Photos by Me and Scrumptious Bearded Armstrong.
the smell of my desperation has become a stench
Heather B. Armstrong
Hi. I’m Heather B. Armstrong, and this used to be called mommy blogging. But then they started calling it Influencer Marketing: hashtag ad, hashtag sponsored, hashtag you know you want me to slap your product on my kid and exploit her for millions and millions of dollars. That’s how this shit works. Now? Well… sit back, buckle up, and enjoy the ride.
'Chelle
2002/12/18 at 12:42 pmOops, 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)!
vibegrrl
2002/12/18 at 12:44 pmI LIKE the poopy septic tank hair!!!
and you guys take AMAZING photos, btw…
PJ
2002/12/18 at 12:53 pmMan, 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.
Hilatron
2002/12/18 at 12:55 pmWhoa…so THAT’S why you moved to Utah!
anna
2002/12/18 at 1:03 pmi 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.
jess
2002/12/18 at 1:05 pmi love jon’s hat. that rules. and the scenery in utah is gorgeous! wow. and here i thought utah completely sucked.
ChibaCity
2002/12/18 at 1:16 pmDooce, 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.
ChibaCity
2002/12/18 at 1:18 pmer, make ‘last week’ ‘yesterday’
The Mighty Jimbo
2002/12/18 at 1:25 pmmmmm…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…
tracy
2002/12/18 at 1:31 pmThat second picture rocks. Did you take any pictures of the Chuckmaster playing in the snow after the storm? My pups go orgasmic when there’s snow to play in.
Naaman
2002/12/18 at 1:32 pmYay Utah! Yay Mormon drummer and guitarist!
Shanni
2002/12/18 at 1:33 pmBeautiful. The photo with Jon – that looks familiar. Is that Sandy or Lyndon? Chuck is a handsome dog.
the propagandist
2002/12/18 at 1:41 pm1. 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.
Zorbs
2002/12/18 at 1:45 pmChuck is such a handsome doggie!
Cindi
2002/12/18 at 1:46 pmi’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.
LK
2002/12/18 at 1:48 pmlow rocks. that was perfect background music to the photos! i was in utah this past summer for the very first time – i must go back sometime during winter. hope chuck enjoyed his first snowstorm!
angie
2002/12/18 at 1:53 pmSure, 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.
Lil' Lib
2002/12/18 at 1:54 pmFabulous photos and a perfect soundtrack to boot!
Ex-liontamer
2002/12/18 at 2:15 pmNice pix.
Got any Supersuckers?
Suicide Blonde
2002/12/18 at 2:23 pmWow, I have never been to Utah. Now I want to be there.
Lindsey
2002/12/18 at 3:12 pmIn 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.
ae
2002/12/18 at 3:24 pmStunning. I’ve only passed through Utah on my way to places elsewhere but each time it was stunning. So many views which made me stop, catch my breath and not have any doubt about why a group of people decided that it was the promised land.
Katherine
2002/12/18 at 3:38 pmLindsey is right!
Jen
2002/12/18 at 4:21 pmIt’s been said already, but DAMN! I had no idea Utah was that beautiful. Now we know one of the reasons why you wanted to go back.
lee
2002/12/18 at 4:28 pmHey, we have the same shoes.
Goldilocks
2002/12/18 at 4:54 pmI think Chuck is looking to the future. Possible presidential run?
Sue
2002/12/18 at 5:35 pmHeather… 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!
whatevrnvrmind
2002/12/18 at 5:53 pmThat Low song is fantastic, as are the pretty pictures.
Leslie
2002/12/18 at 6:34 pm::sigh:: I think this is my favorite post.
occasional kate
2002/12/18 at 6:40 pmmultimediaextravaganza! as always, amazing.
nicole
2002/12/18 at 6:48 pm3 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?
jenhaaay
2002/12/18 at 6:48 pmdefinitely pooping in that pic.
Keith
2002/12/18 at 6:53 pmBetter 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.
Rachel
2002/12/18 at 7:32 pmOh, man, Keith, the Californians already have…there’s a reason why people joked BYU was UC-Provo.
brent
2002/12/18 at 9:17 pmyes, 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…
Big D
2002/12/19 at 2:43 amWhat a purdy pup. What kind of mutt is he?
Erich
2002/12/19 at 3:14 amIf you could get high-speed internet access out there, it’d be perfect.
HurgleGurgle
2002/12/19 at 3:59 amTHese are good photos, but I gotta tell you, Utah gets *much* better than this.
HG
2002/12/19 at 4:01 amSandy Benches? Draper?
stacey
2002/12/19 at 5:00 amTo the Propagandist: I am a woman who loves a man with a beard, esp. one like the Lovely Bearded Armstrong.
To the Dooce: *hush* awed silence.
RedheadedGirlie
2002/12/19 at 6:50 amLike 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.
Marshall
2002/12/19 at 7:16 amI see you guys are making great use of your new wide-angle lens — I love the landscapes shot this way with their curved horizons and squeezed centers. The 11th shot, with it’s low and wide perspective of the congressman is my current fave. Gimme. I want that one for my wall.
Oh…and Chuck is starting to show his heritage…that curved upright tail is a sure giveaway for husky bloodlines.
Jessie
2002/12/19 at 7:28 amDooce, I just have to tell you that I think you guys take amazing photgraphs! They are so good I’m almost jealous.
ex southern babtist
2002/12/19 at 7:45 amYou two obviously give Mr. Chuck a lot of attention. He has got it made.
Naz
2002/12/19 at 8:16 amAbsolutely gorgeous.
Also, Jon’s (ex-)beard makes me want to grow one, strangely enough.
Sammas
2002/12/19 at 8:25 amAhh! The photos are absolutely beautiful, and your dog is so cute!
poop
2002/12/19 at 8:27 amI think I have been edited for using my bottom system as my brain and such.
Kate the Great
2002/12/19 at 8:43 amWas that you in the Post today? I verily believe it was.
Chris
2002/12/19 at 8:53 amGreat 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
2002/12/19 at 9:07 ampoop: there may very well be someone named poop sitting out there in front of his computer, a bottle of lotion in his left hand, reading my website. i just really don’t want to hear about it.