Oops, tab does not work in this. Neither does pressing enter _after_ ineffectually tabbing. Oh, well. Great photos (especially of Chuck -- he is, as always, adorable)!

Man, if I lived in a place with scenery like this I think I could put up with a lot of other shit. It beats the hell out of farmland. In the 3rd to last pic, Chuck looks as if he just KNOWS something big is about to happen.

i think 'scrumptious' is a massive understatement. and i don't even LIKE beards.

oh - and the pictures of the other stuff and chuck are good too.

hee.

Dooce, your site just blows me away, really. It's as if you've founded Harper's (or some major magazine) on-line, only it's so much more interesting, and so much fun to look at, and to read, everyday. Utah will work out. Saying what you did last week was the best thing to do -- I think the saying-outloud part is 90% of the work.

mmmm...road trip. Love the pics. Personally, my memories of Utah aren't quite so grand. I drove into St. George on a climbing trip, fell off a cliff on my second climb and landed right on my noggin. 8 stitches and a concussion later, I turned around and left the state. Haven't been back since. Looking at your pics, maybe I should go back. Better bring a helmet this time...

Yay Utah! Yay Mormon drummer and guitarist!

1. you are one of the only women on record to LIKE a guy's beard

-AND-

2. are you developing the utahian chauvinism of feeling the need to identify mormons...much like the canadian penchant to call "canadian" everytime someone mentions peter jennings.

i'm worried you're living in Provo and now i see why living in utah is the shits.

beautiful photos, i've never been able to capture utah like that.

Sure, Chuck is handsome, but I think I have a newly discovered beard-fetish. Man, Dooce, you have one fine-ass hubby! And great hair. And the best dog ever. And scenery that goes on forever. You rock.

Oh, and I miss snow - granted, I go back to Wisconsin next week for 13 days. I'm sure I will learn to loathe it again.

Nice pix.

Got any Supersuckers?

In the third to last pic, chuck doesn't look like he "KNOWS something big is going to happen." He looks like he's pinching a loaf.

Lindsey is right!

Hey, we have the same shoes.

Heather... I try to "think" as little as possible when I read your site .. I kinda like to sit in silence and Awe... but look... forget the job search ... do a coffe table book with your gorgeous photos and delicious commentary ... hey I bet if you got rid of the septic tank poopy red you'd end up on OPRAH's book club :) I'd buy a hard cover copy of DOOCE.Com in a heartbeat!

::sigh:: I think this is my favorite post.

3 hour layover in SLC, elated to find they serve alcohol in the airport. chugging beers in the middle of a sea of blond ponytails, basking in the proximity to the blurbodoocery.

does your fame freak you out at all?

Better not let the SoCal real estate developers know that there's still open land out there, or else they'll annex Utah and start building apartment buildings and mini-malls and 25-screen movie theatres. With his beard and his hat, Jon looks like he's acclimated well to being a Mountain (Time Zone) Man.

yes, the pictures are (as always) terrific, but you people are SOOO in for a ride when you see what's outside of the major-"metro"-county-area...

If you could get high-speed internet access out there, it'd be perfect.

Sandy Benches? Draper?

Like you, I have a love/hate relationship with my home state, New Hampshire. NH is often revered for its pristine mountains, rivers, lakes and gorgeous scenery. Though there are any number of things that infuriate me about growing up and living here, all I have to do is get in the car and drive up to the moutains to remember why living here makes me feel so damn good so much of the time. I hope that you and your scrumptious bearded one feel the same way about Utah. Amazing vistas, like those in your pictures, are almost alarmingly theraputic at times. (And they're typically free, unlike psychologists and psychiatrists!)

PS: Though I love NH, your pictures are so gorgeous that they make me want to pack up and move...despite the Mormans.

Dooce, I just have to tell you that I think you guys take amazing photgraphs! They are so good I'm almost jealous.

Absolutely gorgeous.

Also, Jon's (ex-)beard makes me want to grow one, strangely enough.

I think I have been edited for using my bottom system as my brain and such.

Great Pics. I don't know why, but everytime I think about Utah, I think about Norman Mailer's book, "The Executioner's Song". I've been to Utah myself a number of times, and know people that live there, but for some reason that novel has been inexorably linked in my mind with that state. I think it is because I had to maintain an image in my head of Utah for the entire length of the book, which is pretty long. The images were kind of like your nature shots: overcast, stark, cold... but beautiful.

Dooce, who's the band? They're good and original. Do they tour the region? To the Propagandist: No she's not.

Just testing the waters.
I have learned the rules and will now post DOOCE friendly "thoughts".

Kiss Kiss
poop

You really are an amazing photographer. You took something that I usually think is ugly (yellow grass and gray skies...) and made it look incredible. Maybe I don't appreciate Utah's 'non redrock' landscape cause I've lived here for 24 years. Cause I don't think it's pretty. Yellow grass? I'll take the Pine Trees of the Pac.NW or the Palm Trees of So.Cal over yellow grass anyday!

At any rate, I loved your pics. Changed my mind about the whole non-beauty of Utah thing. My favorite thing about them is you can totally feel that 'anticipation' of a storm. You know the feeling-- the gusty winds, dark sunlight, far off black clouds, and silence. It really is a Utah norm, for sure.

oops. the answer showed up after I posted that one! Why didn't you want your name used... since we all know it was you?

sara: i didn't want my name used because if they used my name they would have had to use the name of the company that fired me, and i've never made public the company's name or anyone who worked for the company. i've tried not to publicly slander the company, if only to cover my ass legally, but i don't think they would extend me the same mercy if they found out that i had given their name to a newspaper, let alone The Washington Post.

Totally understandable. When I first read the article, before I even got to the parts that quoted you, I thought of your story and how WP seemed pretty late in the game on this "blogging has responsibilities thing." And I am totally glad that they contacted you about it! It made me feel like I knew something waaaay before THE NEWS did! Is that weird to congratulate you getting quoted because you got fired? If it isn't, congratulations!

make that *motherfucking* sexy.