caffeine free Dr. Pepper

November Backlog

2012-01-01T21:14:00.000-07:00

Right now my favorite thing about November was the fact that I didn't take very many pictures.

Since we don't really have any Thanksgiving decorations we went straight from Halloween to Christmas:

Lincoln hung the candy canes. He has some grouping skills to learn.

This is the gingerbread house for Inkom.

Our house.

We went down to St. George for Thanksgiving.

Lincoln got to sit at the kids table.

Angel put together these flower arrangements (one of her lesser known talents).

Then we spent the rest of the month reading Christmas stories.

October Backlog

2012-01-01T20:54:00.002-07:00

Two months behind is pretty good. Although the only reason it isn't three is because I have nothing to write about September. I'm sure it was great but since I apparently didn't take any pictures I can't be sure the month actually occurred.

We took lots of pictures in October.

We had lots of apples on our tree. Lincoln likes to help pick them.

Lincoln went to the park a lot.

And made silly faces at his dad (getting a haircut in between).

The big event was the Long Beach/Disneyland trip.
We had so much fun at the Disneyland Halloween event last year that we thought we would go do it again (plus this was going to be the last chance we could go again while Lincoln was still free).
Angel and I decided to fly down a couple days before the rest of the group and stay aboard the historic Queen Mary. For those who don't know, the Queen Mary is an old luxury cruise liner that use to sail the Atlantic and also served as a troop transporter during WWII. It is now welded to the dock in Long Beach and was prominently featured in the final episode of Arrested Development.

Also, it's haunted... by this guy:

OK, this guy wasn't on the ship. He was actually in the back room of the awesome $1 bookstore we found and spent lots of time in in Long Beach (this is a great idea for anyone looking for a store to start somewhere near me).

The ship had lots of cool Art Deco style to it and we spent a lot of time just wandering around looking at stuff.
Our room was one of the original first-class cabins. The definition of first-class has changed a bit over the last 80 years. This one wouldn't quite pass these days. Although it is a ship so I suppose space is limited. It did have neat details though:

The toilet lever.

The, uh, sink with soap elevator.

The bathing choices (I tried to be salty but they only let me get fresh).

The radio, I mean... heater?

The blow hole (there were like five of these in the room).

Cool curved hallways and psychedelic carpet.

The swimming pool.

The cool mechanical map that showed where the ship was.

We went on a tour of the most haunted areas of the ship and this is the ghost picture I took:

The ghost answers to the name Jooj and is rumored to be the most beautiful passenger who ever boarded the ship.

We spent some time in Long Beach eating delicious food, looking at cheap books among other things and getting excited to go to Disneyland. The next morning we attached plastic bags full of books to the outside of our backpacks and, because we're urban adventurers, we gave public transportation $3.75 and two hours of our time to take us from Long Beach to Disneyland.

Angel and I went in early that morning before the rest of the crew arrived with Lincoln so we could do some rides. Like the teacups:

Going...

Gone.

The teacups are Angel's favorite.
Since Lincoln is a freakishly tall two year old he gets to ride on big kid rides.

In line for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (he rode the 'fast train' at least four or five times).

Waiting for the new Star Tours to start.

In the waiting room for the emergency room ride.

He was tall enough for Space Mountain but we decided since they were projecting scary ghouls on the walls and stuff for Halloween maybe it wasn't such a good idea. He did do Haunted Mansion/Nightmare Before Christmas a couple times though. And his super cool black eye injury got him/us a front of the line pass to Buzz Lightyear.

For the Halloween event Lincoln dressed up like Stitch, Angel was Lilo and they got Wolverine to put on an Elvis suit and go with them.

You know, you'd think we would have taken a lot of pictures of this but, we really didn't.
Other random people took pictures of us...
And there was a pretty constant chorus of "Elvis" around us everywhere we went all day. Some people even figured out the connection between us.

Lincoln is super cute even when he isn't dressed as Stitch (which he wasn't for a little while because he was super sweaty and uncomfortable).

Lincoln showed off his hat and cape.

Goofy was impressed.

Mom still won't let him ride the real Dumbo ride, Doh!

Pass me the mint for the julep.

A good time was had by all and it truly was...

Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.

Since we didn't get many pictures at Disneyland we did a bit of a photo shoot later.

I'm sorry some of those are a little disturbing. None of them quite made the Christmas card.

That mostly tells the story of our Halloween except for the pumpkins I carved. In case anyone else hasn't figured this out, Dremel tools are awesome for carving pumpkins. Our little garden only grows little pumpkins so, I strung them together and made this:

We put them in Lincoln's window so that no neighborhood kids would set themselves on fire on our porch.

I also hooked up a speaker out on the porch to play scary music like Alice Cooper and Michael Jackson.

And since Halloween is the end of October I'll end this with the way we ended Halloween:

Back Splash

2012-01-01T18:44:00.001-07:00

I just want to preface this post with the fact that we have pretty much the best home teacher we could want right now. He is currently an x-ray technician (I think, or something like unto it) but in a previous life was a carpenter for ten years. Last summer he helped us replace our front door, this summer he crawled into our very cramped, very dirty, very inhospitable crawlspace with me on an unsuccessful search for Angel's ring and over the past month or so he helped us replace our kitchen back splash.

Since I don't have much foresight you get this picture of Lincoln making Valentine's cards two years ago as a before picture of the back splash.

Not a great view of it but you get the idea and you can see how cute Lincoln was. If you can't tell, the back splash is the same as the counter. It wasn't that bad but it was a lot of brown and the cabinets, back splash and counters all seems to blend together. That and it was kind of dark. Actually, the kitchen was pretty dark.

We bought some tiles we liked that were on clearance and put them in the garage to age for about a year and a half (in case you didn't know, you're supposed to age tiles for at least a year before you install them...I'm pretty sure anyway). Our home teacher Brother Bryan knew about the tile and must have been itching to do some tiling because he took the initiative to invite himself over to help me tear our kitchen apart the week before Thanksgiving.

We broke out the circular saw, some hammers and pry bars and shortly after, this was the result:

I was going to post some in-progress pictures but, they're actually quite boring so I'm just going to post some final product pictures that I just took.

Lights on, no under-cabinet lighting.

Lights off, under-cabinet on.

Lights on, under-cabinet on.

We're really happy with the results. The LED under-cabinet lighting I did on my own with LED strips that I cut and soldered and wired and whatnot. It brings the kitchen more like our style and adds a nice accent.

Answers to some possible questions you probably don't have:

Q: Did you lay and space each of those 1" tiles by hand?
A: Don't be ridiculous. They come in 12" sheets already spaced 1/8".

Q: Did you have to cut any tiles?
A: Yes.

Q: Um, how did you do that?
A: Poorly, at first. I tried a small hand grinder and got jagged edges that broke of in crooked ways.

Q: Then what did you do?
A: Well, then I tried a wet tile saw. It was freezing cold and got pretty similar results.

Q: Did you give up?
A: Yes... I mean no. I tried various methods like building a little support guide out of scrap tile to keep the glass from breaking in weird ways with the tile saw. The pieces kept freezing to the concrete (it's December) and the glass tiles still broke all broken like.

Q: So, then you gave up?
A: Yes, I then gave up on the tile saw, which is what I assume you meant by your vague question (you're a terrible interviewer). I bought a little glass cutter and after some trial and error figured out a pretty reliable method using the cutter, some rulers and two pairs of pliers to score and break the tiles one at a time.

Q: How many tiles did you have to individually cut?
A: 87 cut tiles made it onto the wall. Then there were a bunch of other tests and failures.

Q: LEDs are expensive.
A: That's not a question, and they are fairly expensive if you buy them as LED lighting from a hardware or department store. However, if you are willing to do a bit of soldering and already have old ac/dc power supplies from old electronics laying around they're much cheaper. I bought a 16.8' strip of LEDs for about $15.00 on Amazon.

Q: Will you come do that to my kitchen?
A: If you're willing to pay me twice as much as you would a professional and won't complain when you get results half to a quarter as good then, yes, yes I will (and you'll need to pay travel expenses).

(confession: all three of those pictures are with lights and under-cabinet on. The first was taken with a flash, the second with no flash and too fast of a shutter speed and the third with no flash and normal settings. They just happened to all look pretty close to how I described them above.)

Arcade Shelves

2012-01-01T17:41:00.001-07:00

I have an old Asteroids arcade cabinet that I started to build on this last summer. That's a different story entirely and it's nowhere near done. In the process of working on that I bought three more arcade cabinets for parts. And this, is their story.

This one was a Golden Tee '98 and was a lot more complete than it looks in this picture. I forgot to take any pictures of it before I started tearing it down. And these are the only pictures you'll see of it because shortly afterward it was totally torn down and cannibalized for parts.

This if Frogger. If you don't know Frogger then I can't believe you'll be very interested in this post.

This is Tutankham. If you don't know Tutankham then you're pretty normal.

I got all three of them for $50. Which is pretty good considering the coin door (not pictured) from the Golden Tee game is worth $50-60 by itself (it's going in the asteroids machine).

Angel was super excited about having four arcade cabinets in the garage. So much so that she said to me, "You could probably make some pretty cool book shelves out of these. And if you did then I bet they would stay in the garage a lot longer...which would be nice." (If you were paying attention you probably noticed a bit of a lie in that last quote. Angel didn't really have much confidence in my ability to make anything 'pretty cool')

So, with the support, trust, faith and great idea of my wonderful, beautiful, amazing wife I set off on an adventure to turn some crappy hammered old arcade cabinets into some relatively neat storage units.

I don't think anyone is really that interested in a full play by play of the whole process (and I'm not that interested in writing it) so I'm just going to post some of the in-progress pictures for your perusal.

So, these are all pictures of the Frogger cabinet but the Tutankham was pretty much the same except that the front doesn't swing open, it's only accessible through the coin door. Since I'm terrible at remembering to take pictures along the way there are no pictures of the shelves in the screen opening...

Once I got enough done on them Angel reluctantly agreed to help me move them out of the garage and into the basement.

I'm pretty happy with them so far but I'm not actually completely done with them. If you'll notice they don't have their coin doors on them. I haven't gotten around to that and I need to figure out how I want to light up the ones on Tutankham. Also, I have a whole other project to work on the Frogger one involving lighting and my Christmas present:

Stay tuned for that one.

Trip to Mackay

2011-12-03T18:24:00.000-07:00

Lincoln and I got a chance to take a road trip with Uncle Jaron and Aunt Kelsey to Mackay. Although a funeral doesn't make for the circumstances, it was a rather pleasant trip. This is the first time the three siblings have been together Angel and I got married, almost 5 1/2 years. We met Grandma and Grandpa there and stayed in a graciously donated strange house that was very 60's up with a fairly newly remodeled basement. It was actually pretty nice. We took this picture in the bathroom downstairs to make Angel jealous that she wasn't there:

Since this was Mackay, the house was surrounded by farm land and farm equipment. So, we went out to take some pictures on some tractors.

Lots of tractor noises.

Trying to get it started.

More tractor noises.

He wasn't too happy when he had to share a seat with Dad.

This is just like the tractor I got to drive back in my pipe moving days. I started it up for him but decided not to take him for a ride because who knows what the tractor's owner and country laws would have done to me.

This is a picture of the sweet satellite dish installation on the house we stayed at:

If you can see there, the dish is mounted on a pole (and surrounded by chicken wire) and the cable is loosely on some tree branches over to the house. I just thought it was funny and then I started thinking about how the lumber yard sold satellite dishes and started wondering if Grandpa had anything to do with this...

While he was there Lincoln consoled and comforted Grandma and performed a waltz with Barbie for the amusement of everyone:

This may be the best picture I've ever seen of Grandpa. Also, Aunt Ann gave me an awesome hat.

This is more typical.

I have better picture of this group but they aren't as embarrassing for Jaron.

I like to see Lincoln play with things I played with as a kid.

Eden Highlights

2011-12-03T17:37:00.000-07:00

For Angel's family's annual summer vacation we all headed up to Eden, UT to occupy a large rented house for about a week. There was lots of fun that happened but I only took pictures of a couple things so that's all you get.
Doug, Ken and I led an expedition to help all the kids learn a thing or two (probably just one) about repelling. As a primer, Doug rigged up a practice station on a column around the back of the house. Lincoln had been watching the other kids and wanted his turn to practice:

He did pretty good. Although he is stepping on the rope in that last one.

Lincoln didn't go for the real repelling though, maybe next year. He did however take a pretty serious hike with us up to a waterfall.

Getting psyched (and hugged) at the trailhead.

The goal.

The hike wasn't too long but it was pretty steep and rocky. Lincoln made it all the way to the top by himself. He likes hiking but he did need a bit of help on the way down.

Lincoln spent a lot of his time there just running around the house being happy and playing with cousins.

Also, my wife is beautiful.

2011-12-03T15:56:00.001-07:00

Earlier this week we (and by 'we' I mean Angel) cooked up a roast in the crock-pot. For whatever reason this one was a bit drier and tougher than usual and I ended up cutting it into slices around 1/8"-1/4" thick (I promise this is going somewhere). Later I used the beef to make myself a sandwich for lunch. As I was sitting at work eating my sandwich with thick pieces of roast I was reminded of sandwiches from Grandma Vaden. I found myself wishing I had packed some milk in a mason jar with my lunch. What a genius idea.

This week I also designed our annual family Christmas card. As I was putting the finishing touches on it I started thinking about the people who might appreciate or care that I had made it myself. The list was pretty short (luckily I make them because I like to, not to impress people) but Grandma Vaden was on that list. She was an artist and her approval was worth having. It made me sad that she wouldn't be seeing it.

I think about her a lot more than I ever realized. I don't think about her since she's gone anymore than I did before, it's just that it's a much more poignant experience now. Each time it forces me to face the fact that she's gone and the world is worse for it. Even as I write this I'm reminded that I've lost my 'silent watcher.'

I meant for this to be happier but it's been more like the process my thoughts tend to follow:

Some event or thought triggers a memory from my childhood that involves Grandma.
Waves of happiness and nostalgia wash over me as think about anything related to her (everything about her makes me feel that way).
I slip into a bit of darkness when I remember she's gone.
I feel grateful that I was privileged enough to have the influence of such an amazing person in my life and grateful for the knowledge that I'll be able to be with her again.

I guess I'll end with that last point. I can think of numerous points in my life where, even from a distance, she influenced me for good (she still does). She left an immeasurable heritage of quiet dignity and strength. I look forward to the lessons that I'll continue to learn from her in the future. And here's a picture of her with Lincoln that makes me happy:

Why Lincoln Loves Summer

2011-08-11T13:29:00.000-06:00

He gets to take lunch outside...

He gets to teach his cousin Ellie how to drive...

He gets to smack random cows that roam the streets...

More daylight, means more time for stories...

"MOTOCYCLE!"

Choo Choo trains drive down our street...

There time to flirt with girls (he actually scooted closer and put his hand on her leg...she just kept scooting over)...

More time to flirt with even more girls...

Grandmar has time to sew cool pants and capes...

Summer Rain

2011-07-17T13:33:00.000-06:00

Living in Utah I hear people talk about droughts and pray for rain a lot. I think those people have a tendency to forget that we live in a desert. As such, it really doesn't rain much (we get plenty more snow than I would like but that's a whole different rant). So, when it's warm outside and it starts to rain you can usually count on it doing so lightly for about 30 seconds to a minute. You gotta take advantage of that rare warm summer rain.

This particular time it happened to not stop after 30-60 seconds but instead decided to intensify and dump hard with some nice thunder and lightning for a good long time. It was a good one to take advantage of.
We had already been out there for awhile running that circle when the video starts. Apparently a few of our neighbors saw us and, luckily, took it as a sign of good parenting instead of calling social services on us (I've got them fooled).

Rockin' Out

2011-07-17T13:02:00.000-06:00

A little while ago Lincoln received a gift from his Grandpa Bob (Lincoln got his middle name from him too). He's been playing with it quite a bit so we thought we'd post a couple videos from when Grandma first brought it to him.

He knew exactly what to do with it but he did have a little bit of trouble figuring out the most efficient way to mount the beast.

He kept getting on and off this way for about five minutes.

Grandpa also sent along a cool wooden duck that Lincoln likes to pull around behind him and a tic-tac-toe game. Lincoln like to strategically place the circle pieces around the house (random is a strategy).
Thanks to Grandpa for the great stuff and the great example of charity and love in our lives. We love you Grandpa!

A Mother's Day Journey

2011-05-15T20:08:00.000-06:00

I had grand plans of writing up a wonderful Mother's Day post about... well, probably mothers I guess. Then, I didn't get it done before Mother's Day. Then, I sat down to the task on Mother's Day only to discover that we haven't taken a single picture on the nice camera since the last post. I did realize however, that I have a whole treasure trove of previously unreleased material locked inside my iPhone and Angel's iPod Touch. I spent a good while curating the material and transferring it to various more useful locations (my computer and YouTube). Then, I spent the rest of Mother's Day with the mothers in my life. Then I had stuff going on for a few days. Then, I sat down to write it again while Angel was at book club but blogger was down (so I played rock band instead). Then, I sat down just now to actually write this worthless information you hopefully haven't just read because I only wrote it as a poor justification of why this is a week late. Then, if you just read all of that I'll reward you with the knowledge that the word curating in the above wall of text is actually an unmarked link to some excellent bonus material that all the people who, like I would have, skipped the massive block of run on sentences to view the pictures and videos won't have the pleasure of viewing. Then, if you did read all this and viewed the bonus material you should leave a comment incorporating the word epic. Then, but actually before you leave the comment, you enjoy the other pictures and videos that I have some painstakingly arranged below. Enjoy!

Off we go! On a journey! Through pictures and video! And exclamation marks!

Make sure you're all packed up.

Don't forget the essential, like your glasses.

And your safety gear.

Make sure you've mailed off your taxes.

You could take your bike...

You might not get too far that way though.

Instead, maybe if you practice a lot (He did. For like an hour):

They may let you drive the train.

Just don't let them know about your narcolepsy...

Good times will be had by all! More exclamation marks!!!!!

Action and adventure!

There will be strange creatures!

Drama!

There will be weird cultural experiences!

Delicious Delicacies!

There will be, um... tea parties I guess!

There will be Krazy Kousins!

There will be family pictures!

There will definitely be shenanigans!

Now, you may be saying to yourself, "that sure was a fun journey but, it probably should have been like five posts instead of one." If you find yourself in that boat then to you I say, 'yup (and get out of my boat).'

2011-03-20T17:55:00.004-06:00

The hardest part of writing a blog post is the beginning. So, I'm not going to do that part...

BAM!!! Bowling pins!
It was Lincoln's birthday and these are the cupcakes we made for him. They were quite fun and I heard they were very good (I didn't actually eat one because I prefer not being diabetic). The cupcakes went along with a bowling theme because we held Lincoln's birthday party at... a bowling pin factory! ...I mean bowling alley! Here's a picture to prove it:

See, you can tell it's a bowling alley because you can kind of see some blurry non-descript balls in the dark background of the picture. Obviously a bowling alley. We also have some mental pictures to commemorate the occasion. (Note: you'll need to use you mind's eye to view these next few pictures (Some of those expensive home 3D glasses might work too but that's unverified)).

Here you see Lincoln pushing a ball down a little ramp thing towards the cowering pins.

Here's Lincoln's dad using all his manly muscles to hurl his ball at literally tens of miles per hour to destroy the poor defenseless pins' formation.

This is Lincoln's mom being thoroughly impressed with Lincoln's dad's bowling prowess and unmatched humility. The look on her face tells you that she is confident in the knowledge that the husband she chose has no equal.

If you asked me if we ever let Lincoln get up on the kitchen table I would say, "Absolutely not, that's not the kind of thing we tolerate at our house... at all... definitely not... and even if we did, we would at least make him take his shoes off.

Lincoln got a Buzz Lightyear Mr Potatohead...

...

I can't explain this picture any better than it explains itself.

Also, for any of you looking for comedy pointers, ramming a colorful sparkly thing in your mom's face is downright hilarious.

Lincoln also got a new bike for his birthday.

This is him pretending to ride it in the living room.

This is him pretending to ride it in the backyard.

This is him grappling with the concepts of peddling and steering (I'm sure he'll get it one day).

Luckily for him though the weather is starting to turn and that means he can get back into his element.

Because staying inside all winter can cause you to go into withdrawals. You'll start seeing slides in everything including, but not limited to, couch cushions, stairs, dad, and the hallway (you kind of have to do your own sliding on that last one since it's flat). When you're couped up inside though you have to deal with whatever playground equipment you can find:

"Hi, my name is Lincoln, and THIS is my spot."

2011-02-15T13:24:00.000-07:00

Lincoln’s favorite spot—a wooden stool placed at the corner cabinet so he can “supervise” mom with all the sharp objects on her limited counter space. Today’s supervision requires a cheese grater, and a giant Costco-size brick of cheese. He struggles to lift the brick to the goal destination of the grater. After much effort (and grunting), he lifts the cheese into the vicinity of the grater. He thumps the brick on the counter, and takes a deep breath as he prepares for his reward of grated cheese. Up goes the grater…hmmm no cheese? Repeat the steps again and again. Still no cheese. One more time just to be sure. Then he sees the plate of already grated cheese…now it’s time to problem solve. He takes a handful of the cheese, and secretively places it under the grater. Lift the brick, thunk it down, and look underneath. “THERE IT IS!”

We just celebrated Linc's second birthday, so I decided to make a list things he’s problem solved

· Mom will change your bum a lot faster if you pull at your pants and say, “poopy.” (Just don’t confuse this word with “puppy.”)

· If mom takes your candy away, don’t cry, just ask for “Wendy.”

· Purposely lose the red heart that goes to the ball with different shaped holes. The heart is a pain--Dad says it only has one axis of symmetry. However, if you push hard enough most the shapes will fit in the hexagon hole…

· If you want mom to rerun the scene with the train from Toy Story, find the remote and take it to her. Things go faster that way.

· You can hold multiple balloons at the same time if you grab them by their belly button.

· Just because Nemo is on your Little Swimmer diaper, does not mean that it will play Nemo on the TV once placed in the DVD player

· Getting toys out the crib is a monkey trap

· Screaming “MOM” does not get Mom’s attention…”UH-OH” works much better. ( As a result Linc uses “uh-oh” similar to how teenagers use “like.”)

· If you see an arrow, make your finger follow it…especially if it’s a button on an ipod because that unlocks all kinds of possibities.

· If you want to go “Bye, bye” walk around the house: look for your hat with your hands on your head, find your shoes, find a coat, wear a belt on the outside of the coat, and turn off all the lights. Then get impatient when your parents aren’t ready.

· It is impossible to get your feet “unstuck” from the feetsie jammies

Story time in mom and dad's bed is the best time of the day.

December

2011-01-23T16:23:00.000-07:00

We tried to start December off right by taking Lincoln to go see Santa Claus. Here's the best picture we got:

Not unlike many children, Lincoln wasn't too keen on the idea of going to see a large unfamiliar man with a beard all dressed in red. Well, see for yourself:

If you noticed, Lincoln had no problem taking candy from the stranger though (we may have failed as parents on that front but, the relatively recent Halloween experiences didn't help us much).

Christmas was lots of fun. We stayed home and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and took almost no pictures. Here's the only good one:

Frog hat from Grandpa, trains from Grandma, riding on Mom's lap on my way to Wendy's house on Christmas morning. It doesn't get better (Wendy lives less than a mile away, don't turn us into social services please).
We did take a video of Christmas morning though when Lincoln came out to see what Santa brought him (it's kind of long, we won't feel bad if you don't watch the whole thing).

For New Years we took a trip up to Idaho to visit Grandma and Grandpa and play with long lost cousins. Hopefully, someone else got some pictures of the cousins together because apparently we didn't... Here's what we got:

Sledding

Cold

Still cold

If you're thinking to yourself, that looks cold, you've got a pretty good grasp of the situation.

You know Dad, someday in the not too distant future I'll probably fall into that creek around this time of year and make you jump in after to save me. Won't that be fun?

It wasn't actually all that cold, relative to say, liquid nitrogen but we really didn't stay out there too long. We did have a wonderful time playing with Chloe and Leyla, meeting Shane, talking with him and Kelsey (congratulations to them!) and just spending time with family. A good time was had by all.

November (Gingerbread houses)

2011-01-23T15:48:00.003-07:00

So, it turns out, the only thing in November I found interesting enough to take pictures of were gingerbread houses. So, that's all you get. Here are the two annual gingerbread houses we made this year. The first one is the one we made to give to Grandma Whittier.

Such a festive scene.

Why does the man behind the door have a grenade!

What a beautiful design Tyson made (my main contribution).
Oh no! They're coming though the windows!

Sniper on the roof!

Thanks to all of our armed forces (especially Chuck).

And here's the gingerbread house we made to live at our house:

If you try really hard, you may be able to find one or two references to Disney and Mickey Mouse.

These are the Mickey hands I made to come out of the chimney (my only contribution to this one).

The Mickeys became a bit of a game of oneupmanship between Angel and her sister Wendy. I think Angel won.

They made it through the holidays mostly intact although Lincoln did manage to sneak a few Dots... from both of them.

Everything I learned at Disneyland (from Lincoln's perspective)...

2010-10-22T11:07:00.000-06:00

Always invite Goofy to breakfast because he's good at keeping secrets.

Daisy is a clean freak!! She wiped off my syrupy hands faster than I could say, "Quack, quack."

Statue Goofy is not as cool as Real Goofy.

While wearing a Nemo costume, you must run around in circles, and make mom chase you. Not only does is make you a star on complete strangers facebook page, but it makes everyone stop and yell, "I found Nemo."

When you get tired of your hat, dad is always a good backup plan.

Even though you're tall enough to ride the Matterhorn, doesn't mean it's a good idea.

There are only three guys at Disneyland...Mickey, Nemo, and Buzz. This guy must be Buzz.

They do make seatbelts large enough for fish.

Mr. Toad's is a hot spot to pick up on princesses.


This tree is hilarious...and I know funny, I'm a clown fish.

I forgot these ones

2010-09-12T20:58:00.000-06:00

These are a couple of pictures I meant to include with the section about Bear Lake but they got skipped over.

1. These are awesome.

2. They remind me of pictures of me when I was little

Lincoln's Summer Update (August)

2010-09-12T15:38:00.002-06:00

In case you haven't noticed from other pictures of him, Lincoln has a very expressive face.

As a small example, here's a series of pictures taken in the span of about a minute, presented in the order they were taken:

^This one is my personal favorite.

I would caption those but I think they speak for themselves.

On her way down to visit her Granddaughters Grandma visited Lincoln too and we went to the dinosaur museum.

I know there are no dinosaurs in this picture. Lincoln's favorite part was actually this little ramp with balls to throw down it (something about light waves?). Lincoln enjoyed playing with the balls and we all enjoyed having Grandma around. She's so upbeat all the time that even when we made her go be in the cave by herself (Lincoln had no interest in following) she was still smiling.

Sometime after Grandma's visit we had a little family reunion with Angel's family.

There was a parachute to play with.

And Lincoln got to play some kick ball.

There was some confusion about the kicking thing...

And which way to run...

Grandpa got him straightened out though.

They weren't really keeping score but...

With a strut into the sunset like that, I'm pretty sure Lincoln won.

Because he's nice and apparently didn't have anything better to do, Lee came over and took some family photos for us. Here's some of them:

You can see a few more here.

Lincoln's Summer Update (July)

2010-09-12T14:55:00.001-06:00

July:

I know it's the same shirt as the end of June but it's actually a whole other month and state even.

At the beginning of July we made our way out the the Oregon coast for some R&R with the Whittier family. On our way out we decided to break up our drive by spending a night at the Historic Balch Hotel in Dufur, OR.

I'm thinking from now on we're going to try to stay at independent bed and breakfasts whenever possible. It was about the same price as other hotels in the area only way more interesting and it came free chocolate chip cookies (see Lincoln's face for details), a delicious three course breakfast, and some nice photo ops.

(Lincoln's fingers in this picture remind me of Jaron dancing to MC Hammer. A lucky few will know what I'm talking about.)

Once we made it to the coast a couple of amazing things happened. One, the weather was actually warm. Two, Lincoln actually got in the water and seemed to enjoy himself.

His parents didn't get in much farther than that, the water was still pretty cold.

We came home from Oregon, spent about a week resting from our resting and then headed off to Bear Lake so Angel could get some help from Lincoln's cousins to torture him.

Lincoln played at the park, rode the tube behind the boat, had no interest in playing in the water, ate junk, got spoiled, went for walks, and ...

planned dastardly criminal plots.

A few days after we got home from Bear Lake we celebrated a special event. Lincoln has been alive for 18 months!

Angel made Lincoln some cupcakes. The middle one is a dog. Lincoln likes dogs. Here's a few more things about Lincoln from a list we made for his 18 month birthday:

Mr. Lincoln at 18 Months

Lincoln’s Vocabulary:

Chocolate (his first word in English and Chinese)

Bye

Mama

Dada

Baba

What?

Cracker

Car (his favorite)

Ball

Balloon

Bird

Hannah

Down/downstairs

Quack Quack

Ruff, Ruff

Choo, Choo

Dog

Eyes

Crash

Hot

Want this

That

No, no, no

Walk (he loves going for walks in the stroller)

Roll (sweet rolls are his favorite)

Rock

Stuck

Tickle

Hot dog

“All done” (when the timer goes off from being in timeout)

“Ahh”(after he takes a drink)

Phrases He Knows How to Do:

“Daddy’s blue truck”

“Go find your shoes/pants”

“Put it in the garbage can”

“Go put your bottle in the sink”

“Put your clothes in the dirty clothes”

“We need to go bye bye in the car”

“Sit down first”

“Put your cars away”

“Fold your arms for prayer”

“Show me your hair, eyes, nose, tongue, ear, tummy”

“What does the fish say”

“Where’s your fish” (he looks at his tummy, if he’s wearing his fish shirt he opens the mouth)

“Beep your nose”

“It’s hot, blow on it”

“Come help mom move the sprinkler”

“Give kisses” (mostly just kissing noises)

“No more monkeys jumping on the bed!”

That’s Lincoln:

Afraid of anything to do with water (tubs, swimming) but likes to hold the hose to get everything else wet
Is a picky eater and has to approve everything that is put on his tray
Barks when he see Doug and Doc (from Pixar’s Cars) although he should bark at Ken instead because he always barks at him
Gets insanely excited when he watches the opening sequence of Cars—he especially likes the giggly twins and their high pitched squeals
Loves Opera music so much that he applauds at the end of the songs
Does not get out of bed easily
Is pretty proud of himself that he can climb up the playground and go down the slide all by himself, but is not so proud that he can’t walk up the slide all by himself
Isn’t happy playing with just one car, he has to pull out every car from the basket
He loves to eat dad’s otter pops and mom’s ice cream mostly because he likes to make a crazy brain freeze face
Likes to try on mom and dad’s shoes
Likes to type on the computer and move the mouse around, and of course he knows if the keyboard is not hooked up—mostly he just likes to push so many buttons that the Microsoft help puppy appears so he can say “dog”
Likes to make animal sounds but thinks that cows, sheep, and pigs all say “no, no, no” because of the “Moo, Baa, La La La” storybook
Is super confused why the owl doesn’t say “tweet, tweet” even though it’s normal that a duck says “quack, quack”
Thinks anything with wheels is a car, anything with four legs is a dog, and anything with a beak is a bird
Doesn’t feel the need to wave bye until the person is completely out of sight
Thinks anyone who rides by on a bike is his dad, except for any cute girl then he just waves and shouts, “Hi!”
Only likes to give loves when he’s hurt, sick, or really tired--although he’ll give an air kiss anytime

Doesn’t feel the need to wave bye until the person is completely our of sight
His favorite thing to wear is his tye-dyed fishy shirt
The only door he knows how to open is Grandma’s pantry where she conveniently places the OREOS on the bottom shelf

Likes to point out ceiling fans to anyone who enters the room
Holds up his food in a cheers to you position before taking a bite
When asked “who has a cute mom?” he raises his hand
Head bangs his head into the floor when he doesn’t get what he wants

Your mom and dad love everything about you!! Happy 18 months buddy!!

Lincoln's Summer Update (June)

2010-09-12T14:53:00.000-06:00

As summer is coming to an end Lincoln calmly reminded me that we haven't updated the blog lately.

He thought a summer recap was in order. So, I guess we'll do that.

June:

Over the summer we've taken on a few projects around the house that I don't have pictures of. But here's Lincoln in his temporary sleeping arraignments in the office while we replaced the baseboards, painted, and redecorated his room.

We enjoyed the fire pit in our back yard to roast up some hot dogs and marshmallows.

Lincoln couldn't be bothered to wait for his hot dog to actually get cooked so he ate it slightly warmed on the outside.

He was ok to wait for the marshmallow to cook though because it's easier to get them all over your face when they're melted.

Angel Has Magical Powers

2010-05-20T20:18:00.000-06:00

This is the White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake that Angel made for herself for Mother's Day:

It was basically the best thing that ever was (besides Angel herself of course).

Lincoln Has Magical Powers

2010-05-20T20:10:00.001-06:00

Lincoln can make water defy the laws of gravity:

This week's Lincoln Park day...

2010-03-30T21:32:00.000-06:00

Last week's sandwiches in the park day turned into sandwiches in the basement day because it was too windy outside.

That was better than this week though.

This has been Lincoln since Sunday evening. He's a miserable, sick little buddy. He's been running a fever between 99 and 101 for two days now. Hopefully he pulls out of it soon. It's sad :(

Lincoln Park

2010-03-30T21:24:00.001-06:00

Angel has declared Mondays to be sandwiches in the park day. We figured it would be fun to take Lincoln to play on the toys and swing on the swings. We were right about the playing on the toys part. It turns out that the only park around us with swings is the closest park to us (which is good), but is also on the corner of two busy streets (which is bad), and is also built on top of a pioneer cemetery (which is creepy). We didn't go there. We went somewhere else.

It was fine though because Lincoln likes slides...

and making a break for it...

and rock climbing (gotta start 'em young)...

and smiling...

and throwing things up the slide (you can't see it so, use your imagination)...

and his beautiful mom...

and giving shout outs...

and chillin with his dawgs (and by "his dawgs" I mean "some random dog at the park")...

but he doesn't like it when the dog doesn't try to catch his frisbee throw (in the dogs defense it didn't exactly stay in the air very long)...

March Pics (clever title, I know)

2010-03-30T20:48:00.002-06:00

Hey Howdy Hey!!!

Well, March is gone rather quickly but it wouldn't quite be complete without a picture of me in spandex.

If you're in the know then you call them biking shorts or something similar. I have now officially spent enough money to look like I'm in the know. I've taken the bike out on a couple of rides and even though it's working muscles I haven't used in a while it's a lot more fun than running (though much higher initial investment).

Which brings me to my next point: don't smoke crack.

I'm really not sure what to say.

Lincoln is obsessed with looking sharp when he goes to church. One tie just isn't enough sharpness.

Even in green and purple pastels, like the sharpest of cheddars.

Also, Lincoln is a thug.

It's Lincoln Day!!!!

2010-01-31T22:35:00.000-07:00

Lincoln's first birthday was this last Wednesday. It's kind of hard to believe that's it's really been a whole years since we had any semblance of control over our own lives. So, we spent a day letting Lincoln boss us around, have whatever he wanted, and we pretended it wasn't just like every other day. In fact, it wasn't just like any other day... this day had cake.

Since I have lots of pictures and my limited amount of comedic energy was blown on the previous paragraph I'm going to "crowd-source" the humorous captions. I'll number the pictures and if you have something to contribute please leave your hillariousness in the comments with the corresponding number. Thank you.

1.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

These are actually from today but, it's a birthday outfit.
20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

Memerizationation helpification

2010-01-19T09:48:00.003-07:00

This is something I posted on my other blog but I thought since 0 people read my other blog and ~2 people read this blog it has a better chance of finding someone interested over here.

I was recently asked if I could make a simple program that when input a chunk of text would output the first letter of each word preserving punctuation. So, that's pretty much what this does. Although it sounds like a silly thing to do, it can be a helpful aid for memorizing blocks of text(This isn't working in Internet Explorer right now. Try it in Firefox. I'll fix it when I get a minute).

Lincoln found his "killer app"

2010-01-10T22:36:00.007-07:00

For those of you who don't know, in the technology world there is this thing called a "killer app" (app=application). It is the application or use for a product that makes the product worth using. Without it, a product really can't become successful. For the desktop computer it was the spreadsheet. For the Internet it was email. People didn't use desktop computers or the Internet much until these applications showed up.

I'm pretty sure Lincoln has had the physical ability to walk for a couple of months now but he just recently discovered a "killer app" for walking: carrying two things around at the same time. As soon as he figured out that walking allowed him to do that he pretty much just started walking and is now strutting around like he owns the place.

He tends to pick two objects, two fridge magnets (usually two letters or Pinocchio and the Italian bunny), two pairs of socks (eventually two individual socks), a whisk and a spatula, any two random objects and then walk through the house holding them out, showing them to things. It's not clear if he's showing them to things or showing things to them. Either way there are lots of introductions going on at our house these days.

And I'll leave you with this picture of him in the tub on Christmas Day:

Santa's Lap

2009-12-29T11:41:00.006-07:00

We thought we would be good parents and take Linc to sit on Santa's lap. Even though there was no huge mounted throne with a winding slide going down, or even any weirdo kids with adventure goggles plastered to their face, it was still quite the outing. There was of course, fear and screaming kids, we're just fortunate that our kid wasn't one of them. He was instead, the "oh see, look at that cute little baby, he's not crying" kid. (In all honesty I'm not sure why Linc wasn't screaming because while waiting in line we almost got pinned by a jolly spinning kiddie train.) I'm not complaining our kid is awesome; he waited patiently in line, sat on Santa's lap, and even let us take a picture. I'm not sure he really cared, but we felt like much more dutiful parents after the whole ordeal.

Goofy Hat Club

2009-12-21T11:51:00.005-07:00

Anyone who knows Tyson knows that he's a fan of goofy hats, and he decided to resurrect some oldies but goodies. He is also trying his darndest to convince Linc to join his goofy hat club and well..he still needs more convincing.

I was so close...

2009-12-05T20:16:00.008-07:00

Apparently the old farm house was on a bit of a hill. It also had a detached garage/shed/cow milking...place. This building was built into the side of the hill and had two levels so that the top level opened directly onto a higher part of the hill and the lower level to a lower part of the hill (next to an orchard, or maybe just an apple tree or something). I really only have one memory of being in the lower part where I understand they milked the cows (I have to say, the fact that cows were milked in there is something that is in my mind and I have no idea how it got there. Basically, I may very well have made it up but it does make the story cooler somehow, as opposed to my explanation just now...). It's understandable why I would remember this particular time in the milking shed. Why, you ask. Because when I was in there I found these:

Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "that just looks like an ab roller exerciser thing and a gear." Well, to the untrained eye, yes. But, first of all, I'll have you know that there may have actually been two more wheels (but definitely not three because I know it added up to less than four) and possibly more than one gear, my memory on those details is a bit sketchy. Second of all, any kid can tell you that when you have a couple of wheels and some gears you've got about 90 percent of sweet GO-CART! The excitement of the possibility of tearing around the yard/neighborhood/city/world with reckless abandon, leaving everyone in the dust, and never having to walk again got my mind to racing (no pun intended (seriously, I didn't even notice until I read over it again)). All I needed was the last 10 percent:

another wheel (I remember needing at least one more wheel, that's why I know I had less than four)

a steering wheel

maybe some sort of frame

the rest of the engine (already got the gear part so I don't need to worry about that)
... that's about it.

Unfortunately, I guess I just didn't quite have the resources to push through that last 10 percent or, it was taking longer than my four minute attention span. Too bad though, that go-cart probably could have put me down the path to a rally car racer by now...dang it!

Hand/Foot/Paw Prints

2009-11-18T22:18:00.012-07:00

When I was young we lived in this old farm house that according to my memory was right next to the freeway, and some sort of office building yet still had a field in the back with a stream running through it. It seems somehow contradictory or wrong but I definitely, kind of remember all those things (or something like them). Anyway, the stream is the reason we've journeyed back to the old farm house. I also had this older brother who was kind of a jerk (although I'm not sure he was trying to be in this particular story but either way, he gets his comeuppance later (that's some foreshadowing for you (I like nesting parenthesis))). On one fine afternoon I was out exploring the stream area in my stylish red galoshes.
The record (my memory) is a little unclear about the details of these galoshes but they may have have Sesame Street characters on them. It's impossible to say for sure but I like to think it was Grover, or Cookie Monster... or better yet one of each, let's go with that. So, here I was exploring my surroundings with Grover and Cookie Monster when my evil older brother came along and decided to show me how far he could push Grover down into the mud. Turns out it was pretty far which, I have to admit, was pretty cool for a minute. Then the novelty wore off and I wanted Grover back. Turns out Grover had grown fond of his new home there in the mud and felt no qualms about letting my foot go and just leave without him. So there we were, Cookie Monster and me just standing there on one leg screaming/crying (Cookie Monster wasn't crying, he's tough). Evil older brother? Gone, maybe for help but, I wouldn't count on it (I think he had Oscar the Grouch galoshes). Eventually Dad, or Mom, or some random adult came and saved the three of us from certain doom and there was much rejoicing.

We now venture from the stream to the driveway of the old farm house. Oddly enough, we still have water. This time it's in a kiddie pool. Man, I was having some fun times in that kiddie pool. I liked the kiddie pool. You know what else I liked? The kitty. So, what could be better than turning the kiddie pool into the kitty pool, right? Now, it is a well known fact that cats don't like water. It is also a well known fact that little kids, in this case maybe 4 years old, don't know well know facts.
Off I went to get the cat and help him get in the water. I successfully got the cat and successfully held the cat over the water but, my drop of the cat was somewhat less successful. He figured out pretty quick what was going on and the specifics of what happened in the following moments are a bit of a blur. I'm pretty sure the cat suspended the laws of physics and gravity as cats often do. I came out of the scuffle a little shaken (ok, I was bawling again), a little wiser (this is how well know facts get to be that way), and with a small paw shaped wound in my left elbow pit (don't act like you don't know where I'm talking about).

For our third and final vaguely related tale we head inside the old farm house to the kitchen. Let me set the stage for you. The players are me, my mother, and my evil older brother. My mother is somewhat upset. My evil older brother is weeping and wailing. I'm in trouble but I don't seem too concerned about it. My mom apparently was determined to help me understand what I had done so that I could feel bad about it. So, she lifted up evil, sobbing older brother's shirt to reveal the damage. Apparently, I had slapped him in the chest (who knows why but I'm sure he deserved it (this is the comeuppance I alluded to earlier)). The damage came in the form of a full, quite distinct, red hand print across his chest. The site of this probably didn't really have the desired effect since I seem to remember just being fascinated that I could do that by slapping him. From then on this scene came to mind every time I saw one of those super special hypercolor t-shirts.

This is probably the only time in my memory that I came out on top in a fight against the evil older brother. I'd like to dedicate the win to Grover and Cookie Monster.

Powdered Soap Pyramids

2009-11-15T19:57:00.006-07:00

In the elementary school where I spent the majority of my pre-teen life we had these old school bathrooms. They had great big long water trough style urinals and manual paper towel dispensers that required you to go backwards a little bit before you could turn them again (which doesn't stop kids from using tons of it, they just get good at shaking themselves all over the place while they dispense a paper towel all the way to the floor as quickly as they can). The coolest part of the bathroom though was the soap dispenser, behold:

So basically, here's what you got; There's a main storage unit with this little stick doohickey hanging out of the bottom. If you stick your little hand under there, palm up, and ram the doohickey up toward the main storage unit about half-way up before it stops it'll drop a small deposit of white pixie dust into your hand. Hooray! But wait, there's more. As you're releasing the doohickey back to its original position a second gift of powdery goodness is delivered to your outstretched hand. Oh joy! At this point you have a decision, you can either:

a). wet your hands and proceed to wash with the accumulated amount of pixie dust or

b). pump the magic doohickey another time or two (or 80) just to make sure it doesn't start coming out purple or something... cause that would be cool.

Either way, eventually you get to use the inevitably still white powder to get your hands super clean. Your hands aren't super clean because the powder is made of penicillin or anything, they're clean because the powder/sand scoured off the top three layers of your skin. The new pink skin underneath is the cleanest.

The really cool thing about this soap and its aforementioned dispenser however has to do with a fairly well known glitch in its dispensing mechanism (I've decided that if you took advantage of this glitch as a child you can feel free to consider yourself an "analog hacker"). The glitch goes like this, if you use only one finger to press the doohickey, instead of the intended open hand palm up, the powder packet will not find a welcome home in your filthy palm but instead will continue downward until stopped by some other object (usually the floor, sometimes a sink). Furthermore, failure to bring the doohickey into it fully upright and locked position instead stopping mid packet release causes the dispenser to actually continue dispensing powdery goodness forever (or until it runs out of soap, whichever comes first). The product of this constant stream of powder is a small but growing Powdered Soap Pyramid. Ants will marvel at its beauty and ponder its origins, and the janitor will consider it further justification for his hatred of children.

We got the InterWebs!! (and a new house too)

2009-10-15T21:10:00.015-06:00

So, I guess something worth blogging about happened to us and it's been like three weeks so I should probably actually do it. I took some pictures of the house the first day or two that we had keys but I apparently didn't take any of the inside. So, you'll have to wait on those. But, here's some pictures anyway.

Front of the house (in case you hadn't figured that out):

Gotta do that:

View from the back door:

Back of the house:

Apple tree and the fire pit is over there by those sittin' logs:

I think the first time we roast marshmallows they might have a nice smoked apple taste to them:

Here's Lincoln enjoying the backyard:

Here's the damage:

This was Lincoln's first Oreo a little while ago:

And then this is just pure awesome:

Yes he is wearing black socks and a button up shirt, no he is not wearing pants. He's hardcore.

Tubbin Time!

2009-08-02T19:00:00.006-06:00

Maybe this is a good time to mention that one of my goals with this blog is to find pictures that I think will most embarrass Lincoln when he's in junior high and then post them to the Internet before he can do anything about it. And with that introduction, let the humiliation begin:

Lincoln had been eating a chocolate chip cookie, can you tell?

Lincoln Pics

2009-08-02T17:34:00.006-06:00

These are just some pictures we've taken in the last little while.

This is Lincoln eating peas.

He much prefers pears...

Or rice crispy treats.

Sometimes you got to get some work done.
Lincoln likes to IM his Dad while he's at work.
He'd get more work done though if his mom would quit buggin him...

We're going to Disneyland!!!! (or went actually)

2009-06-14T20:48:00.015-06:00

So, I haven't blogged for a while because I was afraid that I really couldn't live up to the awesomeness of the last post. That's my excuse anyway. That and we really don't take as many pictures as we should. So, we had a good excuse to take pictures over the last week while we where in California at Newport Beach and Disneyland. And so, here are some of the pictures:

Getting ready to take a little walk around the grounds in Newport:

Lincoln is really good at making raptor noises so, we thought we would try him out on some raw meat... Then I thought maybe I'd just feed him some licorice instead.

He liked it quite a bit.

We did wander down to the beach and Lincoln put his feet in the water so he has at least kind of been in the ocean. He's touched it anyway. If we ever need any sand from the beach there to prove we were there it's still all over the stroller so that's good...

The first thing we did when we went to Disneyland was go see Mickey. I believe Lincoln actually saw Mickey in real life before he ever saw him on TV.

The night before Angel and I had actually gone into the park for a few hours without Lincoln and we got him his mouse ears.

Since Lincoln is pretty much the cutest kid who ever lived of course he got plenty of complement and general comments about his cuteness. Then when you put the mouse ears on him the rate of comments raises dramatically. So, you can just imagine what happened when we sat down on a bench and brought him out like this... (I couldn't decide on one picture so you get all three.)

Lincoln really liked the bright colored rides like Winnie the Pooh but mostly I think he just liked all the attention and being carried around.

New camera...

2009-03-15T18:27:00.015-06:00

So, I've been looking for a decent inexpensive digital camera to get Angel for her classroom. As it is our regular camera is always in her classroom which doesn't make it very easy to take pictures at home. But, we wanted a cheap one because her classroom pictures don't need to be super high quality and then we haven't lost much when a student drops/breaks/misplaces/steals the camera. So, a little while ago I found this camera on my favorite deal a day website www.woot.com for $20:

It's only 3MP and it has High School Musical junk on it but it was also only $20. The real value in the camera is this:

The camera has this awesome magic wand button on the back. When you press it there are a bunch of built in Disney stuff that you can superimpose into your picture.

Always wanted to be seen with Mickey but no cash to make the trip down to Disneyland?

Want the image of a hardened pirate without all the salt water, scurvy, and peg leg?

Want to yell and jump along with the cast of High School Musical? Save yourself all those psychiatrist bills resulting from unfulfilled stupid dreams!

Why spend all that money on real Mickey Mouse ears when you'll only wear them once to take a picture?

Be the super hero you've always wanted to be! (even if you don't know your wife is doing it)

Um... wear a wizard hat! (I couldn't come up with anything better off the top of my head)

So, after all that wonderful Disney, G rated wonderfulness and tomfoolery there is just one unfortunate twist to our story. A day or two after we received our new camera the same deal-a-day website that sold us our High School Musical camera offered this:

The same camera but, with Pirate of the Caribbean with Chinese characters instead of High School Musical on it. And to add insult to injury, not only was this camera infinitely cooler, it was also three dollars cheaper. Boo.

Anyway, here's the out takes and blooper reel of me doing Lincoln's photo shoot.

Now, some of you may be asking "instead of running to the kitchen and bringing a chair into Lincoln's room in order to climb onto the desk, wouldn't it have been easier to just set Lincoln on the floor in order to align the pictures at the proper distance?" My answer to you... yes, that would have been easier...

But, he's cute:

Some portraits

2009-02-24T21:05:00.009-07:00

A little while ago we took a trip over to visit uncle Lee and get some good photographs of Lincoln taken. Lee is the one who took our wedding photos and he always does a phenomenal job. Here's a few good ones.

There was no commentary on the last post because I was holding Lincoln in one hand and posting pictures with the other. I don't like typing with one hand. This time there's no commentary on the pictures because I think they speak for themselves. He's a good looking kid.

We've been saving them up...

2009-02-21T13:59:00.012-07:00

He's a keeper

2009-02-07T00:12:00.010-07:00

This is an outfit I wore as a baby. You can tell it's old because it has a drawstring in the little sweatshirt (SAFETY HAZARD!! I didn't die...).

We got him a little swing. He's pretty content when he's in there but he refuses to go to sleep.

These three are just because he's cute...

Meet Lincoln

2009-01-29T21:11:00.021-07:00

We've finally taken some pictures so I guess we can write a post. I don't know if it's because he's mine or because he was past due but I think he skipped the new born phase and went straight to the cute phase (if you disagree keep it to yourself...). He was born 27-Jan-09 at 11:36PM. He was 8lbs 4oz (they said 3oz originally but changed it) and 20" long (that number may be a little conservative as well). He seems to be healthy in every way, already getting top marks on all his tests.

Lincoln is just meeting mom for the first time but, he's more concerned with his fingers...

Check out the awesome Spock toes on his massive feet. Angel's current favorite possession is the footprints pages they made for us in the nursery. It's like his first art project sent home with him and if his feet had been much bigger they would have needed bigger boxes...

This is him just before his first bathing during which he cried more than when they gave him a shot for his immunization. The exact opposite reactions his mother would have given...

This is the hat Aunt Kelsey made for him. Later I'll post some pictures of the amazingly awesome quilt she made for him too. I'm thinking about commissioning some bumper pads (I say commission because that's what you do when you want a good piece or art made and that's what Kelsey makes).

I don't want to go too much into the labor. Angel started having contractions at about 4:00 in the morning. We went to the hospital at about 3:00 in the after noon. Intense back pain, epidurals are worth whatever they charge, pretty quick dilation, followed by lots of pushing. Angel hadn't eaten more than a roll and three bites of pizza all day. This made it really hard for her to have the strength for about 2 and a half hours of pushing. She was a trooper though and eventually, with a little help from a vacuum pump we got Lincoln out at about 11:30pm.

Mom and baby are both doing really well. We came home this afternoon and everybody is happy to be home.

No news is not necessarily good news...

2009-01-26T19:48:00.002-07:00

First off, this isn't really bad news per say, at least it isn't really, really bad news. But if you ask Angel, it's really bad news. If anyone is wondering why you haven't heard anything about our baby being born even though his due date was last Friday, it's because he still isn't here... Everyone says everything is looking good and he looks great and Angel seems all ready to go into labor and yet... he waits. By the way, in case you only get news about us through this blog, he's a boy. If all else fails the hospital will let the doctors induce her on Friday so as long as everything goes to plan he should be here sometime between now and Friday. We'll keep you updated (but probably not before he's born...we're kind of like that).

Finally, some news

2008-07-12T15:44:00.011-06:00

So, we haven't posted anything on here in quite some time. But, really not a whole lot has happened. Sure, school got out and summer started, which means Angel finished her first year of teaching and she graduated from college. I still have one year left, boo. We went to a Ben Fold concert, we hiked up to Timpanogos cave, I'm still working at the job two posts ago but now I know what I'm doing.

Anyways, Angel has been interviewing for various positions over the summer trying to find somewhere worthy of her talents an abilities. She had an interview at a charter school in Lehi on July 2nd (they made her teach some kids for 15 minutes). Then on July 3rd while we were in Boise on our way to Oregon they made her an offer to think over for the weekend. So, for the 4th of July weekend we hung out on the Oregon coast.

This is the view from our hotel room (Thank you Gramma and Grandpa Whittier!!)

We went to the aquarium, where I poked a giant squid in the eye

and we felt totally underdressed when we caught a glimpse of proper aquarium attending attire.

Then we went back to the hotel and reenacted Pirate of the Caribbean (which we had watched on the way up out there in the Uncle Rico van. Thanks Mom, and Chuck)

Eventually, the Oregon fun had to end and we made the incredibly long drive home. We left early Monday morning and reached home at about 2:00AM Tuesday morning. I was glad I told my work I wouldn't be in until about noon. We got up in the morning and Angel called the Charter school back and accepted their offer, HOORAY!

Right after Angel got off the phone with the school we got in the car for the real reason I told my work I wasn't going to be in until noon. We had an appointment for a photo shoot.

We decided to go with the black and white for a more classic look.

You thought the trip and the job were the big news didn't you? Ha, ha, gotcha...

It's not super clear (the kid's only 4.67cm tall after all) but, you should be able to make out the head. In video mode you could see the heart beating, some feet, and an arm. Angel is about 12 weeks along and her due date is 23-Jan-09. We're pretty excited. Good thing I didn't really stab her with that pirate sword huh?

That's all the new we have for now. Check back in a couple of months...

Historical Travel Wiki Has Launched

2008-04-08T17:27:00.002-06:00

I created and launched a new website this week that shall soon be taking the world by storm. Probably not, but hopefully it will get me a good grade in my history of creativity project. The site is at www.historicaltravelwiki.com. It's a wiki, if you don't know what that is, think wikipedia. Anyone can log on and edit the content. It's a collaborative project with the whole world.

This particular wiki is devoted to the idea that traveling and seeing the world is more fun and more interesting when you know some history and facts about what you are visiting and seeing. Before this next Monday the 14th (when the project is due) I'll be filling out some demo type pages, probably for places in Utah and Hong Kong. If you have anything to contribute about any place you've been I'd encourage you to get on and share your experiences and expertise.

P.s. Mom, if you wanted to design me a better logo that was about 135x135 pixels I wouldn't reject it. But definitely don't spend much time on it (or any if you're busy or just don't want to) as I don't think I'll be doing much with this site in the future.

My next resume might actually look good...

2008-03-13T17:57:00.002-06:00

Today I sold my soul (or at least my summer) to ParentLink. I'll be working for them full-time this summer and most likely part-time for my last year of college. You can check out the link to see more of what they do but the high level overview is that they make software to help increase communication between k-12 parents and teachers. I should be working more on developing in-house projects. The main programming language is python. It should be interesting, I'm pretty excited about it. I tried to think of downsides to it before I accepted their offer and couldn't really come up with any so... If you have any keep them to yourselves because it's too late now.

Garfield is hilarious and not funny at the same time

2008-02-27T21:38:00.003-07:00

I don't like Garfield. It turns out the comic strip is much funnier if you take Garfield out of it entirely. Also, if it's live action and then throw a weird music video thing at the end it raises the humor level significantly.

Long tail feathers

2008-02-25T22:33:00.004-07:00

Sorry I only ever post to this anymore when I have a new post on my other blog but... like Kuris Blow once said "that's the brakes." The post this time is a bit longer because it's inspired by a book we had to read for the class The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll. If you're looking for a good nonfiction account of a guy tracking a hacker in the late 80's this is a good one. I like it. And now I'll throw in a random picture or two for good measure.

Another duck

2008-02-05T19:45:00.000-07:00

I just posted another one to the other blog. It's due Thursday morning at 11:00 or so. Anybody who wants to tear it apart....go for it. Also, some people asked and the assignment for posts on that blog is to write a paragraph about something from our reading for the class period. In order to get points it needs to be mechanically correct and show that we put some thought into it. Thanks for the help.

new duck post

2008-01-23T17:40:00.000-07:00

I just posted a new one on my other blog. It ready for any writing help. Thanks everybody.

Technology is like a duck

2008-01-16T23:39:00.001-07:00

Hey everybody, for my CS404 class I'm required to post all of my writing assignments to a personal blog. So, I started another blog titled "Technology is Like A Duck" located at hectorsduck.blogspot.com. You may or may not be interested in anything I write about on there but either way I'll be trying to post to it a couple days before the posts are due and would welcome any editing from qualified persons (or even semi-qualified persons). I just put the first post on and it's due tomorrow by class I believe. If you have any suggestions you can comment on them. Please don't be offended if I don't take your editing advice, I may just not have read it in time before it was due (or maybe I like it better my way). Oh ya, there's no explanation for the title other than it was the only thing I could think of at the time. Thanks everybody!

Here's the technology and duck related pictures I was able to find. Just to make it interesting.

Best New Years Ever!!!

2008-01-04T23:20:00.000-07:00

So, we may have lost most of Christmas Day to leaving Christmas morning and the International Date Line and everything but we made up for it a little bit with New Years. For anybody who doesn't know we were here for the last week or 8 days: For those who don't recognize the picture, that's Hong Kong. I'll see if I get time to post more about the rest of the trip later but after reading my Mom and Kelsey's blogs about their awesome New Years' I thought I would share a bit about ours. I think it has a bit of a different tone than theirs though. The morning of New Years Eve we got up early as usual due to the jet lag. We rode the subway out to Lantau Island to a special subway line. Can you figure out from these pictures where the train went?
If not then you probably just don't know the destination exists. Or you don't know Angel well enough to know that there's only one thing that makes her that excited. Here's a little bigger hint: That's right, the train goes to a big sign with Angel standing in front of it. Oh ya, and Disneyland is behind the sign and to the right. We got there right when the gates opened at 10:00 and figured we would check it all out and leave in the middle of the day for a while and then come back at night for the New Years festivities because the park is so small. But we actually spent the large majority of the day in the park. We watched a couple of the shows and checked out most of the rides. Took this extremely Hong Kong style picture in front of the castle: If you combine these two pictures you get a pretty good idea of what the castle looked like when they lit it up at night.
The big square in the middle was a big screen. They set up a few of them around that area so they could show pictures of a pontiac muscle car and other stuff bouncing around and spinning with neat effects in the background while they played techno music for the New Years dance party. Obviously totally necessary but, not the best placement. Then here's us on Main Street and I believe the countdown started right when this picture was taken. You'll just have to imagine the castle in the background since you don't see it with the flash and you don't see us without it. Then the countdown , the kiss, and sitting around waiting for the hordes of people to clear out of the park and the area around our hotel where the rest of Hong Kong was. We got back to our room at about 2:00am. It was mostly cleared out by then. Overall, the best and most memorable New Years to date. If it's any consolation to Mom or Kelsey we were about 17 hours ahead of you so at least we weren't really having fun at the exact same time you were having your New Years "parties." I'm sure that helps.

A Gingerbread Tribute to Assassinated US Presidents

2007-12-02T18:30:00.000-07:00

So, I had to do a creativity project for my history of creativity class. This is what I came up with. Angel really made most of it and had a large part in my idea. So, most of the credit belongs to her.

Overview

Honest Abe in the balcony with his wife (notice the flying buttresses)

It's a pretty sweet how-to

2007-11-19T19:57:00.000-07:00

So, I did it. I actually did something I said I would. There is a screencast (a video of my screen with me talking) showing how to set up google reader so you don't have to manually check blogs for new posts (or any site with an RSS feed for that matter). Check it out here.

google reader

2007-11-14T21:43:00.001-07:00

So, I'm planning on making a little screencast video thing when I get time to show how to set up google reader on igoogle. When I do I'll let you know. If you're feeling adventurous you can try to figure it out on your own. igoogle, google reader gadget. It's not too hard.

www.hectorscout.com

2007-11-03T23:04:00.000-06:00

Sorry, last post today. I recently bought a web domain. It's www.hectorscout.com. I'm hosting it on my own webserver since I recently got a public ip. I'm also going to be hosting and developing a web site www.sutekistuff.com for my buddy Joe Harding and his business partner Ryan Blanscett's side ties business. So, you should go check those out... they're not that cool yet.

Another Jazz Game, Same Jacket

2007-11-03T22:57:00.000-06:00

So, we went to Salt Lake, again. And we saw a Jazz game, again. And we met the president of the United States....Again. OK, maybe not that last part but I like Forest Gump. Anyway, we did get to go to another Jazz game. This time it was because Angel's sister Wendy and her husband Lee went in on season tickets with some other couples and this was one of the games they had four tickets for. It was the home season opener. They played the Rockets and even though they lost (Tracy McGrady scored like 48 points or something) it was still a fun, entertaining game. And this time I had advanced notice so I could get stuff done and didn't have to bring my laptop in to do homework during the game. The seats were better too. Good times.

These are phone pictures so they aren't quite as good but I think that's Yao Ming at the top of the key there. We saw a jazz dancer chick walk past him at one point and she came up to the waist on his shorts. It was humorous.

Kitty Kat Friend

2007-11-03T22:54:00.000-06:00

This is Angel with our little kitty cat friend that shows up every so often in our backyard. He's super friendly and Angel likes him because he's still small. She claims she only likes 'em when they're small. I think if we got one small she would still at least kind of like him when he got bigger.

Quick expanation

2007-10-20T10:58:00.000-06:00

Ok, so the quick explanation is that the pictures are what we did last weekend. We went through Employee Canyon in Zion's National Park in southern Utah. It was a fairly long hike on a non-existent trail followed by six rappels between 100-200 feet. I loaded the pictures while I was at work since we didn't have fast enough internet at home to upload those pictures. The plan was to write a much more detailed explanation of them later at home. However, due to spending the weekend doing that and sadistic professors (mostly just one of them) I haven't had anytime. We got internet installed yesterday though so that's good. Ok,I need to go work on moving in still. Oh yeah, Angel got some free tickets from the parents of one of her kids since they all love her so, here are a couple of pictures from the Jazz game this week.

expanation later

2007-10-15T14:41:00.000-06:00

I'll explain later

2007-10-15T14:18:00.000-06:00

Rad Racing

2007-09-26T18:43:00.000-06:00

So, the other day I was just minding my own business at work when in walk a guy and a girl. Of course, my first thought was great a couple of jerk probably want to rent a computer (because I have good customer service skills). Then I noticed that something was different about this guy. He was wearing this:

Needless to say, I was stunned. Obviously, I got him the best computer and monitor we had, I needed to know where he got it. My first thought was that he must have made it himself, paint roller and stencil style just like the movie. I must admit I was a little disappointed to find that he had just purchased it. Actually his sister bought it for him. Turns out you can get your very own or only $15.95 + 4.95 s/h at www.radtshirts.com. Not a bad price. Although I haven't convinced myself yet. It's quite a bit cheaper than buying the movie these days. Anyway, the world is a better place with them in the world. And if you don't know the significance, shame on you (neither did the girl with the guy wearing the shirt).

Seven things

2007-08-16T20:41:00.000-06:00

I've been meaning to write one of these things for Angel and myself but am just now getting time, kind of. So, here we go.

1. Everybody seems to do first date stuff here. Angel claims we never had a first date. She's pretty right. However, if we did have one it would be the time that Angel came and picked me up from the airport when I was coming back from Denver after a trip there about a month or so after getting home from the mission. She picked me up because I told her I'd buy her a frostie if she did. So, that was the first thing we did. We bought frosties and ate them at the top of the now non-existant crossroads plaza. I'm not going to go through the whole day but it included eating Blimpies in the lobby of the Marriott, shopping for wedding gifts for some one(we bought a Holmes fan and Trivial Pursuit), watching skaters in Park City, buying Slurpees in Park City, watching Master and Command in Rick and Pam's basement, and ended with a smooch or two.

2. I proposed to Angel in the Art Museum at the University of Utah. I knew she would say yes since we had set a date and scheduled the temple 3 or 4 months earlier. One of the things that originally caught my attention with Angel was when I overheard her tell someone else that she was interested in art history. I always knew I wanted a wife who was into art. I'm pretty sure she was inspired to say that right then. We both like to go check out the art museums though we don't do it nearly as often as we would like.

3. Angel and I have never spent a night apart since we've been married.

4. Angel will begin her professional career as an elementary teacher this year teaching fourth grade. I still have this and next year of school before I start my career as a computer programmer nerd guy. We figure we have a pretty good setup in this. Angel will go and make a difference in people lives and make the world a better place, and I'll.....make money.

5. Angel and I live (temporarily, until the beginning of October) in BYU family student housing. We are abnormalities here. We don't have kids and Angel isn't pregnant. I haven't seen anyone else in this situation in the vicinity. We also go somewhat out of our way not to know anyone. This is partly because we're only here for about two months and partly because all the people here are wierdo BYU students. (I'm pretty positive they're all scared away by my beard and assume Angel is the BYU student. They probably think I'm keeping her here against her will.)

6. Angel and I both speak Chinese. No we don't really speak it at home (except praying. For some reason I can only pray in Chinese) and we don't play on teaching our kids anything except funny stuff. However, we do use it to make fun of people in public in front of them and just generally send messages to each other that we don't want other to know about. Unlike spanish we can be quite confident that no one else understands what we're saying because if they did they would either by chinese or a return missionary from our mission.

7. Angel and I eat burgers, pizza, sandwiches, and pasta. We've never gone out for chinese food except for mission reunion type stuff. Chinese food is no good. American Chinese food is way better than the authentic stuff but still, why would you get that when there are so many other better options.

So, that's a few things about us. If you want to know more then too bad. Here's some bonus information for you. We aren't one of those couples that always hangs out with other couple and plays board games and stuff. We haven't gotten sick of each other yet and don't see that happening anytime soon so we just enjoy each others company as much as we can.

Welcome Angel to the club!

2007-07-29T12:47:00.000-06:00

Despite being a lifelong Utahan Angel drank her first caffeine free dr. pepper today (although she did make me pour it in a glass so it wasn't in a gold can). In celebration of this momentous occasion I have decided to change this from my blog into our blog. One of the reasons you haven't seen many personal pictures on this blog has been that our camera broke a little while ago. So, after a really long time I finally bought one. It came last Friday I think. Why then don't you see any pictures here? It doesn't turn on. That is a less than desirable trait in a digital camera. Since we spent the week moving and doing tons of other stuff I haven't had time to get it figured out yet. Moral of the story, we now have two broken digital cameras. When I get a working one I'll try to post some pictures of our new temporary home in BYU family student housing. Anyone who knows us knows we're extra super excited about it. I'll go ahead and throw in a classic picture of us for you. If you don't recognize this one then we're sorry for not sending you a Christmas card. We would have if they were free.

Sharks are cool

2007-06-27T22:34:00.000-06:00

It is common knowledge that Angel is already the best teacher this side of the equator (and the other side too). But, just to prove the point more in case there was any doubt I submit this for your consideration:

Angel will be teaching at Saratoga Springs. Their mascot is a shark. So, Angel drew up a cool little shark mascot guy. We're still working on a name for him. We don't know if they already have a mascot with a name or not. If they do we're quite certain he isn't as cool as this shark. Anyway, she's been making up a bunch of these pictures to illustrate different prefixes. Ya, basically she's awesome. I almost wish I could go through 4th grade again just to have her as a teacher. I think I could do pretty well this time too. OK, really I would fail because I had a crush on the teacher and I couldn't stop staring at her. I'm convinced that will be the only reason any of her boys won't do well. It could be a serious problem.

summer fun

2007-05-22T08:10:00.000-06:00

This is a little update for all of you out there who have been dieing to know how I'll be spending my summer months (I realize people have been losing sleep over it and checking this blog many times a day looking for an update. I'm sorry about that.). Actually, one of the reasons I'm writing this post is to practice one of my summer goals. As many of you are aware, I'm a computer science major. As such, I'm a bit of a nerd. Not nearly as much as most cs majors but that's not saying much. Anyway, I've decided to learn the Dvorak keyboard layout this summer. As far as I know it's pretty much the nerdiest thing you can do. Here's a picture of the layout.

It's supposed to be more efficient and easier on your fingers than the traditional Qwerty layout designed to slow down the typist and avoid hitting letters together on the typewriter. Basically, I'm learning to type all over again and I need practice. Anyway, all of the above post was written quite a while ago. I was at work and then needed to actually do some work. so now, I'm sitting in the car on my way to Disneyland. I just set up Dvorak on the lappy so I can continue the goal. This is a little more challenging since the letters are traditional on the keyboard on this one. Anyway again, back to the update. This summer I will continue my work at my current job of almost two years. That's working for the office of information technology at BYU over the computer rental program, electronic surplus, and the computer kiosks, and billed printing on campus. That's about 28 hours a week so I'm supplementing that that with a second job working for a company that buys a lot of our surplus stuff and sells it, among other things. I'm helping them do general warehousing and I'll also be helping them in an almost consultant type role. I'll help them make their process more efficient and write some programs to track their inventory and some other things. I'm also working on making a website for my buddy Joe Harding's side business of selling ties. That should be fun.

So I guess I should stay fairly busy this summer. Angel is taking her final classes this summer at UVSC/UVU/UVHS. Next year Angel will start her career as the best elementary teacher ever. She'll be teaching 4th grade in Saratoga Springs as an intern. I'm not kidding, she really will be pretty much the best teacher that ever was. She has been doing a permanent sub job at an elementary school by our house working with autistic kids and has loved it. She’s amazing.
This Post is actually lots of posts all in one. We’ve now made it through a couple of wonderful days at Disneyland and one day at the beach. We’re sitting on a plane and being glad we decided to fly back instead of driving. That was a good decision. I would report on the trip but I don’t really feel like it right now. So maybe instead I’ll just end this painfully long post. The end.

Kelsey is my hero!

2007-03-30T15:46:00.000-06:00

Kelsey's new blog has inpired me to put off my homework (creating a web application to manage printer supply orders across campus) and add a post to my much neglected blog. If you'll notice, I have also added a link to her blog off to the left of your screen. Feel free to nagivate there before reading the rest of this if you want to. I'll understand. She's a lot more interesting than I am. I think she also puts stuff on her blog. I don't do that much. Her pictures are actually from things in her life too. Mine tend to be random stuff I pull off the internet after searching for all of 30 seconds. Hold on, let me go find one.
Alright, there you go. I didn't even get that one off the byu home page like all the other ones, I googled it. Those are the efforts I'm willing to go to for this blog, pretty much none.
Anyway, Kelsey is my hero. She does things and gets through things that are pretty impressive. I don't always envy her position but I do think she is one of the strongest most able, competent, smart, creative, and all around wonderful people I've ever known. I do envy a lot of the traits and qualities she displays. The only other person that come to mind we most of these same traits is our mother (my other hero). Kelsey doesn't always do things the easy way but she does try to pursue what she wants. I think she's doing just fine and I love her.

Long time no see!! (chinese proverb)

2006-12-12T18:56:00.000-07:00

Lot's of our cool little phrases come from chinese. That's just the only one I can ever think of. Anyway, it turns out, if you don't log into you blog for over a year you forget your username and password. Just so you know.
So, a lot of stuff happened to me in the last year. For those of you who only know me through this blog (I'm not stupid enough to actually think there is anyone looking at this who doesn't know me, but...) contrary to popular belief, I am not actually dead. In the last year there was a winter, and then a spring came. Eventually that got taken over by a summer, the fall wandered in and then magically winter came back. Rather than give you a detailed log of the year maybe we'll just leave it at that and then throw in a couple important events.
I got married. That was a big one. My wife is amazing. You're all jealous and you don't even know it. It would become pretty apparent to you though if you met her. She's going to be the best elementary school teacher ever after she finishes navigating all the hoops called college. She's smart, and beautiful, and funny, and fun to be with, and would get mad at me for using all the ands, and makes me happier than she can even imagine. I'm going to keep her forever.
I'm sure there was other stuff but nothing important. Maybe I'll start writing more on this in the future but I doubt it. So, check back soon for another installment of ....this...blog.......thing.

I guess this image is appropriate.

2005-11-21T11:23:00.000-07:00

Well, thanksgiving is almost upon us again. This is one of the silliest holidays there is. It's actually only cool if you really like eating turkey and watching football. Turkey is ok. I'm not much of a foosball fan. But, it does get me out of three days of school. As I write this I get less and less motivated by the fact that no one cares or will read this. But at least.....ok I can't think of anything.

Lawn update

2005-10-10T20:21:00.000-06:00

Just so you know, I still haven't actually heard anyone ridiculed for walking on the grass. However, what they have done is put up big plastic chain gates up on all the places where it's convenient to walk. That's just unsightly and inconvenient for the local pedestrians. I'm sure there will be an uprising in the near future.

I'm not sure what they're looking at but man, that's a cool mustachio.

2005-10-05T22:19:00.000-06:00

So, just so everyone knows, I spend pretty much all of my time doing homework. I'm not really sure what the deal is. If you have ever hated me for not ever having to do homework, study, or take notes or anything like that and still getting good grades you're somewhat justified. It would seem as though it's catching up to me. However, it actually only seems that way. In reality I still don't study or take notes. I just seem to have a bunch of classes that require a lot of homework. So, I guess you can just go on hating me. It doesn't really affect me one way or the other anyway. Right now I should actually be preparing for an oral presentation for my mandarin class tomorrow. That's not really that much fun though. I don't seem to get enough time to waste writing stuff on here. And if you've read though all that you get to hear about the most exciting thing to happen this week. Yesterday I called up the SLC temple and reserved a sealing room for the 10th of March at 9:00am. So, even though I haven't actually asked anyone to marry me hypothetically if I did then we would get married on the 10th of March at 9:00am in the Salt Lake City temple. So, we'll see if anyone's dad will allow them to marry me.

You wish I had a point.

2005-09-19T21:42:00.000-06:00

So, pretty much if there are any comments on this blog from anyone is isn't immediate family or close friend I already know they're trying to get me to do something. Then if it says "I like your blog." that's a total give away. No you don't. There's nothing cool on this thing. The only possible thing you could like about it is that it gives you somewhere to put a link to your crappy whatever. YOU DON'T KNOW ME! I've been meaning to yell that at people more often. Because, you know...they don't.

p.s. I've decided to always include a random picture from the byu website.

This is a lot cooler than linear algebra.

2005-08-31T19:30:00.000-06:00

Yes, the school year is upon us. No, no one has yelled at me for walking on the grass yet. I have seen about 20 people or so from my mission around campus. Unfortunately, most of them have been people I didn't really serve with or didn't really care to catch up with. So, I just tend to pretend not to notice them and wander past. It's worked pretty well for me thus far. I did go to the temple last night with three others from my mission. Other than waiting in the chapel for about an hour before the session started, it was pretty good. It's hard to get irritated in the temple but I was getting pretty close. Yeah so, this picture is just because I wanted to put a picture in this entry and it was readily available on the BYU home page. Apparently he's the new humanities dean, slightly pixelated.

I never wanted to go to BYU..... I still don't.

2005-08-22T21:02:00.000-06:00

So, Today I went and purchased a couple of excesively expensive books from the BYU bookstore and then wandered the campus locating my classrooms. I'm trying to have an optimistic attitude toward the whole BYU thing. I must say though, classes haven't even started yet and I'm already getting tired of being around all these mormons. It kind of makes me want to drive around campus blarring system of a down from my stereo. Luckily, I already have a girlfriend. If everything works out there I won't even have to try to meet anyone during my three year stay. I can just wander the campus listening to my headphones and just being generally anti-social. That way I won't have to listen to people giving me crap for walking on the grass either. Screw you for judgin' me!

The man behind the myth

2005-08-09T23:31:00.000-06:00

I'm not really sure if there really is a myth or not. If there is then I'm just as likely to be behind it than anyone else, right?