -- with her help of course.

If it were solely up to me -- which it's not -- I'd take the patio furniture and a vacation. If it were solely up to my husband -- which it's not -- he'd put all of it in the bank. So it looks like we'll compromise.

"You know," he said. "The good days are now."

Covering sports has opened my eyes to a smorgasbord of sporting opportunities that are available for young and old, athlete and fan in Tooele County -- many of which have only come into existence in recent years.

As some of you may already know from my previous columns, I currently make my home in Salt Lake and commute to Tooele for work at the Transcript-Bulletin. I know what you're all thinking, that with the insanely high price of gas, the 40-minute drive, and the unnecessary racking up of miles on my car, why would I ever want to keep commuting back and forth? If I plan on working here for a while, wouldn't I also eventually get sick of the commute and just want to find an apartment, condo or house somewhere in Tooele County?

April 1 was not only April Fool's Day. It also marked the sixth month of my employment as a writer here at the Transcript-Bulletin. I don't know for sure if there is a significance to those events occurring at the same time. I'll leave it to you to judge.

Last year I wrote a column whose main thesis was that winter wasn't all that bad if you had a game plan to get you through the snowy months. I'd like to take this opportunity to recant those hubristic statements. I was wrong. Winter is better than me. It beat me fair and square this year, repeatedly, over what seemed like 10 months of arctic purgatory.

Easter is on Sunday, and while I may not have specific Easter memories -- aside from the traditional Easter books my parents give out as gifts instead of candy -- I do have memories of bunnies, which are one of the symbols of Easter.

Cases of spring fever have risen dramatically in Tooele County in the past few weeks after relatively few cases were reported through the first months of winter.

On Saturday, I had a couple of reasons to go watch the 4A-5A state basketball championships in Ogden at the Dee Events Center. First, the final game of the day would pit Bountiful vs. Provo in the 4A championship. I really didn't care who won, but I've lived in Bountiful for 14 years and covered the Braves and coach Mike Maxwell. During one of the three years I covered them, Bountiful won a 5A state basketball championship. My favorite quote from coach Maxwell: "Defensively we want to get in their shorts."

As many of you probably don't know, I'm a local musician as well as a journalist for the Transcript-Bulletin. I play the drums and the keyboard -- though not at the same time -- for a band based out of Salt Lake City. I like to think of my musicianship as a part-time job, even though I've never actually been paid for a show before, and like many aspiring musicians I often daydream about what it would be like to be a full-time rock star.

STAFF WRITER

I can see where we're headed and the efficiencies to be gained, but I resolved a long time ago to live an alternative lifestyle, and after almost 18 years of marriage, my wife and I are probably too set in our ways to join the mainstream single majority anyway. We also have two kids, which in America today shoots us well over the average of 2.57 people per household, and way out onto the radical demographic fringe.

I have boycotted Valentine's Day and winter for that matter.

Apparently January is the best month for planning self-improvement tactics. At least someone thought so when they instigated the idea of creating lists of resolutions for the new year.

The storm on Christmas Eve had me, my brother and nephew sliding all the way up SR-36 from Tooele to Erda. I focused on the road and other cars, and kept a tight grip on the wheel. All the while thinking in the back of my head: "What should I do if the car were to spin out?"

Monday was the busiest day of the year for postal workers. Billions of pieces of mail were shipped to all parts of the world. People sending out last-minute Christmas gifts and holiday cards stood in long lines at post offices to make sure their loved ones received their packages.

Being alone for the holidays makes you feel depressed, knowing that you're getting another year older and another year closer to becoming the single old man everybody wonders about -- "What's wrong with that guy?" As the only remaining single guy out of my college friends, at least that's how I view things.

I spent my early childhood in a small lumber town on the very southern tip of the Puget Sound in Washington state called Shelton. Today the city boasts to have grown to cover 6.11 square miles and holds a little more than 8,700 residents. When I left there about 40 years ago, I'm sure it was much smaller.

And then there's the horror-film version of Santa who rode through Grantsville during the town's Christmas parade last weekend. Seeing him out and about was probably enough to make any kid slide the couch in front of the fireplace, hoping to keep Santa out of their living room this Christmas Eve.