JARED'S BLOG O' STUFF

a girl and her dog

2010-10-08T10:15:00.001-06:00

So, my sexy love has been keeping a blog for over a year – it isn’t a public one, because she is mostly keeping it as a journal/diary so she can turn it into a yearbook at the end of each year. Well, it really is sad nobody can see it cause IT ROCKS! She had almost 400 entries last year, which is more than 1 per day – and they were all amazing, with tons of pictures and very very funny insight…that’s my girl – one sexy funny lady!

Last night she was posting about the Racing the Cane event Troy and Daph started, and she had the best pictures of us driving home after it. I not only love these pictures, but the sequence they are in tells a subtle little story – two of my favorite things in the world: Tristan and Sebastian…enjoy…

Get ready to laugh…It is PRINCE (jared)

2010-05-25T18:18:00.001-06:00

I make no illusion that i can sing…i did sing in various choirs for several years (9) as well as some quartets and duets but i really haven’t sang solo much and have never sang karaoke – until our Cruise that is…

So, my sister in law Joy suggested one night that we go sing Karaoke after dinner…on the cruise there was this thing called, “Princess Pop Star” (not Pop Princess, as Lissette kept calling it, making it seem like a “queen” show!) at one of the bars on the ship. This was last Thursday and the top 2 singers moved on to the “finals”…Well, i really have no problem getting on stage and making a fool of myself, but i have to be in a certain mood to do it…i can be shy at times and singing in front of people solo has never been something i felt i could do…UNLESS it was the right song – and it HAD to be the right song…so, on the way to the bar i thought to myself, “if they have “Kiss” by Prince as a song choice, i’ll go for it”…

well, the second i saw the books of songs i knew they’d have it. These books were bigger than the “i’m pushing 90 years old and can’t read small type” KJV Bibles you see holding down coffee tables. Sure enough, multiple versions of the song awaited me…so, i quickly scribbled down my choice and went back to my family who were waiting for Joy and Daph to choose a song…none of them thought i’d go since i was playing it down the whole way over…

They called me first, i got up and just went for it…i was laughing quite a bit – throwing out some dance moves – kicking out the jams…and it was pretty fun, to say the least…Joy and Daph also sang and they both nailed their songs as well…i hoped 2 of us would move on (only 2 could) to the finals, but alas – our family vote of 10 people was split up between us 3 leaving the field open for another only myself and a dude from Malaysia moved on to the finals…

When i won that night, the guy told me that i had to be to the Princess Theater for “rehearsal” the next afternoon and i wouldn’t have a teleprompter for the lyrics, so it all sounded pretty legit!

The next day i went to the rehearsal and the other 7 people sounded amazing (well, 6 people – the poor guy from Malaysia didn’t know the words to his song and just stood there poor guy…they let him change, but he still didn’t know all of the words)…the other guys were so cool, very nice and we all had a great time…they told us all to be back at 4:45 so we could go backstage and get the running order of the night, etc…

So, i got to the theater and we all went backstage…during rehearsal i went 3rd and though i would be the same for that night…well, they brought us the list and i WAS LAST!!! Everyone was saying they couldn’t wait for me cause they loved my song and dance routine…i was pretty stoked…the theater held around 300 people or so and i was excited to try and get people to laugh since that was my only goal – if you can’t get them to love your voice, get them to laugh and they will remember you and you might win!!!

It came time for me to go out and i couldn’t see a thing with all of the bright lights…i vaguely realized the place was mostly empty (maybe a 1/4 full?) and my family was somewhere near the right hand side of the stage towards the front…So, the guy that introduced me seemed like a big fan cause he kept talking to me about my dance moves and i got a sense he wanted my autograph :-) He asked me a few questions and away we went!!!

And, here is the result! Hope you enjoy!!! Oh, and i didn’t win – didn’t think i would cause most everyone was professional singers that nailed their performances…BUT, i was the only one that had the MOVES…

This is in HD, so if it takes a while to start and you would rather have a low quality version of it – you can get it HERE…

My Jonsi Review of “Go”

2010-04-06T10:04:00.001-06:00

This album makes me happy. Completely and utterly. I was worried that the album as a whole wouldn’t live up to “Boy Lilikoi”, the first single, and at the same time I didn’t want it to be 9 “Boy Lilikoi” songs in a row…if Sigur Ros has taught me anything, it is that music can be expansive, epic and evolving – all on the same album and usually within the same song. Sigur Ros is one of the most amazing bands in the world and usually, when you pull an individual out of an incredible band like that and they produce music on their own - it usually isn’t that great (Robert Plant, Rodger Waters, David Lee Roth, etc.), while at other times it can go well (John Lennon, Morrissey), but even then it never really touches the complete feeling you get from the group as a whole. That was my concern with Jonsi and, while it isn’t as epic and all consuming as a Sigur Ros release, it far surpasses 95% of the music released every Tuesday of every month of every year.

Jonsi’s voice is such a unique instrument in and of itself and the arrangements work perfectly with his falsetto sing/song style…wow, I’m on my 5^th time through since I got it and I don’t see myself stopping the listening party until I take my seat in Denver for his concert. I’d give this 9 out of 10 and would only hold back that last point based on the fact that it isn’t as long as it could be. I could use an epic, evolving and expansive track that goes beyond the 8 minute mark…but, I will take what I can get – gladly…

You can actually stream the album if you want to listen to it and see what you think. Just go HERE and click, “stream album”…or use LaLa.com which i love, by the way, to use to listen to music before i buy…if you want to purchase it you should honestly support your local record store (not a big chain, but a mom/pop place) – if you don’t have one or are just too damn lazy – i use 7Digital.com when i can’t find something at the local record store that i want…it has the highest quality mp3’s for cheap…

ENJOY!

My Philippines Home

2010-04-05T05:49:00.001-06:00

For those of you that are interested in reading what i do each year in the Philippines, you can go back and read THIS post or THIS post that tell of my experiences here. I’ve come every year, at least once a year since I started at Pro Look full time 10 years ago. It is one of the highlights of my job, only tinged by sadness at being away from my family and that i haven’t been able to bring my sexy love with me yet. Hopefully next year!

So, I've been here a week and have some pics i’d like to share of what i’ve done and seen so far…

SECTION 1: HARDEST I’VE LAUGHED IN A LONG TIME

Let me begin by saying that the most I've laughed in a long time was when i almost killed Alson and Myla’s little boy. Here is a picture of him where he is happy and smiling and unaware that i will almost be the last person he sees alive…

So, we are out for lunch. In the states i have to be honest, i’m pretty tired of Pizza Hut…their quality has REALLY slipped a ton (i used to deliver for them, so i know a good pizza hut pizza and i haven’t had one in years)…BUT, here in the Philippines and in South Korea the pizza is different. It is honestly amazing…i love pizza, as anyone can tell you, and having my good ol’ pizza hut back is something i take advantage when i come here. Ok, so i’m sitting in the booth across from this mini-alson and it has taken him a while to warm up to me…Dusty scares him, so when i first meet him he isn’t sure he wants anything to do with me…i have the type of personality that just can’t stand if someone doesn’t like me unless i give them good reason that is – so, i make it my mission to get him to like me…i do this in the usual way – by acting like i’m 4…every time he looks at me i make some crazy sound or do something silly…pretty soon i have him eating out of my hand…literally…

We are waiting for our pizza to arrive and he is playing with this little miniature game of connect 4 with these tiny tiny little checker pieces…i decide to show him how to make them “spin” by flicking them with my finger…he loves this, so i take it a step further by blowing them around the table…he tries to spin and blow them, but can’t quite get the hang of it. So, just as our food is arriving i start spinning multiple ones and blowing them at him…he is laughing so hard so i try and go faster…i have about 3 on the table spinning and i reach for a 4th, spin, blow and reach for a 5th…i hear him choking and have no idea why – he is holding his throat and starts coughing and then crying. Alson leans over him, pats his back until he calms down and asks him if he is ok and what happened. He said that he leaned over the table to blow them back at me and i blew one right into his mouth and he swallowed it! I was so busy grabbing another one i didn’t see it happen at all…Dude, i was laughing so hard tears were coming to my eyes. I couldn’t stop laughing. Alson was laughing as well, which is good since i almost killed his child!

Here is a picture of one of the checkers (not the actual one, i’m sure that “surfaced” a couple of days later)…

UPDATE: I showed Myla this post and thought she would laugh – well, she was pretty upset and I felt bad laughing while I was showing it to her. I guess she was pretty worried that he would have problems with it in his stomach. Here I am, father of the year, not even thinking of that! I’ll have to find out what happened – if anything. It was a really tiny checker, but she was pretty upset!

SECTION 2: LUNCH AND GHOSTS

We went to lunch today to the Cookbook Kitchen. It is ok food, but it was very fun having everyone there:

Clockwise: Me, Alson, Myla, Sheryl, Ron, El

I was laughing pretty hard at the menu because El ordered at fish dish that was described as, “Parmesan Crusted Fish: RICH, SUCCULENT AND BAKED” We both started laughing over the choice of words. I love how they threw “baked” in there, as it didn’t have the same sensory appeal as “rich” and “succulent”…we kept saying it over and over during lunch…classic…

On the way back you drive down a famous road called, “MacArthur Highway”. The stretch the factory is on is several miles that has the huge trees that line it. They are really quite amazing:

These trees go for miles and miles…So, this year when i arrive i notice every single tree has a white body painted on it:

It is a little hard to see from these pics, but both sides of every single tree has a white body spray painted on it. I asked them what was the deal and they said that the government is going to widen the road and will need to cut down all of the trees. A protest group decided to spray each one of them with bodies to show that trees have life i guess. But, to me, it is a little creepy – i’ve taken to calling it the “ghost highway” because the bodies look like little ghosts…i am pretty bummed about them cutting the trees down, even though they really do need to widen it…It is just way too beautiful and tragic to alter…

SECTION 3: EASTER JARED PICTURE HUNTING

When i first got here this time i decided to get a Drives License. Dusty said this would be a good idea if i drive at all, which i have in the past, so i got one last week. Part of the process is going to the mall and getting a 2 x 2 picture of yourself. I thought this would be used on the license, but it wasn’t – only on the application – which sucks cause it turned out better than the picture on the actual license:

The license looks like someone punched me in the face! So, i go get this picture taken and the lady hands me a little bag – when i open it i realize that i didn’t get just one 2 x 2 picture, but i got like 12 pictures, big and small…

So, i’d been working crazy late hours every night and Sunday night (Easter) was the longest of them all because everyone was coming back in the morning and i wanted to make sure i’d set everything back up the way it should be…i was exhausted from lack of sleep and a little delirious…it was around 4 in the morning and as i finished up i looked over and saw the bag of pictures…i decided to place them around the office in different places so they would always see me watching them and wouldn’t forget how handsome i was until i returned the next time…here are a few of the “hiding places”:

THE WALL BY MYLA’S DESK

ON CYNTHIA’S MONITOR

EL’S MONITOR

NEXT TO SHERYL

ON THE STAIRS HEADING UP TO MY ROOM

BEHIND ALSON’S DESK

MY PERSONAL FAV – BY THE PHONE

So, i get a quick couple of hours of sleep and as i’m waking up i get a text message from El…he is already downstairs with the other workers and he asks, “Easter Jared Picture Hunting, Huh?” It took me a minute to figure out what he was talking about and then it dawned on me that i hid pics on easter, like eggs for kids…classic…

I was excited to come down stairs to their laughs (remember, i like making people laugh – just ask Mini-Alson right before he choked)…When i get into Alson and Myla’s office, here is what I see:

Alson said every morning he was going to honor his new Idol before working so he would be more prosperous! I laughed pretty dang hard at that one…He is so freaking funny it kills me…

My Talk on The Spirit

2010-03-12T12:16:00.001-07:00

I'm one of those rare and crazy people that actually enjoys speaking in front of large groups. It is one thing being a DJ on the radio, you don’t really see the audience (i always imagined them in their underwear :-) But, it is something else entirely to stand up in front of a few hundred people and spout what you hope to be words of wisdom.

A few weeks ago i was asked by Jeff Fischer to speak after Bryce Laycock…who had just returned from his mission. Jeff said he couldn’t promise me how long I'd have to speak, if any time at all, because return missionaries are given the freedom to speak as long as they want. Blake Sanford actually took the whole sacrament meeting a few months back, so i figured it was a good chance Bryce might do the same…

When i prepare to speak, whether it is a talk in Sacrament or a lesson in Elders, etc. – i usually just make a bullet list of points i want to hit with little notes to trigger thoughts I'd had during the week that i would like to cover. I leave it open incase i feel inspired to share something and it has always worked out, i feel, pretty well…

If you are interested, here is a link to the talk:

TheSpirit.MP3

You can right click and save it to your computer and then add it to your iPod if you want to listen on your daily run :-)

enjoy!

I love Valentines Day for 1 reason…

2010-02-20T16:23:00.001-07:00

The kids! Ok, Lissette and I don’t really celebrate Valentines Day for each other, although over the past few years she has surprised me at work with Cookie Bouquets, notes taped to my computer/door, etc…I’ve given her things over the years at well (this year i got her a very cool pop-up book of The Little Prince), but for the most part – we don’t really put a big emphasis on VDay cause our Anniversary is a week after it…

BUT, i do have a tradition on Valentines that is a yearly event and one i LOVE…i have my beautiful wife to thank because she suggested it the first year i did it when Paris was in Kindergarten…

Here is what i do…the day they are having their Valentines Party at school - you remember those! The brown bag taped to your chair, the little cards you spent a hour the night before writing everyone's names on and taping a little candy heart, taking that bag home after school, ripping the candy off and throwing the paper on the ground without reading what was written…awwww, Valentines as a kid! So, on that day i wait until they’ve been at school about an hour before i show up…i walk into the classroom with a big balloon and a large chocolate kiss…all of the kids are so cute cause they always yell out, “no way!” “Paris, your dad!” “Tristan, look!!!”

This year i added a step by kneeling down and asking them to be my valentine – they were so cute! I was worried that Paris might one day get “too old” for it and feel embarrassed…i was happy when i got home Thursday night and she told me one of the girls in her classed asked her if she was embarrassed i showed up at school and did that and kissed her and she said, “no, why?” and the girl said, “i’d be embarrassed if my dad did that” and Paris said, “well, my dad is cool”…

Here are some pics from this year as well as years past…

I always try to get the coolest balloons – they have to be BIG so the other kids in the class can’t miss my kid! I picked out this Flower for Tristan and a heart for Paris and they told me after i chose the perfect balloons for each of them. When they got home they found out Sebastian is afraid of balloons and would run away from them! Notice the bags on their tables – memories!!!

Paris is holding the Chocolate Kiss. Sadly, i don’t have a picture of going to Esher’s school, but his was the next day and when the girls got home he said, “Mom, i really want to ask Paris and Tristan if i can have a bite of their Kisses, but i really don’t want to share mine tomorrow!” Pretty funny…

Right as i was leaving Paris asked me to take a picture of her looking through the balloon…so cute!

2009

This balloon was great because it played music – I'm sure it drove her teacher crazy!

My cookie bouquet from last year and my sexy love!

My cookie bouquet from 2 years ago from my sexy love!

Can you tell Esher loved his Chocolate Kiss last year??? This year Sebastian got to it and ate part, but Esher still had most of it…one day he will realize he can’t put food on his bedside table without the BIG SNIFFER Sebastian finding and grubbing it…if the dog isn’t by my leg i know something’s up – i found him in Esher’s room licking the paper on the ground…

I can’t remember why, but for some reason i gave Tristan hers at the house last year…

2008

This was the first year i did it for Tristan, so you can see on the top picture she is very surprised and didn’t know why i was there…i LOVE doing this!!!

We also have a tradition on Valentines to take the kids to something special. Usually it is a play in Salt Lake, but this year we went to a play at BYU called A Thousand Paper Cranes…It was pretty cool and after we folded a paper crane to send to Japan for a peace monument…

In 2008 before watching Sleeping Beauty

We ALSO have a tradition of giving the Girls some form of jewelry…man, Valentines is the best!

Bronson is AWAKE!!!

2010-02-09T13:24:00.001-07:00

I've been posting on my Facebook about our friends Matt and Sara Staker...their little boy had a tragic accident 10 days ago - you can read Sara's account of it <a href="http://stakerzxposed.blogspot.com/2010_02_01_archive.html" target='blank'>HERE</a>. Then you can work your way back through the posts to read Sara's amazing account of what has been happening...she has captured the attention of the globe (over 15,000 hits noon today so far) - well, i had the wonderful opportunity to help her last night by offloading some texts from her cell phone - i went to the hospital to drop it off, give them a quick hug and come back...i had NO idea that this morning that he would "wake up" from his lethargic/unresponsive state and be back to himself again...

You can keep up on what is happening on her blog at: http://stakerzxposed.blogspot.com/

We love Matt and Sara and their boys and are so excited for them!

Also, Jane has posted on her blog various ways to help the family out with the tons of medical bills (life flight alone was $15,000!!!)…the family isn’t asking for this, only your prayers – but her friends and family know how much they will have to face after all of this and we want to make sure they get some financial help that is so needed for the long road ahead…

Because your day isn’t complete

2010-01-26T23:32:00.001-07:00

Without a little “Sebastian in the Snow”

He LOVES snow! He will just run outside, jump in it, lay down and stick his nose deep into it and flip his head up…then run around more, drop in it and eat it and repeat over and over…i feel bad because he gets pretty hot in the house and acts like the snow is water to someone that’s been in a desert for a week…

Post Pic from Being Fat

2010-01-25T14:05:00.002-07:00

Sorry, i forgot to do the post-picture…well, here it is in all it’s “glory”…i have to say, on both the before and after i was not sucking it in nor was i pushing it out…i was just standing relaxed (and making a face in the first one :) I’ll put them side by side for easy comparison…

So, this week is only exercise and eat smart – no soda, sugar, etc…i decided that since my name was Jared i might as well go on the “jared diet” :-) which is actually just walking to Subway and getting something small and walking back…it is a mile roundtrip and i got the flatbread with chicken and cheese…honestly, i have never been a huge fan of Subway (except for a brief semester at UNLV when i had the meatball footlong about every meal with the chocolate chip cookies – is it any wonder i look like the before pic above?)…so, after lunch i gotta say i’m comfortable – not stuffed like i usually eat, and that was the goal…hope i can keep it up…it was hard not getting a soda cause i love water, but when i eat out i really HATE the water they serve (tastes gross) and i always forget to bring my own water…i know i could have done better (i got ranch on it – a little, but ranch nonetheless and i got a cranberry apple rasberry drink) but i really really can’t go 100% all out, as i mentioned before, cause i will not – WILL NOT stick with it…i know myself…if i don’t enjoy what i’m doing (exercise, food, etc) i wont do it…

Speaking of exercise, this morning i ran with Sebastian…i was going to get up at 6:45 and i actually set my alarm for that early…well, one look at how dark it was plus the fact that i was up late working on computers meant turning off the alarm and getting up at 7:30 with the kids for our morning scripture reading…i went running after that and Sebastian was in heaven…i, on the other hand, was nervous cause he will stay close to me but doesn’t understand that cars do come at him from the back of us…i like to listen to my iPod while running, so i can’t hear the traffic very well and it all boiled down to me thinking i need to find a more safe place to run…

I’m planning on hitting the gym before going home for dinner and FHE…Tristan has the lesson tonight…i love that girl!

QUIT BEING FAT, DAMNIT – Day 10 – The End

2010-01-23T14:46:00.001-07:00

So, my beautiful, sexy and amazing love called me yesterday (day 10) at 3:00 and said, “i’m so hungry” – that’s all it took…we both were DREADING the weekend cause it sucks on the cleanse…so, i said, “shall i grab food on the way home?” and she jumped on it! I’m so bad! If i’d said, “my love we are so close – we can make it 14 days” she would have been, “yeah, you are right”…she’s done that for me when i’m struggling…but the second she gave me an opening i’m all over it – LET’S EAT!

So, we made it 10 days…we didn’t come down the way you should normally – juice, etc…which i wouldn’t suggest at all, but the food tasted AMAZING…we had Korean – i had Soon Dubu Jjigae which is a soft tofu soup…it is very spicy and they say having some spicy soup is the best way to come down…Lissette had Kimchi jjigae which is Kim Chi soup and this is the most preferred way to come down because one of the things on the list of foods to get your stomach going is Cabbage and Kim Chi is nothing but cabbage…in a spicy soup – ideal for post-cleanse food…

So, we both lost about 10 pounds and are determined to work out and “earn” eating what we want…if we exercise we get to have the things we like (for her, sugar cookies and for me Dr. Pepper)…but, not until we’ve gone a week of working out…next week we need to just eat simple and no In-N-Out, deserts, etc. Then the week after slowly introduce them back in with our exercise. I can’t say, “i’m done with sodas” or “i’ll never eat cookie dough again”…food is such a huge part of who i am and who we are as a couple that taking it away and only eating healthy all of the time seems like massive torture to me…in the past i’ve tried to “stop drinking soda” or something like that and i honestly just can’t do it…but, what i can do is drink less and over the years i totally have…when i was younger i would get a Double-Gulp (1/2 a gallon!) at least 2 a day…it was no big deal to drink them all day everywhere i went i’d have one with me…well, i’ve come a LONG way from that…now i’ll hit a bottle or two of mexican coke (the BEST) or a can of Mt. Dew / Dr. Pepper…if i’m home and we have it in the fridge i find myself drinking more (couple of cans a night) but NO WHERE NEAR what i used to drink…i honestly love soda – sorry, that’s my vice – oh and my favorite desert – COOKIE DOUGH!

I’ve done this cleanse off and on for over 10 years and it is hard – make no mistake…but, it does make me feel a lot “cleaner”…one thing i did have this time that i can’t remember having before is i did have a bit of acid-stomach on it…it was pretty much every day, which sucked because i don’t like acid stomach – but also because i didn’t expect it…

QUIT BEING FAT, DAMNIT – Days 7, 8 and 9

2010-01-22T15:07:00.001-07:00

Well, a wrap-up of the past 3 days. I’m on day 10 today so you’ll hear about that tomorrow or when i get around to it…but, as far as the last 3 days, here is what i love/hate about this cleanse:

1. LOVE: Day 8 i weighed myself in the morning to see how much i’d lost in 1 week…it was 9 pounds. Now, i know this whole thing isn’t for the losing of weight, it is to “detox” and losing weight is a nice bi-product, but it really is nice being lighter, snoring less, having more “wind” when walking up stairs, etc…i’m not delusional enough to think i will keep the weight off, but it is a good little kick-start to hopefully eating less/working out more…knowing me, i’ll get it all back and more in 4 months :-)

2. HATE: I hate not being able to chew…i was meeting with some people here at work and figured my breath doesn’t smell the best, so i threw a piece of gum in really quickly and it was such an odd feeling after a week – to actually chew something…crazy…i do believe psychologically chewing is a very important part of eating….i felt fuller just chewing…

3. LOVE: I love when i drink the salt-flush and about gag/throw up and make all these sounds out loud and my beautiful Tristan says, “Daddy, why do you keep doing that – why don’t you quit drinking it?” I do love that girl!

4. HATE: I HATE the smell of food everywhere, the commercials ALL OVER TV (even fast forwarding through commercials shows about 15 different food ads – sucks!), driving by In-N-Out, driving by SmashBurger that isn’t open but i’m excited for it, being asked to go to lunch by everyone here that always forgets i’m on it and i LOVE going to lunch with the guys – so, i hate that I'm not done so i can go to lunch with everyone!

5. LOVE: Lissette for being on this at the same time as me…she keeps telling me i’m a wimp cause I wine to her most of all how much i want to eat…and she had no sympathy – which is cool, cause she is on it too and last night she BROKE :-) Finally she is talking about how hard it is so i can call her a WIMP :-)

Side note – last night i took Paris to Avatar – gotta say, i do love that movie. Lissette and I saw it a few weeks ago and talked about how great it would be taking the kids…So, Paris woke up 2 hours early yesterday (and she NEVER gets up early and usually gets up late) and spent the time reading the scriptures! I wanted to thank her for being so good in the morning so i took her on a Daddy/Daughter date to Avatar…we usually go to lunch and hang out in the afternoon for our Daddy/Daughter dates, but it was SO FUN taking her to the movie…i am SO BUMMED i didn’t take pictures of it – man, i suck!

QUIT BEING FAT, DAMNIT – Days 6

2010-01-19T15:02:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was probably the easiest of the days so far. Got the mixture correct for my daily drink…not too bad headache wise, weakness wise, etc…maybe it was easy cause i forgot to take any of the cayenne pills!

I have a photography class tonight I'm excited about – i’ve been wanting to learn my camera (Nikon D90) better and hopefully tonight i’ll pick up some tricks! Although it does take splendid pics even on the auto mode (that i’m embarrassed i use!!!) Hopefully tonight i’ll have a good idea on how to take even better pics!

QUIT BEING FAT, DAMNIT – Days 4 & 5

2010-01-18T15:33:00.001-07:00

Well, the hardest part with all of this cleanse is not the first three days (in my mind) but it is the weekend…the weekend SUCKS when it comes to cleansing…the reason? Well, lets take an inventory of my weekend…i decided to take Saturday off from work, which hasn’t happened in I don’t know how long – so, woke up Saturday morning, walked the dog, played with the family, took a nap, watched the Saints beat the Cardinals, did some chores around the house, walked the dog, washed the dog, watched the Colts beat the Ravens, watched TV with the sexy wife, went to sleep, got up for church, meetings, watched the Cowboys get killed by the Vikings and then dog, kids, Chargers/jets, shows, sleep…

So, that’s it in a nutshell…i know, a lot of football – i’m a baseball guy and will watch my Rockies throughout the year almost daily – but really only watch football a lot during the play-off’s…so, when i watch games i like to munch and drink dr. pepper or Mexican coke…and when i stay home on a Saturday we like to have a great breakfast…plus, Lissette and I love to eat out (main reason we suck at getting ahead of our bills…oh, and why we both are so fat) and so, if i was to take a Saturday off normally, we’d plan somewhere fun to go eat…last weekend we did Red Robin for dinner on Friday night and Cracker Barrel for brunch…so, big difference when you are sitting there sipping your drink all day…at least during the week i can focus on work and not think about it as much – weekend, not like that at all! It was so hard yesterday that I’ve been thinking of only going 10 days…

My love got a bad headache on Saturday night and took an Advil – i wouldn’t suggest this on the cleanse – she puked it up about 30 minutes later…I had a pretty bad headache last night as i went to sleep, but i think it was from not managing my drinks better…i was pretty weak and you shouldn’t be bad this far into it…

The psychological part of this whole thing sucks…when you think about food, eating, etc…that is what totally kills you…and the weekend, being with my grubbin’ buddy, makes it very hard!

QUIT BEING FAT, DAMNIT – Day 3

2010-01-15T14:24:00.001-07:00

Well, today i keep forgetting to drink my solution…i’m not really hungry – which is a great thing, and my head isn’t too bad either – which is very surprising with the amount of dr. pepper / mexican coke i consume…i’m not complaining, because i know it is working – i just was braced and expecting it to be very hard (raging headache, nauseous, ready to kill any and all humans within 5 feet of me holding anything edible)…

I did tweak the Sea Salt Flush mixture this morning because yesterday wasn’t as effective…i made sure i had a whole quart and did 2 tsp’s (i did it by memory yesterday and thought it was 1 tsp)…well, it really really worked…i HATE drinking the stuff and actually threw-up a little after chugging the jar – but i LOVE knowing i’m flushing out the crap that is being cleansed…

Paris was SO CUTE this morning – she set her alarm and got up early, got dressed and made breakfast for everyone because “mommy and daddy are on their drinking diet”…i love when she is in her very happy/helpful mode in the mornings, which is very rare – she is more like me – don’t say it is time to get up, don’t say it is time, don’t, don’t, noooo…

Paris did leave a mess in the kitchen for lissette to clean up, but she didn’t mind as long as she didn’t have to cook…Sebastian LOVES it when lissette does the dishes cause he “helps” her make sure they go into the dishwasher as clean as possible…here is a picture of him helping her when he was a smaller puppy – he can’t get on the door anymore now and has to help from the side, which he is just fine with – i always know when he has helped with the dishes cause his head is wet from the dripping of cups on the top shelf…

Is that the smallest bit of a tortilla i see??? mmmmmm….

QUIT BEING FAT, DAMNIT – Day 2

2010-01-14T13:40:00.001-07:00

So, they say the first 3 day are the hardest – and I've found that to be true – but I'd say the 2nd and the 3rd days are far harder than the first…Maybe that is because i tend to eat later in the day, often not getting food into me until noon or later – so my body isn’t really looking for anything in the morning – bad habit, i know. But, on day 1 i find that my body doesn’t realize that it is missing food since i’m sipping my “jug o juice” and by the time my brain wakes up i’m cuddle up in bed with my sexy…

So, yesterday – day 1 – not too bad…this morning i had the first of my next 13 “salt water flushes”…i couldn’t remember what i did last year, but thought it was 1 tsp – i think tomorrow i’ll do 2 since it didn’t work as well as usual…not to get too far into the yucks, but the “flush” didn’t start for about 30 minutes and it wasn’t as much as i have had in the past…the time isn’t a concern – but the amount is…

So, today i’m feeling it – i got the “Where the hell is your Dr. Pepper” headache going…i got the light headed/weak feeling of lack of solids…but, mostly i’m SMELLING a ton of food smells already. Last time that was hard, because we get free hot dogs here at work and people are always grillin them up on the Foreman. Well, i like a good dog (j-dawgs being my fav) so smelling it all the way back here in my office is, um…less than pleasant…

I do enjoy people here at work making comments…my favorite is when josh calls the liquid my “urine sample” jug…here is a picture, so you can see why he thinks that:

Is this enough Doctor???

As as side note, i was getting dressed for work and Lissette was separating the clothes into piles…she walked away for a bit and when i went to get into the closet i saw Sebastian had made himself a nice little bed amongst the dirty clothes…i took a picture, but it wasn’t as cute as when i first saw him – stretched out and sleeping…he woke up when i went to get the camera and came to me…after he laid back down i snapped one with my phone…i do love that dog…

ahhhh….so comfy

QUIT BEING FAT, DAMNIT – Day 1

2010-01-13T19:14:00.001-07:00

So, it is on! And about to come off…Back in 1997 or there about, Lissette and I were living in Korea. We had this friend Luke…he was classic, but that is another post…so, he told us about this cleansing diet called the Master Cleanse – many of you have probably heard of it because it has become quite “sheik” to do, but back then it was just a bit on the strange side…

So, we started this cleanse that should go for a minimum of 10 days and up to something like 50…i only made it about 4 while Lissette made it longer and Eric (my brother) went the distance if i remember correctly…mostly, it sucks – BUT, when done correctly you feel amazing – you do dump weight, but that isn’t the main reason for doing it – it is to detox your system of all of the crap you eat…

Well, i have done it about 5 times over the last 13 years and today i’m starting it again…here is the main gist of it:

Do the following for 10 – 45 days

DAILY DRINK

(1 day worth)

Juice from 5 Lemons

* If you roll them on the counter to soften them and then cut them and squeeze them you will get more juice

* A juicer is best

* Use a strainer to strain out the seeds

1 ½ to 1 ¼ cups of organic grade B maple syrup

* Should be grade B (or A if you must) and shouldn’t be the stuff you put on your pancakes J…should be Organic and I always use Grade B

Cayenne pepper

* You can do the cayenne pepper one of 2 ways

1: Into the drink mix (people like this cause it gives the drink a “kick”

2: In a separate mixture of water that you drink and then wash it down with some of the lemonade mix

* As far as how much cayenne – it is as much as you can handle. It is good for you, helps clean the blood, etc…many good properties…I bought the “cool” brand and it was (I think) 100,000 BTU’s…I’d mix it in a little paper cup with water and take it like a “shot” glass and then drink my lemonade stuff…

spring, distilled, or purified (NOT fluoridated) water

* I filled up most of the Gallon jug with water – doesn’t really matter how much cause you can drink as much water as you want throughout the day…I filled it about 2 inches from the top…

This will be your mixture throughout the day and you should never be really “hungry” because you will be “sipping” it to make it last…I take a good few gulps every 30 – 45 minutes to keep the edge off…you can make more the first few days if you find yourself too hungry…I have found this the best way to do the diet (many people make a drink every couple of hours) – having the gallon saves the day for me…

NIGHTLY

You should drink an herbal laxative tea (like Smooth Move) before bed.

EVERY MORNING

Sea Salt Flush

Every morning when you first wake up you should do a Sea Salt Flush (many people have the hardest time with this part of it, but I think it is one of the most important things you can do on the cleanse…at night the laxative tea will “loosen” things up and the flush will “flush” them out…here is what it is:

- 1 Quart of warm water

- 2 TSP of sea salt (NO IODINE)

* Mix together until dissolved

- Drink down

* I prefer to take a breath and hold it while drinking – trying to drink the whole thing in one breath…it is hard but the easiest way I’ve found to drink it down. Lissette can’t do it at all so if you can’t drink it then you can do a laxative tea in the morning as well…not ideal, but it will work if the sea salt flush makes you want to puke and you can’t get it down…

* be near a restroom for 30 minutes – 1 hour…you will “go” multiple times during that time…gross, but part of the cleanse for sure…

COMING OFF THE CLEANSE

Coming off the cleanse is very important…you can’t just jump into solid foods or you will be very nauseous and sorry…you should start the morning of your first day off by sipping orange juice throughout the morning/afternoon (many say only juice the first day)…then that afternoon or night or the next day have some vegetable broth (Nate just boiled veggies in a pot and drank the juice)…I personally did juice the first morn/afternoon and then had a broth of Korean soup made of tofu and spices…it was a way to wake up my digestive system…just be careful and read the best way to come off it…if you go longer than 10 days you come down time needs to be longer…don’t jump into solids until at least 2 days after your 10 day (like meat, etc…) – I waited 3 days to be sure before having anything too heavy…

And that’s about it…So, I'm starting it today and I hope to go for 14 days this time (i did 10 days last year)…Lissette is also starting today and Nate is doing it Thursday…

STARTING WEIGHT: 194 (according to my scale, that is about 5 lbs off)

STARTING PIC:

OH MAN I’M HUGE!!!

2010...Day 7

2010-01-07T17:14:00.002-07:00

carry on, nothing to see here...

2010…day 1

2010-01-01T21:04:00.001-07:00

Well, i can count myself perfect for having written a post every day this year…that is one thing I'm SO proud of Lissette for doing – she is keeping a “journal” of the year every day and adding pictures so making a book for 2009 will be so easy! She has more than a post a day and i am amazed at how much i have forgotten about the year…incredible…

Well, i know i’ll jack this up and only post for the next couple of days or whatever and then you wont see anything until 2011 – but, in the spirit of new beginnings, here is a post for you today…

We went to a fun NYE party last night at D & J’s and got to hang out with people we don’t see nearly enough!

Here is a pic of Paris with close to a ton of confetti after the bell struck 2010:

Go 2010…lets rock this place!

NEWEST MEMBER OF THE FAMILY!!!

2009-09-10T16:56:00.001-06:00

Well, apparently 3 kids weren’t enough…so, we added a 4th…not a kid, but a little Golden Retriever Puppy! He is SO STINKING CUTE and the most chillin puppy i’ve ever seen…he is a beautiful light brown color…our friends Nate and Jackie have some exchange students in their church they are close to. Well, they are BYU students and got the dog for a depressed roommate. But, the super found out that they had the dog and told them the dog goes or all of them go. So, they dropped it at Nate and Jackies and when we went over last night for dinner i took one look at him and was sold! I’ve loved animals my whole life and couldn’t wait to get a Dog. Lissette loves dogs and wanted to get one when the kids were a little older, but this one seems like the perfect dog. I hope we are making the right decision :-) We have our great friend Mia who has a big beautiful dog that is very well trained (he plays a little piano at the door when he wants to go out and do his business. He also goes in a small square of gravel outside…very well trained)…she has been giving us all kinds of tips.

Here are a bunch of pics of him with the kids. We haven’t named him yet…

WE LOVE HIM ALREADY!!!

Price-less

2009-08-27T21:03:00.001-06:00

Front row seats to Rockies vs Dodgers game = $175

Manny salary for game = $147,000

Ignoring Manny to yell at your daughter on national TV = Priceless

***UPDATE: ok, i just noticed after my 20th viewing that Dinger (the mascot) is behind price. He is trying to get through, but price is blocking him and you can see Dinger throw his arms up in frustration and then turn around and leave. It almost seems like he is mocking Price by copying him. CLASSIC!

Why haven't you read this yet???

2009-07-14T13:16:00.001-06:00

Ok, why isn’t this the most popular book in the world right now? I gotta say, most books that are “mainstream” popular (Da Vinci Code, Twilight, etc.) in my opinion are horribly written and usually annoying (don’t tell me you think Bella is charming!!!)…so i am AMAZED when a book that is this incredibly written and the plot is flat out unputdownable (yeah, i made that up), that isn’t #1 on all of the best sellers lists…amazed people aren’t talking about it more…

So, what is this book you ask? It is called “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett. I know I'm not alone because of the 528 reviews on Amazon, 474 are 5 star…so why hasn’t Oprah stood up on her show and dropped praise all over this thing??? The reviews on Audible are averaging 4.89 out of 5 stars based on 1,048 reviews – for an audio book, that is astounding.

Well, I'm trying to do my part…shoot, I'm only 3/4 of the way through and i can honestly say that if the ending is horrible (like Aliens come to earth and blow it up – mind you, the book takes place in Alabama in the ‘60’s and has nothing to do with Aliens) I'd still say it was one of the best books I've ever read…

So, either go buy it or get the audio book (which, by the way, is the best I've ever heard, hands down, and I've listened to close to a 50 in the last couple of years)…the reading of it – honestly – i feel is going to ruin whatever i read next because it will not sound as good, i can guarantee that…

In-N-Out in Utah, Rockies, DC and New York oh my!

2009-07-10T18:28:00.000-06:00

Well, it is official – we are finally getting an In-N-Out near me (a block away from my office, might I add) and while looking for a date of completion i found that we here in Orem aren’t the only ones getting one…but apparently they are springing up all over (Draper, American Fork, West Jordan and Layton)…i can’t find proof, but was told yesterday by a friend that the reason they are finally expanding is the owner passed away (it is family owned, so i guess it was the mom) and she had never wanted to have a store that was outside of a delivery “zone” – so the meat wouldn’t have to be frozen…now that she is gone the children are branching out. While i’m sad she passed away (cause she has all of my respect and more for starting In-N-Out), i’m glad the family is bringing it here…man, i can’t wait! To quote my sexy wife, “oh great, now we are gonna get really fat!”…apparently she hasn’t looked at me in a while cause i passed that stage about 2,000 Dr. Pepper’s ago!

I’m VERY happy my Rockies are doing well going into the All Star break…i’ve been able to watch several games on TV, but nothing beats being at the game and we were able to catch 2 during the Seattle series and they were AMAZING…it was in the middle of their streak last month and my brother Price HOOKED US UP, as usual, and we had 3rd row behind home plate for the first game and first row between Hawpe and Helton for the 2nd game…

I’ve once again been sucked into Facebook (how can something so evil be so popular???) and found myself looking for a couple of old friends from High School that i spent much of my teenage years at their house in Oregon. I finally found a site that mentions them and am crossing my fingers that they will respond…they aren’t on Facebook that i can tell (who can blame them), but hopefully they have e-mail :-)

We went on a 2 week trip to Denver, DC and New York that was absolutely incredible and i will have to post some pics of it as soon as i can…i am at a loss when i blog at work because my lovely wife has all of the pics on her computer at home…i do have a few from my iPhone that i will post because, apparently, many of you that read my blog don’t actually read the words but just look at the pictures – how juvenile! :-)

This might look like just mere dirt to you, but it is actually a picture of the dirt at Coors field. The picture below this is from those seats (last year). Well, to explain the dirt. So, i forgot my glove this year and a foul ball was hit down the line and i leaned WAY over the wall to get it (i’m sure you’ve seen this on TV a ton – the guy leaning over the wall to tipping point)…so, i’m leaning way over and lissette is holding my legs. The ball HITS my palm! I was sure i had it and when i closed my hands it grazed off my fingers and moved an inch out of reach. The picture above is the shot of my fingers digging in the dirt and the imprint of the ball just above my left finger drag. Well, the picture below is of the grounds crew guy that was there (his name is Eric) and he walked over to the ball as i’m trying to get it and calmly picked it up. i was like, “thanks Eric” and put my hand out as he proceeded to walk back towards first back, placing the ball in a 4 year old Japanese kids hand. The kids was a MARINERS FAN! They were screaming for Ichiro the whole time!!! Man, i got ripped…shoud have brought at least one of my kids – then i’d get a ball!!!

This may be last year, but i swear he is looking at me knowing in a mere 302 days he is going to take a ball away from me and give it to an opposing fan!

This picture is from my parents mission in DC. This is one of the Institute students they teach and he is amazing on the piano. He played upside down, backwards and forwards. Very impressive.

Here are the girls in front of the White House. So, we had just finished our private East Wing tour and were outside. The girls saw a group of protestors out front and asked what they were doing so i said, lets go find out. We walked over together and i was reading the signs to explain what they were doing there protesting. There were several different groups (lower taxes, Iraq, Health Care, etc) and i was looking at one guys pamphlets about some sort of conspiracy with a judge or something when i noticed the girls were looking at a big poster board of tons of pictures of mutilated children in the Sudan. They were quite wide eyed and i quickly wisked them over to the fence so they wouldn’t have to see the pictures and like a good parent said, “stand here for a picture in front of the White House and as i’m taking the picture notice they were looking behind me RIGHT AT the sign…man, what a classic move on my part…

Here the girls are on the bus in DC pretending what they would look like if the bus stopped suddenly and they hit the glass window in front of them. Ah, the imagination of a child…

K, so this is a picture of a line. I’m walking downtown New York at midnight, looking for food for my sexy love and myself and see this cart with this line – well, of course i jump in it not caring what food it is, but wanting whatever everyone thinks is good…then on the way back to our room I stop at another guy who’s food smelled amazing – again, not caring what it was – just wanting what smelled good…he didn’t have a line, but my nose knows…

So, i’m standing there with my bag and the guy says, “what’s in the bag” and i’m like, “i don’t know, just some food from up the street” and his friend who was behind me starts yelling, “OH MAN, THAT IS COLD! YOU DON’T KNOW??? THAT IS COLD! SOMEONE GET ME A KNIFE.” So, i’m not sure what is going on and he yells, “THAT’S THE COMPETITION MAN” and the guy scooping up my food says to his friend, “See, that’s what i’m saying. That’s exactly what I've been saying.” and then turns to me and says, “why did you get food from there?” and before i could answer he said, “it was because of the line, right?” and i said, “yeah, of course”…so the guy behind me keeps razzing me and the guy scooping the food is talking to his friend about the fact that it is all about the line…line this and line that…so, he give me the food and i take it back to the room…i tell paris, maria and lissette the story without telling them which one was the “line” food (it ends up being they are both Greek)…well, 3 of the 4 of us like the non-line guy the best…just goes to show you, lines don’t always mean grub (except in Japan when it comes to Sushi – we can vouch for a line in Tokyo for sure!)

HOW DARE YOU NBC – Medium is one of the best shows on your dumb network!

2009-05-19T16:42:00.001-06:00

Seriously, i get so fed up with the networks for dropping shows that are well written and made and replacing them with crap! I mean, come on, “The Jay Leno Show” are you kidding me??? Why in the world are you taking 5 hours from your PRIMEtime to give to someone that isn’t as funny as single strand of David Letterman’s nappy hair? Leno can’t TOUCH Craig Ferguson for all out ad-lib, timing and overall humor…freak, Conan runs comedic circles around him…HE DOES NOT DESERVE TO BE IN PRIME TIME LET ALONE SUCK 5 HOURS OF IT EACH WEEK…period! He is easily the least funny talk show host on TV and I'm including Jimmy Fallon and Carson Daly in that list! Well, now that i think about it, he ties with Jimmy and Carson…sorry, i got a little carried away there for a second.

So, because of that dumb decision, NBC now has to make space for his show, which means dropping good (no, GREAT) shows like My Name is Earl and Medium. Lissette and I watch both of those regularly and NBC. I guess i can’t be surprised…this is the same network that thought “KATH & KIM” was good enough to put on the same night as 3 of the best shows of all time (30 rock, The Office and, yes, Earl)…KATH & KIM doesn’t deserve to be in the same breath as those 3, let alone the same night…

Apparently, CBS (thank you “Amazing Race”, “How I Met Your Mother” Network) is looking to pick Medium up and put it with Ghost Whisperer – a show i think is a waste of an hour, but I'll take it over losing the show completely! Read about it here: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2009/05/cbs-tv-studios-to-nbc-cancellation-of-medium-is-inexplicable.html

Found Memory #4: Jeepney’s RULE!

2009-04-17T00:59:00.001-06:00

So, i was going to add this to the Philippines post below that i just uploaded, but wanted it in its own “found memory” post…Driving around here always brings back memories from past trips, but one Philippine icon brings back a great little memory of Lissette and I…

My first trip to the Philippines was in 1995. I had just met my beautiful love and we were just barely falling in love…we had only known each other for a few weeks, but it seemed like much longer since we saw each other every day and spent many nights on the phone talking when we were apart. So, when I was getting ready to head home to take a semester of school I told her i wanted to go somewhere fun before I left. I suggested Thailand, since I hadn’t been there and she said, “how about the Philippines”? I really didn’t care, because all i really wanted was to go ANYWHERE with this girl – freak, i would have taken a trip to a Turkish Prison, as long as we could be could be alone somewhere…

So, we decided to spend 2 weeks in Boracay on this amazing little island that takes (from Korea) 2 plane trips, a 3 hour bus trip and an hour boat ride. It might be a little less of a boat ride, i can’t quite remember, but i do remember it took a full day to get there from Korea and i was amazed at how long it took!

The island was amazing and we had an incredible time there. We really fell completely and madly in love over those 2 weeks and i know if we hadn’t of gone and spent that time we most likely wouldn’t have been married, or at least not as soon as we were (5 months later)…We even ended up going back there for our honeymoon, but this post isn’t about that – it is about the transportation to the island…

When we flew into the first airport in Manila, we knew we couldn’t take a shuttle from the airport to the other domestic airport because we were told it was too expensive. So, by walking from inside the airport (shuttle: $40 dollars) to the outside (people asking if we wanted a ride to the other airport for $25) we already saved $15 bucks – we felt pretty good about ourselves at that point…but, we knew we wanted to take a taxi and have them use the meter. That way the driver would be honest (boy, were we naive). I’ve been here a ton since that first trip and have taken taxis in Manila several times and it is ALWAYS a nightmare – i’ve never had an honest taxi driver and almost got into a fistfight with one after he tried to rip us off on our honeymoon – but again, that is a different post.

At this point, we didn’t know how bad the taxi drivers were. So, we got in the back of this taxi and asked the guy to use the meter. He said, “yes yes, get in get in”…so we did and he started driving. He didn’t start the meter and both of us are like, “hey, meter – yo, meter” and finally while driving he handed us a thick binder with all of these numbers on it. I didn’t understand what it was and asked him and he said, “price sheet.” Lissette yelled, “STOP THE CAR” and he was right in the middle of the road and he stopped and we got out in the middle of traffic.

We were pretty upset at him and tried looking for another taxi, when we saw these vehicles driving all around with writing on the sides. We tried to read what was written and lissette found one that showed “Dom. Airport” on it, so we ran after it and once it stopped we jumped in the back. We asked a lady how much it was and she said, “5 pesos” – which at the time was about 2 and 1/2 cents!!! WE WERE DYING…ever since then I have LOVED Jeepney’s because they are very cool (covered in tons of crazy junk and writing) and cheap cheap cheap!!! Plus, kicking it with the locals is great as well…

Here is a picture of a couple of Jeepneys from yesterday when El and I went to the Shawarma shop (see previous post “geek heaven”). These are REALLY plain looking ones compared to most…you just jump in back and pass the money through the window between the back and cab and then jump out at your stop.

Here is another picture of us driving next to one and you can see the writing on the side (the route it is taking)…you can also see the line of them in the right hand lane – as far as you can see forward they are jeepneys…

This is what i mean by “covered in tons of crazy junk and writing” – love the BENZ symbol!

My Phil’s Trip – geek heaven!

2009-04-17T00:12:00.001-06:00

WOW, 2 posts in less than 5 months – i must have lost my mind…i promise this one will have pictures for all of your wordphobic people that think i say to much and show too little (you know who you are my love :-)

So, I have a lot of different jobs and responsibilities at work, but i have to say that one of my absolute favorite responsibilities are my trips to the Philippines. I’ve been coming here for the past 8 years, sometimes twice a year, and I LOVE IT…i LOVE flying, i LOVE airports (i know i’m crazy), I LOVE THE FACTORY AND EVERYONE HERE…If i didn’t miss my family SO MUCH, especially my love lissette, i’d want to stay here a month or more! I love these trips that much!!!

The Philippines is always so consistent…it is always hot and humid…the people are always nice and happy, smiling and laughing constantly…the factory is a BUZZ with workers and watching our hard work at home turn into uniforms is the best…

I didn’t take a ton of pictures this time because my phone died and i didn’t have a charger for a while, but i did get a picture of two of my favorite things…

FAVORITE THING #1: I like to plan my 2 week trips around a holiday, so i can spend the first week (while the workers are gone) holed up in my “cave” of a room surrounded by 5 computers at a time that i am cleaning up, formatting, updating, fixing, etc…i’ll finish one – take it downstairs – grab another and bring it upstairs to keep at it…I will work for hours and hours, not really knowing the time of day since i’m in the middle of the factory with no outside light coming in and i basically work until i collapse from exhaustion…i’ll catch about 3 – 4 hours of sleep – get up and do it again until i collapse…all of the time i have the music cranked and the computers a hummin and i’m in “geek heaven”…

I get a ton done while they are gone, so when they get back i can set it all up and then spend my second week making sure they are right, fixing others that I didn’t finish up during the first week, and working with them on things like Inventory, website, reports, etc…

This is when I first arrived and started setting things up

Here is a shot just before my camera died. I only have 3 computers setup in this view so far, but you can see how i’m doing it…under the monitor is a KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) switch…this allows me to just use a single Keyboard/Monitor/Mouse for all of the systems and when I want to switch to a different one it is just a matter of pushing a button. This makes things VERY efficient and takes up a ton less space (not having 5 monitors, keyboard and mice is nice!)

You will also notice the bottle of coke…they buy me a case when i first get here and because i’m working 20 + hour days it is a requirement to have the fridge fully stocked :-)

This trip I’ve spent a lot of time this time working on the Embroidery computers. They bought a new 20 head embroidery machine and needed their Embroidery computer cleaned up and a 2nd one setup for that room so they could work faster. This took quite a while for me since i ran into some issues, but I have it working well and am glad my work here translates into making them more productive and having things go faster (which means we can make more product, which equals more money – economics 101 anyone???)

Here is the new 20 head embroidery machine.

They are building a room to put this and the other 2 machines in (top of the picture in the back corner).

This is the current embroidery room. On the left is the 6 head and on the right is the 4 head. In the middle are a bunch of hilarious embroiderers…

Here is a picture taken, believe it or not, out the window of my room right above my bed. They are moving the cutters upstairs to make room for the embroidery area they are building, so i wake up each morning to them moving tables, inventory, etc. upstairs.

FAVORITE THING #2:

The first week that i’m here i’m all alone at the factory, which i love, but since I don’t like to leave the cave while i have all of these prime hours to work uninterupted, i don’t get out much. I do have a car and can go out to eat wherever i want, but i really like being holed up in the cave with the music cranked and the computers a hummin’…

So, when people return I love going out to see the outside world in the form of lunch! I really don’t like how far we have to go to find anything decent, but i love going with people to lunch. This trip I was lucky enough to go with several different people over the week (ron, el and kuya)…hanging out with them and talking about their lives and my life is the best…then coming back to the office and hearing them laugh and seeing them smile (especially if i bring all of them doughnuts) rocks…

So, one of my FAVORITE places here is a little shop that is next door to our old factory. Our factory used to be located on Fields Ave (famous street in the Philippines where all of the “working girls” are and there are tons of Go Go clubs all up and down the street. You can see these perv old men walking hand in hand with these young girls all over the place….yuck!) – So, we were right in the middle of that, and there was this little shop right next door to our old factory that sold Shawarma’s. I’ve had Shawarma’s from various places and cultures, but these are by far my favorite. We went there yesterday and I ordered 4 (which is a ton and I had to give one to El because I couldn’t finish them all, but i usually only get back to eat there once while i’m here and I want to make sure i get my fill.) I love the owner because he always remembers me (even when I forget his name)…

Ah, Shawarma’s…you can see they only cost about a dollar (55 peso’s) and it is worth every penny!!!

Here I am with Mr. Shawarma himself (Jun is his name)…he is great…i have no idea how he works in the heat, standing right in front of those 2 fires behind the meat!!! I was there for only about 30 seconds waiting for El to take this picture and I think i have 3rd degree burns from the experience…

Here I am showing off my finished plate…do i look STUFFED??? Trust me, I AM!!!

Found Memory #3: dumping a girl

2009-04-16T11:21:00.001-06:00

So, you know how 16 is an awkward age for pretty much anyone? Well, i had a pretty embarrassing experience trying to impress a girl that i just remembered.

When I turned 14 (in 1982), I attended EFY and loved it...i went back when i was 15 and again, had an excellent time. Well, when I turned 16 i decided to go to “Singing Entertainer” which was also at BYU, but was a week long “workshop” with BYU’s Young Ambassadors. Yeah, i spent my summers during my 16th and 17th years singing show tunes at BYU, what’s it too ya? :-)

So, i LOVED this as well and one of the reasons i probably liked it more than EFY had everything to do with the fact that there were only about 100 kids (EFY had several hundred, if not 1,000’s – I'm guessing about that number and could be way off, but hey, i was 14 – a crowed of 20 looked like a multitude to me back then)…

So, only 100 kids…oh, did i mention 95 of them were girls? And the other 4 boys had NO CHANCE…seriously, who would want the other 4 – they sang show tunes during their summers…

Yeah, so i loved Singing Entertainer. We practiced dancing, sang songs and hung out together. Well, there was this one girl…sigh…ok, i can’t for the life of me remember her name, but she sang a solo during the week (that ended in a concert for our families) – it was “I got no strings” from Pinocchio and i thought she sounded really really good (plus, she was hekka cute – how’s that for Utah slang)…

Well, i tried to spark up something with her and it seemed to be going OK, but i couldn’t tell if she liked me or not…until one night. We were hanging out with a few of the other kids, you know – singing around a piano (what’s it too ya???) and we all decided to go across campus and get a drink from the dorms…we went outside and she jumped on my back so i could give her a piggyback across the parking lot…i started forward, excited she was showing me this kind of attention because that meant I WAS IN BABY…and then i stepped off the curb…

At which point i pitched forward, dumping her on the asphalt, causing her to skin her hands pretty bad. Well, lets just say she wasn’t too happy with me and her attentions were directed elsewhere for the remainder of the week.

me so lame

2008-12-10T14:54:00.002-07:00

So, i have yet to post an update to our trip...several of you (laura!) have pointed this out - i know - i know...i will get my pics organzied and up soon, i hope - but can't promise...

In the meantime, please enjoy a couple of new quotes from my kids...man, they are classic...

Big 4.0 v 1

2008-11-10T19:18:00.001-07:00

Well, we are on a bus heading for Stratford-Upon-Avon (Shakespeare's birthplace) and it has already been quite the crazy adventure. Our original plan was to land at Gatwick airport and head right up to Stratford, but while at the airport in Atlanta Lissette went to take a picture of something cool at the airport using our brand new Nikon D90 camera (woo hoo!) and it wouldn't turn on. After some detective work we realized there wasn't a battery in it. I'd put it on the charger the night before and it didn't get packed.

So, I sat down at the airport and looked online for a Nikon camera shop in London. I found one that seemed like it would work, so we made note of the address and boarded the plane.

I normally LOVE flying and stock up on books, music, laptop and magazines - not to mention munchies and soda. But, for the flight to London I was exhausted because i'd been up until 4:00 am Thursday and Friday night and Saturday night before our flight i didn't go to bed at all, but stayed at the office all night working. Needless to say, i was beat! The first leg, from SLC to Atlanta was fully booked and Lissette and I didn't get to sit together. I took 14th, 3rd and then 1st place in the in-flight trivia game against other people on the plane before going into retirement :-) Then the lady next to me spilled her water all over her and me (mostly soaking my butt)...thankfully it was just water.

So, the flight to London I was absolutely hammered, but wanted to watch Arrested Development with Lissette. I brought season 2 with us, but couldn't make it through very many episodes (i kept nodding off), so i tried to sleep in the seats and it was the worst! So, i laid on the floor and slept quite fitfully, dreaming people were just about to step on my feet, or worse, my head.

The original plan, as I said, was to just go to Stratford from the airport. But because we had to buy a new battery and charger we needed to go into London. So, we bought train tickets for the trip (80 bucks!) an umbrella since it was pouring (26 bucks!), stored our luggage at the train station (40 bucks!) and then took a taxi to the shop (10 bucks, but the highlight of the day...they are so cool inside and why the rest of the "civilized" world hasn't caught on to having a ton of room inside a taxi is beyond me)...then we bought the battery (100 bucks!) and a charger (60 bucks!) and realized we had to wait until 6:30 for our Stratford bus, basically spending the whole day and 316 bucks! We shan't forget our charger again, I'm sure of that!

We went to an excellent little Cafe and got the best Hot Chocolate I've ever had and some Tiramisu (that was pretty bad) and a little caramel cookie. I was still exhausted, having only slept on and off for a couple of hours, so we moved from our table to a leather couch and i laid back to rest. I was OUT - sleeping for about an hour while Lissette read her new birthday book from Troy and Daph (The Poisonwood Bible)...so far she is loving it. We then went to buy tickets to Paris for Wednesday on the Chunnel (train that goes under the English Channel.)

We had to RUN for our bus with all of our luggage since it took longer than expected to get the tickets in another part of town. We are now on the bus and Lissette is out cold next to me and i'm still pretty beat! But, we are so excited to be here. We REALLY miss our children though and I can't wait to send them an e-mail when we get there (if they have, as Lissette call's it "Wii-Fee" :-) So cute!

I'm SO excited to be here, even after the detour and not having showered for over 30 hours...man, i stink! But, this is going to be such an amazing trip - no matter what happens.

To explain the title and for those of you that don't know what we are doing here - Lissette and I are going to London and Paris for my 40th birthday present. I love being married to Lissette and the fact that I met her while traveling through Asia was the perfect way to meet. We both have such a love of travel (or as Tristan calls it, "field trips") and will save whatever money we can to take trips (but most of the time it fills up our credit cards). We love traveling with our children, but there is something about going just the two of us that really "cleanses" ourselves. I love the fact that our hobby is traveling and, although there are many less expensive hobbies to be sure, nothing brings more joy into our lives then visiting this amazing world God has created for us. We are so blessed in our life with our family, health and job. To be able to travel to the places we go is such an incredible blessing in and of itself, that I look at a day like today, where things didn't go anywhere near as planned, and think - who cares, I'm having a blast! Every second is an adventure. We have several things planned for the next two weeks and can't wait to see what going from point A to point B brings. It isn't always the destination (a play, for example) that is the most memorable time of the day - but it might be getting lost along the way that could change you, your life and your thoughts as you look at the world - and that's the beauty of traveling. That is why we weren't upset at having to detour through London - we were on an adventure, no matter where it took us.

Here is a shot Lissette took of the Hot Chocolate...i could go for some right now -i'm so hungry and should be sleeping right now!

Here is a shot looking out the Cafe window. One Londoner apologized for the weather being so bad (isn't London historically known for being cold, wet and foggy? :-) I told her I grew up in a state that rained a lot (Oregon) and I loved the weather. She looked at me like I was a bit cracked...

Love of music / Love of Sigur Ros

2008-10-04T17:39:00.001-06:00

Not sure if I've mentioned this in a previous post, but I LOVE MUSIC! I can remember, as a child, running home from elementary school to listen to music, going to my room after dinner to listen to music and listening to music to go to sleep. Going to sleep to music wasn't easy in the 70's, since I didn't have an iPod clock radio (like I do now). So, i started with a black portable radio/tape player with one speaker and i would put it under my pillow at night to sleep to. This was a bit difficult, because it wasn't small, so my head was at an angle - but i was in music heaven! I eventually took it apart and rigged it so i could wire the speaker into a large home stereo speaker i got from somewhere and it would sound pretty good cranked up! I spent many a night listening to Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, Aerosmith, etc...i was in elementary school, so this was the mid 70's...

Well, as i grew up I also found more and more bands I loved. I would call the local radio station every day and request songs and then listen to the radio for hours hoping they would play what I requested. They rarely did, because even then I had a little bit of a different taste in music and I loved what wasn't always mainstream. I should post a "Found Memory" about the time I took the Pink Floyd 7" single "Another Brick in the Wall" to my 5th grade choir class in '79. I asked the teacher to play the flip-side ("One of My Turns") instead of the A side which was on the radio every hour of every day. It was music sharing day and everyone had brought something to play. The class knew I brought Pink Floyd and were pretty upset I didn't want her to play the song on the radio, but I wanted to play the other side. I remember thinking, "this is such a good song - they should all hear it". Well, after about 30 seconds they started complaining and I finally lost hope of turning them on to anything and told the teacher to flip it over, mumbling to myself only loud enough for the teacher to hear, "let them hear the same song they've heard 100 times".

When I was about 12 I asked my brother Price if I could go with him to a youth church dance. He DJ'd them and I wanted to help. He let me come and I helped him carry things and setup (as much as a 12 year old could). I was completely and totally hypnotized watching him play songs and seeing people dance to what he chose. Watching, I knew that is what I wanted to do when I got older. Price (being the cool brother that he is) asked me if i wanted to play the last song so he could go out and dance. This meant I would be doing a "segue" which is tying 2 songs together without a break. I was so nervous, but because i'd watched him all night I knew I could do it. I remember my palms were all sweaty as i put the needle on the other album and held it - waiting for the end of the first one. I let the 2nd one go, slid the volume from one to the other and it was perfect! I was so excited i hadn't messed up and when I looked up and saw Price watching me he was smiling and gave me the thumbs up. Like I said - I was hooked.

When I was 15 I was approached by a mobile DJ company to join them as one of their 2 DJ's. It was the beginning of my DJ "career" which spanned 3 states, 2 Radio Stations, countless clubs, weddings, parties and 10 years of my life. I loved almost all of it (except for having to play what other people wanted at dances - I still hadn't changed from being a child in choir class). I was a Program Director for 2 different radio stations (one of them, KUNV, was the #1 College Radio station in the country while I was there as the Assistant Music Director).

So, flash forward to now (trust me - i could go on and on) and to what I experienced last weekend. Lissette and I went to see one of the best concerts i've seen in my life. I've never counted how many concerts I've seen, but I'd have to say I've seen several hundred bands live. I also had the privilege of interviewing many of them on the radio as well as for local entertainment magazines, introducing them onstage before shows, partying with them, etc.

So, what made this concert so amazing? First off, it is a band I have such a deep love for it is almost on a different plane then the other music I listen to. They are called Sigur Ros. Their music is completely indescribable (trust me, I tried to explain their sound to Dusty the other day and failed miserably. I made them sound like a heavenly choir with guitars - which they aren't :-). Their music is lifting, moving, powerful. They are from Iceland and the lead singer sings mostly in falsetto. Words do not do them justice. I've loved this band for many years and have always dreamed of seeing them live. We even planned a cruise to Iceland for our 10 year wedding anniversary 2 years ago, so we could see them, but ended up changing it to a Scandinavian Cruise when we couldn't find a good route to Reykjavik. But each time they toured near me it didn't "line up" with when I was in town. Well, this time it did...all i can say is - WOW!

The show was at a very cool venue called Saltair which has quite the history (built in 1893, destroyed by fire twice, etc.) and well worth the read...here is a pic of the "3rd" version of the place.

The Saltair - the venue for the Sigur Ros show

It was a great place to see the show and out in the middle of nowhere. We wanted to arrive early cause I really wanted to either be right up front or in a place to see the band really well. I'd never seen a show in this venue, so i didn't know what the place would be like.

Our great friend Jackie was good enough to watch our kids so we could go and we headed up to the place, but because we also wanted to eat somewhere nice without the kids (Cheesecake Factory - yummmm) and with driving, etc. we didn't get there as early as i would have liked. We were still early, but there were already a couple hundred people when we arrived. Right as we walked in we realized we wouldn't be very close to the stage and started looking around for a place to see them well. We noticed some box area's upstairs to the left of the stage that looked empty, so we went to the stairs and met the "bouncer" guy. He said they were the VIP boxes and they normally went for $300+ a concert, but since they didn't sell out for this show he'd let us go up for $25 each. We jumped on it (since the show was only $25 to begin with and this is one of our favorite bands - $50 for a show seemed just fine to us) and we went up to look at the room. There wasn't anyone in the box and one corner had a perfect view of the stage. The guy said there was someone that paid in full for the box, but that he didn't want to be in there with his girlfriend all alone and to get more people in there that would enjoy it. So, we had our good seating and were ready.

The opening band was Parachutes, whom i LOVE and they are also from Iceland. They sound VERY similar to Sigur Ros and there were 7 of them on stage making very cool music. Some of them looked very very young. Lissette pointed out that none of them were wearing shoes :-)

After they left the stage we got a call from our friend Wayne and Lissette went out to the hall to talk to him. She looked out the window over the parking lot while talking to him and saw 3 members of Parachutes riding these cool looking, funky bikes around the parking lot - FUN!

Eventually Sigur Ros came on stage. The show was incredible. Our view was excellent and the music was overwhelming. I texted my brother Eric (which i do from any concert i'm at) and told him i was in music heaven. He told me he'd seen them the night before at Red Rocks in Colorado and that I would be blown away by the last song. I thought he meant the last song where Parachutes joined them on stage all beating drums for a rendition of "Gobbledigook" - which was AMAZING...but, he said, "no - after the encore - you will be blown away"...

So, after they left the stage for about 3 minutes they came back and played 2 more songs...the last song was about 15 minutes and was extremely hypnotic, powerful, overwhelming and left me completely speechless...I can't describe it very well...if you know their music, you have some idea - but I know their music and I still wasn't prepared for how amazing it was...

After they left the stage it was still deafening from everyone screaming and cheering. The band came out and did something I've never seen from my 100's of shows. They lined up at the edge of the stage and waved at all of us, mouthing "thank you" and they looked genuinely touched. Then they locked arms, bowed, and waved some more (even waved at me up high in my perch)...they eventually left and that was the show.

Here are a few pics from my crappy phone...below those I've also posted a few songs for you to get a feel for what their music is like. Feel free to listen to it, love it.

Opening band Parachutes - a little blurry, but you get the idea...

Even though my camera on my phone SUCKS, this one turned out really cool in an "artistic" sort of way. The lead singer Jónsi (bent over in the middle) played his guitar with a bow-string for much of the show. The drummer (Ágúst) was wearing a crown.

Here is another shot. I didn't alter either of these in Photoshop or anything like that. I believe the color difference had to do with the lighting. Both are very cool i think. You can see the stage is COVERED with confetti. This song was the final song of the night, but during the final song of the main set they had the girl members of Parachutes shooting confetti cannons into the crowd and tons of it was blowing out from the sides and dropping from the ceiling. people were COVERED by it.

Here is a shot of the confetti dropping from the ceiling, being shot out by the band and other cannons. You can't even see the band or crowd through it.

Here is another pic from earlier in the show when it just dropped from the ceiling. Not nearly as much as they shot out later, but people were going pretty crazy. This is from a different angle in the box we were in, so you can see the massive speakers in the way.

Here is another shot of the band where you can see the front of the crowd as well as some people up in the other balcony. That side was the "bar" side and was already packed when we got there.

Here is a shot of the crowd. It took several tries to get this because the lights were flashing and I had to get it timed perfectly. This is only about 1/2 of the people that were there...

Here are some MP3's of the band. If you love, buy an album...if you don't, delete them from your computer...you just gotta crank them up and enjoy them...this is my way of playing "DJ" from my chair and trying to get some of that feeling back when I couldn't turn my 5th grade class onto the B-Side of a Pink Floyd 7"...

SONG	ALBUM
Gobbledigook.mp3	Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
Glósóli.mp3	Takk...
Við spilum endalaust.mp3	Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
Sæglópur.mp3	Takk...
Svefn-g-englar.mp3	Ágætis Byrjun
Popplagið.mp3	( )

Running @ 1/4 power

2008-09-23T11:35:00.001-06:00

My desktop died last week! It has taken me a while to get it going again, and I'm just working on my little ol' laptop and after having a desktop connected to 4 (!) monitors i feel like I'm running at 1/4 speed! Here are "before and after" pics of what I'm used to and what I'm using now...

Here is what I'm used to using - 4 monitors on one computer

Here is what I've been using - one monitor on my laptop...ah, poor me :-)

I get my system back on Wednesday, so I'll be back to full speed by weeks end...

Quote Props to Jackie!

2008-09-16T16:02:00.002-06:00

I just wanted to give "props" to Jackie for giving me the idea of putting quotes on the right hand side of my blog. Her quotes are the best! And because i love Jackie, i want to be just like her :-)

Hence, my cool quotes!

Found Memory #2

2008-09-07T13:58:00.001-06:00

Incase you don't know what Found Memory is, please see my previous post (Found Memory #1). I will eventually move these to a site I'm setting up called, "FoundMemory.Com" - so everyone can post to it, but in the meantime - here is my next Found Memory:

Found Memory #2: Leathernose...

We moved to Oregon from California when I was 8. Each year we would drive back to California to visit my grandparents and while visiting we would go to their church. There was a girl at their church that I had a little crush on and for some reason could never bring myself to talk to her. I just admired her from afar.

When I turned 14 my friend Jeff Bennett invited me to spend a week with him and his parents in Hawaii. I spent every waking minute outside in the sun, so when I got back I was very tan.

Right after I returned from Hawaii we went to California to visit my Grandparents and I decided on the drive down that I was going to finally talk to that girl. I felt older and more mature, having been to Hawaii without my family, and knew I was ready. So, we got to church and the first part of church is Sacrament, which lasts an hour, and then Sunday School. I was waiting for Sunday School because we would both be in the same class.

During Sacrament I could see her a few pews in front of me and I started getting nervous. She really was very cute. About 15 minutes before the end of Sacrament I went to the bathroom. When I walked in and looked at myself in the mirror I knew I couldn't talk to her that day.

While I was waiting for Sacrament to be over I must have been picking the dead skin off my nose. In the bathroom I noticed what looked like a lepers nose on my face. I had peeled off huge chunks of very thick dead skin and underneath it was very soft, red and shiny. The parts I hadn't peeled off yet were really dark brown and leathery looking. I tried to peel off the rest of it, but some of it wasn't ready to be peeled off and parts started to bleed. I stopped trying, put tissue on my nose to quell the bleeding and figured it was hopeless.

I walked out of the bathroom just after Sacrament finished and walked right into her! She was coming out of the chapel right when I turned the corner. She just smiled at me, said "hi" and went around me.

I'm pretty sure I didn't say anything back, I was in such a state of shock as she walked away. I never did talk to her that day and I never saw her again.

Found Memory #1

2008-09-07T13:33:00.001-06:00

I was thinking today about how my life (like I'm sure most of everyone's) is filled with "found memories"...those times when we had something good, bad, crazy happen and then we forgot about them until later in life...or, cool stories we haven't really told everyone...or not cool, but interesting. You get the idea.

So, I've decided to throw in a little bit of a regular posting. I shall call it "Found Memories" and add a numerical value to it making it that much more official. Ah, what fun we shall have...in fact, i like the name so much i just registered foundMemory.com so i could use it in the future as its own website playground of Found Memories (hmmm, maybe i should register foundMemories.com as well?)...wow, first post and i've already gone overboard - that isn't like me at all!

So, here it is...

FOUND MEMORY #1: Supermarket BAM!

I'm about 5 years old and playing "tag" in the super-market with Scottie. My mom watches Scottie during the day and he and I find ourselves getting into trouble quite a bit. So, we are playing a combination of "tag" and "hide and seek" all over the store while my mom shopped. I was in isle 4a (I'm making that part up, but it will help progress the story if I have an isle number) and I had just tagged Scotty next to the spaghetti sauce. I remember laughing and RUNNING away from him up the isle towards the milk and then turning the corner and heading down isle 5a. I was looking behind me the whole time for him trying not to get touched and just as I turned around to see where i was going...

BAM

I ran full force into a shopping cart coming the other way, which laid me out flat. The next thing I remember was being in the car with someone holding a towel over my forehead going to the hospital. I don't think I blacked out or anything, but I don't remember my mom getting a towel from the manager, blood on the isle or getting into the car or any of that.

So, 5 stitches later I was back home playing with Scottie and all was well.

Oh, and the lady pushing the cart that knocked me flat and split open my forehead creating a scar still visible to this day? That was none other than my mom. Small world.

FINALLY...MY SHAKESPEAREAN POST ARRIVETH!

2008-08-27T20:23:00.001-06:00

So, i find myself doing exactly what I told myself not to do...don't let yourself make excuses for not having time to post! I've probably been more busy at work during this time of my Pro Look career than at any time before...there are several reasons for this which I wont bore you with the details, but needless to say if I'm not here at the office working late I'm at home working or trying to be a good husband/father and couch potato...the couch usually doesn't get me until late which means I'm watching something late which means I'm going to bed late which means I'm tired when I come in and start the process all over again!

SO, I saw that my last post was before our Shakespeare trip and realized I have the pictures here and throwing them up with some witty prose shouldn't take any time at all! Alas, my witty prose isn't quite witty enough for me, but I must move on!

So, our trip...we had such high expectations of this trip. Lissette and I have been going to the Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City for nigh unto a quarter score of years and have always looked forward to it. We did take the kids once about 3 years ago and it wasn't bad, but we do like when it is just us two (Bed and Breakfast and all)...

Well, this year we are going to London and France for my 40th birthday in November, and felt that we should take the kids to the festival since we weren't going to Mazatlan this year and haven't had a trip with them other than Colorado.

We bought our tickets last year for this years plays (you get better seats that way :-) and we had 3 plays lined up. "Fiddler on the Roof", "Othello" and "The School for Wives". We talked about it and thought it would be fun to have me take Paris to Fiddler (Tristan was too young) and Lissette would stay with the other two that night.

So, it started out that way. I took Paris to Fiddler and we had the perfect night. Paris was SO CUTE and was so excited to go. I had bought her the music for her iPod before the play and told her to "memorize" the songs. I am a FIRM believer that if you know the music in a play/concert it will be 500 times better. Well, she took it literally and listened to the songs almost every waking minute before the play. Her, Tristan and Esher all sang the songs together on the way down to Cedar.

We got to the theater and I walked her to our seats. She was SO EXCITED that we were front row in the center. The seats were amazing and when it started I kept sneaking glances at her. She was so focused on what was going on and then during the songs she was singing along! At one point during Matchmaker she turned to me and said, "Dad, she sang that part backwards. It is supposed to be 'no dowry, no money, no family background' and she sang 'no money, no dowry, no family background' which is backwards." After giggling at her enthusiasm (and trying to shush her for "whispering" so loud), she put her head on my shoulder and said, "Dad, I don't want this to end. I'm having too much fun." I felt EXACTLY the same way.

Here we are before leaving. I am a very lucky father!

To top it off, the play was INCREDIBLE! I can't say enough about that production. Acting: Superb. Direction: Superb. Set: Superb. It was easily one of the best plays I've ever seen (not just at the festival, but of any stage production.) It doesn't hurt that song for song it has the BEST music of any musical I can think of. Every single song is perfect.

It really was the perfect evening. But, that is where the "perfect" left our trip unfortunately. When I got back to the room it was quite late and we went to bed shortly after that. When we woke up Tristan had a fever and was nauseous. So, we decided to trade in the "Othello" tickets the next day and Lissette would take Paris to see "School for Wives" that night, while I stayed with the kids. Well, Paris ended up being a TOTAL BUGGER that whole day. She was acting very selfish, whiny and ungrateful after having such a wonderful night with me the night before and a potential wonderful night with her mom ahead of her. So, I took back the other tickets and traded them in for next year and Lissette stayed "home" with us.

Did I mention "home" was the worst hotel I've stayed at since my honeymoon? Our honeymoon hotel had a shattered door frame (from what looked like intruders kicking at the deadbolt) and blood stains on the frame and carpet, so it would be hard to be worse than that place. But, this place took second for sure. They had a "pool", so the next day when Tristan's fever was under Advil control, we went swimming. After about 10 minutes all of our eyes were burning and it was very hard to breath. It was a horrible mixture of water/chlorine. Then the sun block Lissette brought but had never used caused a skin irritation of rash/itching to us. Lissette, sadly, got it the worse on her face.

Then, to finish our "perfect" trip Esher caught the Tristan bug and threw up in our new car on the way home. Poor guy threw up 5 times on the way home and once he didn't hit the bag but spewed on the seat.

We did take pictures of the fun times though just so when we get old and our memory goes we can look back and truly believe it was the perfect trip :-)

If you have ever lived in Cedar, you will appreciate this picture. If you haven't, let me assure you those that have will be drooling right about now. Best sandwich this side of the Sandwich Islands (of course I'm talking about the Crews Creation). It also has the BEST Vanilla Dr. Pepper this side of Dublin, Texas. The place is called Top Spot and I ate there 4 times in 3 days.

Besides good sandwiches and vanilla Dr. Pepper, i was able to teach my kids the fine art of "big" video games (not XBox, Wii type of games, but the actual large console). I LOVE Tristan face in this picture. By the look of her face apparently I'm "kicking ass" :-).

The kids decided that the "Candy Claw" machine was more their speed. I didn't mind them playing it because it kept grabbing at candy and dropping until you got something (unlike the "other" claw machine that is evil...see previous post.)

Tristan was so cute...she is collecting these little tiny "monkeys" and wanted to buy so many of them. When she was sick i bought her a few so she could try and complete her collection. She kept getting the same ones over and over again, but was still all smiles.

Here are Tristan and Esher playing Candyland with mommy while Daddy and Paris were at the play. Esher picked up the best card in the pile his first card and ended up winning after 2 more moves. I'm taking this kid to Vegas!

Even though we canceled the other two plays, we still took them to the Green Show which was a fun performance before each play.

Here is one of the "wenches" before the show. She was walking around, speaking in this terribly fake English accent and trying to sell candies. She really was quite outgoing and I appreciated that she wasn't afraid to yell out at people. We bought suckers for the kids and laughed at her mildly funny jokes :-)

Our really good friends Brent and Tammy Christensen just happened to be there that weekend as well, so we turned them on to Top Spot and hung with them at the Green Show.

Another Green Show group pic so Tammy can save them both after reading this.

After the Green Show we kicked it on the lawn and played Sorry. Tristan didn't play because she wasn't feeling well and eventually fell asleep on my shoulder. I love carrying that girl (not just because she is SO LITE but because she knows how to snuggle up against my neck.)

On our way back to the cars the kids climbed up this little entrance way to one of the buildings. I love that they love to climb. My mom, on that other hand, would be DYING right about now.

Speaking of climbing :-) The last day we took a drive up to Cedar Breaks. Even though Tristan wasn't quite done being sick, Esher was starting his illness and Paris was still being a MAJOR BUGGER, I didn't want it to ruin the whole trip :-) So, here is a shot of the girls on the sign.

Across the road from the sign was this AMAZING field of flowers. Lissette wanted to get a pic and here you go.

And another...

And one of the whole Fam Damnly (as my dad says)

And one of our little "flower girl" after Lissette adorned her head with some of them. This picture is SO STINKING CUTE. That girl is absolutely gorgeous and totally photogenic. Yes, I am bias - sue me! I must not be alone because everybody that walked past her with the flowers in her hair kept stopping, telling her how cute she was and giggling with her.

Here we are at the canyon. All the way up to the canyon I kept telling the kids how amazing and fun it was. Cedar Breaks is pretty overwhelming. But, that didn't stop Tristan from asking, "is this it? is this the fun?" Esher had to parrot her like he is want to do.

A shot of the canyon. Hard to tell how deep it is from here but take my word for it - it is deeeep.

one more shot of the canyon. I was going to put a picture of Esher's pile of puke which was 10 feet from where I'm standing, but decided you didn't need that visual and this was much more apropos.

China!

2008-08-13T13:23:00.014-06:00

I really have fallen behind with my posting and this one will be VERY brief because I'm trying to get things together here before going to Cedar City for our annual trip to the Shakespearean Festival.

So, i just wanted to QUICKLY (nowhere near my long prose) say how much i've LOVED watching the Olympics. I was up working on a computer last night until 4:00 am and didn't realize what time it was because I was watching the games.

I am especially excited because it is in China and Lissette and I LOVE China (we even named Tristan after a city in China - her middle name is Xian which is where the Terracotta Army was found). We've been there several times and really enjoy the culture, country and food. The people were wonderful and we were planning on going to the games but things didn't work out. After watching the Opening Ceremonies we were pretty bummed we didn't make a bigger effort.

I know there is some controversy because of China's human rights history and i'm not excusing that at all. We aren't perfect here in the "Promise Land" either. No country is perfect (although Brunei comes close :-), but knowing there are 1.3 billion people that are just trying to live and survive and only a very very very small fraction of those are the leaders who've made some horrible decisions (read Wild Swans - one of my favorite books - for an overview of 20th century Chinese History and Mao's government), makes me wish more people would go and visit this amazing land to meet the rest of the 1.3 billion and find that common ground.

Well, a little longer than I'd thought at the beginning, but NO WHERE NEAR what I really want to say about China. I absolutely love that country! And, i'm SO EXCITED that they got the Olympics and hopefully are showing people what a great land and culture they are.

For those of you that missed the opening ceremony i'd try and find someone that has it in High Def (come on over anytime to watch it at my place)...if you can't, then here are some highlights to show you how cool it was...these little videos don't really even come close to doing it justice, but they do show you some of the coolness of it...

These videos will probably stop working in a while. I searched for the Opening Ceremony and found a TON of them that were taken down. I was surprised to even find these...enjoy!

Man, i really wanted to be there...100 degrees and all!

Not sure how different this one is...it is hard for me to watch this small - sorry...

Old friends and losing touch

2008-08-02T19:44:00.002-06:00

UPDATE: Thee wrote to me, so i have her information...i love this blog :-)

As against social sites as I've been in the past (HATED MySpace for the longest time - even after having my own page and junk), I've really enjoyed keeping up on everyone's lives and putting my thoughts and pics up for all to see. I'll still have a small part of my heart loathing the whole MySpace experience but that is probably because i'm too old for the kid look of it (although i did get to reunite with some great old friends on it because i have an account), but I've been really grooving on this blogging thing (still not enough pictures for my woman, but what can I do - i like to type and can pretty much type like the wind at around 100 WPM)...

This blog has totally paid off this past week since i got a comment from an old friend that i completely lost touch with. I'm a bit sad she didn't leave me any contact info and this post is partially to let her know that I'd like her to leave a comment with her e-mail address (don't worry, I'll delete it after i save it so it wont be there for all to see for too long :)

Her name is Kathy, but i always called her Thee...we were amazing friends for a VERY short time in Vegas...I had just returned from my mission and met her at a singles dance. I was instantly drawn to her because she reminded me of my friends from High School...you know the type - they look like they have the Cure going through their head on repeat, got the eyeliner on dark and the clothes even darker...her hair was dyed and she was wearing the coolest clothes, boots and i believe a hat - but I could be miss-remembering that one....This was in 1990, so she was pretty much the only person there that looked like that and it still wasn't a common look in those days, no matter how much my small circle of friends tried to show everyone how cool it looked :-) So, i went up to her and started chatting with her and we ended up hanging out a ton after that, up until she went back to Oregon. We went to the very first Lollapalooza in Arizona, road tripped to Provo and just hung out listening to good music and talking about good music...we were really close to Wayne and Ann from Vegas as well and i have great memories of that time. I even went to Oregon a couple of times to visit her after she moved back home.

So, I am glad she got a hold of me again because I've always felt a bit sad at the way we lost touch. I was not a very good friend to her the last few times we talked, and i've always felt bad about that. She was going through some difficult times and I dropped my end of the friendship relay baton. Lissette and I drove up the Oregon Coast and into Portland on a road trip before we had Paris and I called her (the last time we talked), but didn't end up going to see her. I've always felt pretty bad about that and wish I'd gone to see her and kept in touch with her.

So, I'm glad she wrote to me and I'm hoping she reads this and gets me her info...that would be great, but if not just knowing she she read my blog once makes me glad i have it...

Rock on Thee...

Sundance in the Summer

2008-07-28T17:23:00.002-06:00

We decided to try and escape some of the heat and grabbed the Pro Look Sundance passes and headed up the canyon. I was bummed it wasn't as cool as I'd been envisioning, but it was cooler than the 100+ (according to our car thermostat)...

So, we jumped on the Ski Lift and took it as far as we could. The back lift wasn't open, so we just went to the 2nd stop. We had about an hour to hike around, so we looked to the right and realized there was a little "peak" we could climb...we started up one trail that was way too steep (i was slipping) and chose the other (what would Robert Frost say???)

I gotta say, i'm FAT...i was dying on the climb...what was cute was each of the kids had their own unique style of climbing...Tristan was very cautious and worried about bee's (she got stung a few months ago and she thinks bee's are looking for her everywhere)...Paris was in the middle and pointed out steps for us and telling me, "dad - you are doing great...just a little further"...man, i gotta get in shape...Esher was the cutest - he was in front and talked the WHOLE TIME...he kept saying, "it is this way to the top...here we go...we are almost there...oh wait, here is another path...ok, lets go this way..." He didn't stop talking the whole time...SO CUTE...

We'd planned on eating sandwiches lissette made once we reached the top, but we didn't have much time (the lift stops at 7:00) so we grabbed some pics and headed down...when we met the path choices (easy or hard) i wanted to take the easy because i was slipping down the hard part on the way up...but, i was out ruled (who said a family was a Democracy? :-) So, we started down the steep part and the kids slid on their behinds most the way...Lissette and I laughed at them in between our falls...

On the way up...3 cuties and moi

Top of the lift before the hike...

Little Esher showing us the way...our fearless leader!

Here he is (mid-sentence) talking about the path and how far we have left to go...so cute!

We've reached the top (esher, paris and tristan)

The kids sliding down on their backsides...

Sandwiches on the way back down (tristan, paris, esher and my love)

9 Stitches - 2 Weeks later

2008-07-25T09:59:00.001-06:00

I'm pretty amazed at how my eye has healed. Here is a picture of exactly 2 weeks later. I've been putting Vitamin E on it every morning and night and it seems to be helping a lot. Plus, the doctor the sewed me up did a great job (but the girl that unstitched it did a HORRIBLE job - it was bleeding when she was done taking out the stitches)...check it out!

Is it just me or do can you count 3 chins too? Oh, yeah - the scar is pretty small, no?

Even close up you can tell it is getting better faster than I would have guessed.

Daddy Daughter Work Day

2008-07-23T12:06:00.003-06:00

This morning as I was leaving for work I heard crying downstairs. I could tell it was Paris, but had no idea where it was coming from. So, I ran downstairs to find her and heard it coming from the garage. I went to open the garage door, thought it was strange that it was locked, and once it was open she shot into my arms balling. I asked her how she got there and she said, "I came downstairs to surprise you. I set my iPod alarm to get up and I came down here to make a sandwich and get in your car to go to work with you. I played around for a while waiting, but then you didn't come and I locked the door to make it more realistic when you came out and I couldn't get back into the house and I didn't know if you were coming."

My heart broke! Of course I HAD to take her to work with me after all of that (she had packed a lunch, books to read and paper/pencils to draw with in a backpack). So, she is here with me this morning and her first question when we got here was if I minded that she eat her sandwich before lunch since she was starved. I told her I would take her out to lunch, so go ahead and eat it.

Then she asked if she could take out the Garbage :-) A few months ago Paris got in trouble at a play (Saturday's Warriors). We were in the front row and she took a Junior Mint and threw it on the stage where the actors were. Luckily the performers were back towards the middle of the sage and didn't really use the front 1/3 of it, so they didn't step on the mint, but we were pretty upset and disappointed with her. So, we decided her punishment would be 1 week of not staying at her best friend/cousins house (Aubree of course) and 5 days of picking up all of the trash at Daddy's office. We told her this during the intermission. She was upset, of course, and (I feel) ashamed of what she did (it was totally out of character for her). So, I told her that if she went on the stage and got the Junior Mint before the play started again I would reduce her "sentence" to 5 days of no sleep-overs and 3 days of trash. It took a little prodding (and Dad holding her hand) but she did get on the stage and get the mint.

So, the following week she came to the office and had Nikki show her what to do. Then she took out everyone's trash (bathrooms included) each day by herself. She smiled, sang and had a great time with it (which at first I was thinking wasn't proper humility for a punishment, but then thought I love that she is making even chores/punishment fun and that is the type of girl I am proud to know.) So, now when she comes to visit she wants to take out the trash and keeps asking if she can work here when she grows up - working up from trash to being a geek like me :-) I am too proud.

My little trash girl

Daddy's Little Geek with her bag of goodies she packed to "stowaway"

New Layout / Color Sceme

2008-07-21T17:08:00.001-06:00

not done yet...still tweaking...

one of the greatest things ever!

2008-07-18T14:56:00.004-06:00

Ok, so this little girl decided she wanted a stuffed animal from the "Claw Machine"...now, i HATE this machine and mostly because i'm so bad at it and I personally believe it is a huge scam and that claw wouldn't pick up a doll without it being super-glued to its flimsy metal tentacles!!! Like i say, i suck at it and have pumped more than a roll's worth of quarters into it in the name of "winning my girls a bear"...what a sucker!

So, I CHEERED what this little girl did to beat the machine! My favorite part is when the mom shows up and the girl doesn’t come out right away but keeps going higher for a stuffed animal! Classic...

blog music - revisited

2008-07-17T16:14:00.001-06:00

K - after the absolutely overwhelming response i've decided to go with my gut instinct and make it so the music doesn't auto play...so, if you want to groove to some tunes whilst browsing my blog - feel free to scroll to the bottom and hit PLAY before reading...thanks Shelene for tipping the scales with your vote :-)

blog music

2008-07-15T11:09:00.004-06:00

k - i didn't get a lot of people responding to my cut eye post (at least only one person commented - thanks Jane, i can always count on you :) so i wanted to first let people like my parents and others that don't have to have an account to post - you can post without an account if you want (but sign your name)...just click on the "comments" link at the bottom of a post to say something and choose the Name/URL choice to post…I don’t really write this thing for anyone but myself to journal my life, but it is nice to have comments once in a while…

Secondly, I wanted to ask peoples opinion…I have been pretty against having my Blog play music when it loads…I have never been a fan of My Space / Blogs playing music because I usually have music going on my computer already and it is gets all “muddy” through my speakers…but, I did throw up a song on my My Space page from one of my favorite bands (sigur ros) and had a friend thank me for turning him on to that band…I used to be a DJ and turning people on to new music is what i do, so I thought I’d find out what people thought…do you like having music on my page?

I quickly threw a few songs into a playlist and set it on random so you wouldn’t hear the same song every time – but is it distracting or do you like it? Since I love music so much, it wouldn’t be “me” without having something about music on this thing – but maybe have it not “auto-start” so you can click play if you want?

Let me know!

9 Stitches Later

2008-07-12T10:54:00.057-06:00

Ok, it has taken me a few days to post this but you should understand why after you are done reading it…If you want to skip all of the verboseness and go right to the pictures, feel free but BE WARNED: THEY ARE GRAPHIC (sorry Mom :-)...

If you read my post "ouch" from June 26th then you know i love playing softball, but am not the best player on the team. They moved me to 1st because my arm isn't the best but I didn't figure i wasn't very good at catching either until Wednesday night.

Wednesday is our 2nd game of our softball playoffs. We lost the first game (no surprise – we pretty much suck as a team and have only won 2 games all season) so we were in the losing bracket playing at 6:00. Paris was sick so Lissette had to stay home with her and Tristan and I went with Esher to the game. As I left I told lissette that if we won I’d see her at 9:00 and if we lost I’d be home at 7:00. She said, “see you at 7:00” – NO FAITH :-)…

I missed a couple of throws from Dusty that were so close and we figured out that I was covering the bag with my left instead of right foot (rookie mistake) and I was excited to go back out and use my right foot. So this older dude that can’t run very well hit one to shallow center where Brian (Haroldson from Pro Look) was playing. I consciously covered the bag with my right foot, setup waiting for the throw thinking that there was no way Brian would throw it since it was in the outfield. But, he took it on a hop and started running at me. It seemed like he was just about to the dirt and then he wound up and threw it (it seemed and from troy’s account) as hard as he could to get the guy out.

So, I’m standing there waiting for the thing to hit my glove and then it bounces on the dirt and I tried to adjust but it was coming so dang fast and it (according to those watching) took a very funky bounce straight up past my glove. Next thing I know my ears are ringing and I’m on the ground holding my eye (I think I fell pretty hard because my arm is all cut up from where I fell)…

So, I’m laying on the ground holding my eye. That whole part of my face went totally numb, so I couldn’t tell what was hurt or what was going on. My eyes were closed and I was afraid to open them and I kept thinking about my Sunglasses that I got for my birthday that I just spent $40 to fix a broken lens in and how they were busted (I opened my un-hit eye and saw the frames with the missing lens). I was then worried that pieces of glass broke and went into my eye. Troy ran over and told me to remove my hand so he could see if my eye was still in the socket (I guess sometimes the eye will pop out??? Man, that is gross) and I opened it a little bit, saw light and didn’t feel pain and closed it right away.

My eyes were pretty much closed the rest of the time I was on the ground (my hands were dirty and I didn’t want to get dirt in them), so I just heard voices but there was this one guy that was great. Troy said he shoved Troy aside and took over the situation. Troy thinks he was an EMT from the things he was doing (he put my head on my glove, held my arms above my head and started asking me questions and making sure I was conscious and not nauseous). He yelled up at the booth to bring ice quickly and I heard other people around me talking about it being gross and big cut under my eye.

I was just happy my eye was ok, but pissed about my glasses so the only think I said while laying there was, “I broke my frickin glasses.” They got me some Ice and a butterfly band-aid to hold the wound together and Dusty picked me up to carry me to Troy’s truck to go to the Emergency Room.

It was very surreal being carried off the field and I had so many thoughts. Mostly I was upset that we were going to lose the game because Troy and I were leaving and we didn’t have enough players to finish (we were also down by several runs)…plus, it was strange to hear the opposing team clapping as I stood up to walk off (I’ve always thought when watching sports and someone is hurt and gets up after a long time that it is cool both teams/fans clap for the guy – but being the guy getting the claps was very strange.) I was upset that I didn’t catch it and was going through the play in my head over and over to see what I did wrong (I think I even asked Dusty about the bounce while he was walking me to the car.) Mostly I was amazed that it didn’t really hurt at all. It was just numb. I knew once it stopped being numb it would hurt, but I didn’t feel any specific pain (like the cut, etc.).

Troy was surprised I was completely normal going to the ER (“dude, are you in shock? You aren’t acting like you just got slammed in the face” he kept saying.) But, I didn’t hurt and wasn’t disoriented and didn’t have a concussion. Troy kept talking about the sound it made when it hit me. He said the sound was the worst and so loud and he and Dusty raced over to get to me right away knowing it was bad from the sound of it.

So, we get to the hospital and Lissette shows up with the kids. It took a while to get into the suture room and I told them I’d feel better about an X-Ray to make sure there was no glass in my face and that I hadn’t broken any of my cheekbone. The X-Ray came back clean and it was time to stitch me up. The girl came in and gave me (according to Lissette) 30 shots to numb it. I have no problems with needles, so it didn’t bother me but Lissette was dying during that part. It did feel like they were shoving this 1” needle all the way through my cheek to pull it out slowly to put in the lydicane.

The doctor stitched me up with 9 stitches and we went on our way. And all Lissette could say the WHOLE TIME and every day since then is, “MAN, YOU USED TO BE SO HANDSOME. YOU ARE SO MESSED UP! YOUR FACE LOOKS TERRIBLE” She says it all with a smile, of course, but I know I hurt to look at.

So, without further ado – here are the pictures I’ve been promising to post for you guys...remember IT IS BLOODY:

DON'T

SAY

DIDN'T

WARN

YOU

Here is a shot of me when we first got to the hospital. There is a lot of blood, but it is the cut under my eye that is making all of the mess. It is a perfect cut from the bottom of my sunglasses (the glasses don't have a bottom frame - just a lense, so that is why it cut so perfectly). The doctor said that the glasses saved my eyeball because they protected it from being damaged or blinded.

Paris was very sad i got hurt, but it looks like Tristan has no problem with it. She kept wanting to see my eye and kept saying, "cool".

Still waiting...Paris still sad, Tristan still happy and Troy grossed out

Here is the nurse numbing the area with that needle...Lissette counted 30 shots around and inside the wound.

Here is a shot of the doctor sewing it up. He was very good and said that they usually put extra stitches in when it is on the face to make sure the scar is harder to see. He said it should fade and be hard to see in a year or two as long as i put a lot of suntan lotion on it when i'm out in the sun.

Here is the finished cut. You can't see all of them, but there are 9 stitches in all and my bottom eyelid is turning black (it was very black that night, but i didn't get a picture of it because the doctor said it would look worse the next day. It didn't look as black the next day so i was bummed i didn't take a picture)

Here is a picture of me the next morning when i woke up. You can see it bled while i slept and i still couldn't open my eye.

24 hours later. You can see the whole right side of my face doesn't look anything like the left side. Even my lip (behind my beard) was tweaked. I iced it all day to be able to open my eye.

Paris came up with the idea of making me a Cupcake Flower Bouquet to try to make me feel better because i got hurt. Here is a shot of her working on it and Tristan and Esher jumping in to help...they didn't help much, but never miss an opportunity for a photo and to eat batter, frosting and anything that drops within 5 feet of the chef.

Here is Paris working on it. She came up with the logistics of putting the cupcakes in two levels in the vase all on her own (Lissette and I were upstairs while she worked on it all by herself). I was VERY proud of her. She is so creative!

Here is am with my little artist!

The finished bouquet. Look how she tried to do different designs on each one and how the middle cupcakes are higher than the outside (she devised a inner-cup system to raise up the middle). And they tasted AMAZING...I almost forgot how much pain i was in!!!

more pics at game

2008-07-03T00:12:00.038-06:00

We didn't get to see the game tonight, but the Rockies cleaned up the Padres (8 - 1)...so, we took the series and i'm officially happier...

Here are more pics from the games. We are going tomorrow for our last game of this trip and have a dilema :-) We have seats down next to the dugout (plus 6 extra seats with 2 front row) and we also have a Suite offered to us. Price said Tom Shane wants to hang out with us at the game, so he will let Tom decide which seats he'd like to watch in...we also are invited by the Rockies to join the team on the field to watch the Fireworks :-)

Here is a shot from our seat (well, Lissette's seat) down the dugout

Here is a shot of Glenn Hoffman (Trevor's Brother) for Lissette's Sister Lissette (she LOVES Trevor, but this is a close as we could get to him)

Here is a shot from our seat of Kahlil Greene on deck. He's my favorite Padre (if i must have a favorite that is :)

Lissette, Me, Price and Mae in our seats (Mae thought the people taking the picture just wanted a picture of us -- she didn't see lissette give them our camera -- that is why she looks so confused and after she said she was thinking, "why do they want our picture?"

Here is a shot from our new seats. I almost grabbed a foul by leaning over the wall.

This was after the game Tuesday. Joy, Eric, Lissette, Me and Dinger.

Dinger (dumb name for a mascot, but what mascot isn't dumb) was walking down the field greeting people. Well, we asked him to take a picture of us and he looked at lissette, made a THWWWWT (don't know how to spell that - but the sound of sticking your toungue out and blowing between your lips) and then turned around and covered her Padres jersey with his right arm. We were all laughing pretty hard at that.

finally...

2008-07-02T11:17:00.005-06:00

We snapped our 8 game losing streak last night...beat those pesky padres 4 - 0...we sat in the new seats (they got 4 new seats in the first row between 1st and right field)...they were pretty sweet and i almost grabbed a foul ball that rolled just past my glove...i was leaning over the wall, but not far enough to fall on the field...i wanted a 2nd crack at it, but nobody else hit our way (even though the Pads have like 1/2 of their team hitting lefty)...

they have a Verizon Wireless contest to take a picture of yourself and send it to the stadium on your cell and they will put it on the big screen in the 8th inning...well, lissette took the follwing shot:

But they didn't show it...they must have known a Padres fan took the pic!

why oh why...

2008-07-01T05:03:00.011-06:00

so, i'm sitting here wondering (yes, it is 5 in the morning -- i'm working on 4 computers for my brother this week while i'm here) wondering why oh why my Rockies are doing so bad...

I've been a Rockies fan pretty much since they started in 1993...Lissette and I have been driving up to Colorado for the past 5 years or so because Price can get us AMAZING seats to the games. We’ve made it our own little tradition. She is a Padres fan and it is a great little rivalry between her and I...in years past our two teams have been battling it out for last place. This year it is more of the same. The Rockies are in last place and the Padres are beating them by 1/2 a game...and that stinking 1/2 a game was tonight. We were tied going into the 9th (8 to 8) and then stupid Fuentes gives up 5 runs and the rest of our stinking bullpen give up another 2 runs...we lose by 7 runs thanks to our lousy pitching that really really has been pissing me off...we've lost 8 games straight and it is VERY hard for me to believe this is pretty much the same squad that won 21 out of 22 games straight at the end of last season to take the NL championship. As a side note, I saw one of the World Series rings tonight. There is a lady named Marcie and she is the one that Price gets all of his Rockies hookups through. She works for the Rockies front office and came down to say “hi” and then she handed me her ring and said, “Check it out”. I put it on my pinkie (only finger it would fit on) and was slightly worried when it didn’t come off right away…wow, it had TONS of diamonds on it and was very very cool…I should have taken a picture of myself wearing it…maybe Thursday night (she is getting us on the field with the team for the Fireworks Show :-)

So, back to my rant…i just don't get it...yes, we've had injuries and yes, we've had some tough losses that we shouldn't have had...but WHY can't the team cough up some money and GET A REAL PITCHING STAFF??? The only one i have faith in anymore is Matt Herges - i love that guy...he is the oldest pitcher on their team BY FAR (he is 38), but he has a great curve ball and he is pretty consistent (compared to the rest of them)...he pitched 2 innings tonight and didn’t give up a single run...he did hit someone, but i'm sure the curve is hard to control at times...I also trust...well, no one...Aaron Cook is doing ok (10 and 5 w/3.64 era) but he's blown some games he shouldn't have...so, i pretty much HATE our pitching staff at the moment (can you tell i'm bitter)...

BUT, on a bright note - we still have 2 more games this week to go to...tomorrow (cook is starting) we are going to sit in the new seats that are right on the right side at the field…we can reach down and pick up the foul balls!!! The other game is thursday against the Marlins (who actually have a winning record)...I’m bummed we won’t get to see Peavy pitch…every time we see the Padres he is just sitting next to us watching...

Oh, did I mention where our seats are? They are RIGHT NEXT to the dugout. We are basically sitting with the team. If you were to take a rope down the line where the team sits and run it towards the catcher you’d run into our seats. I have several pictures, but only one tonight (I’ll put up more tomorrow)...

even a bad game don't look so bad (well, almost) from this point of view...

ouch...

2008-06-26T11:49:00.013-06:00

so, i love playing sports. i played baseball for 5 years as well as soccer and some basketball when i was a kid. I didn't play in school, so i got a bit "rusty" and have been playing softball on our Pro Look team for about 5 years now...i gotta say - i LOVE playing...

Well, when i was a kid i played tons of different positions (pitcher, 2nd, etc.) but mostly they put me in the outfield because i could throw it very hard. One coach even told me that i didn't have to hit the cut-off man if i thought it could get someone out by throwing straight to the play. So, i loved throwing it hard. Then i didn't play for years and when i got to SUU in 1994 a couple of my roommates and myself went to the park to throw the ball around. Here is a warning for everyone of you that has heard a coach tell you to "WARM UP" before throwing a ball hard...well, i didn't warm up and i started to throw the ball hard like i used to and we ended up throwing for an hour and a half and every throw i made was as hard as i could throw it...the next day i couldn't raise my arm at all...it hurt for months...about 6 months after that we went on a road trip and stopped next to a canyon and got out to throw rocks into a lake...i picked up a rock and threw it and about fell over in agony -- my shoulder still killed after 6 months...i knew i'd screwed it up and i didn't throw again until we started our Pro Look team...

So, i go out into the the outfield after not throwing for so long and i'm SO worried i can't throw and i start throwing and it didn't hurt, but I COULDN'T throw straight or hard anymore...i'm sure most of it was being worried about throwing, holding back and not following through because i was concerned, etc...i've never recovered from it (mentally, etc.) and i'm sure some of it is time and distance from my childhood blurring my memory into thinking i could actually throw hard and straight in the first place :-)

Fast forward to last night...i've been feeling good about my game for a while now...a couple of weeks ago i batted 1000 (5 for 5) and made a sweet play at first where i robbed a guy who hit a line drive at me (well, i took it on the hop, but it was coming FAST)...so, i'm thinking i'm the man (they put me on first because of the aforementioned bad arm :-)...so, i'm at first thinking i'm all that and a bag of chips and they had moved Ryan from center field to 2nd because we were short players...Ryan has an AMAZING arm and can throw it home from center and get guys out at home (he did last night)...he's played college baseball and it shows...so, he's on 2nd and the ball is hit to him...he picks it up and throws it at me on first and it is SO FAST that i don't have time to react I just put my arm out and i don't remember even seeing the ball...next thing i know i'm in total pain because i put my arm out and judged the height of the ball perfectly -- but i didn't judge the distance of the ball from my body at all -- it hit me right in the forearm and i thought i'd broken it...i looked down at it after a minute and noticed that YOU CAN SEE THE STITCHES FROM THE BALL!!! Here are a couple of pictures for Lissette :-)

I'm surprised it didn't bruise more...

Here is a close-up so you can really see the thread

too many words, not enough pictures!!!

2008-06-25T11:25:00.013-06:00

Well, i was pretty excited that i started writing in this thing again and wanted to keep it a "secret" to see if anyone would look at it or if all of my 4 friends had given up hope on me :-) Well, that lasted for about a day and then i broke down and sent the link to 2 people: Jane (blog queen who has been begging me to start writing) and Lissette...

I was pretty excited to have Lissette look at it, since she thinks everything i do is cute (for example, she made a cake last Sunday and i told her i wanted the very middle piece of the cake...she told me that she thought that was so very cute and she cut the center of the cake out just for me...Paris was so sad because she said i got all of the good pieces)...

So i sent lissette the link and waited...and waited...and then realized that she never checks her e-mail (i knew this, but hoped that between one of her 25 daily games of Home Before Dark she would check her e-mail :-) so i sat down with her and showed it to her and watched as she read it...i was hoping she would say things like, "that's so cute" or "i love reading about your day"...instead she said, "why don't you have more pictures? do you really think people will read all of these words?"...

To show you how serious she was about having "more pictures" she said i should have taken a picture of Dan's laptop and put it on the post about being tired...LIKE NOBODY HAS SEEN WHAT A LAPTOP LOOKS LIKE :-) Now who is being cute???

I even heard her on the phone with Jackie making fun of the fact that i think people will want to read all of the words on my blog! I told her it was like i writing in a Journal and she just smiled (her universal way of telling people they are being dumb).

So, in honor of her, here are some pictures:

DID I HAPPEN TO MENTION THAT LISSETTE HATES PICTURES OF HERSELF?

I MEAN SHE REALLY REALLY HATES PICTURES OF HERSELF

EXCEPT THIS ONE -- SHE THINKS THIS ONE IS CUTE

AND I DON'T THINK SHE MIND'S THIS ONE (taken at The Absolut Ice Bar in Stockholm, Sweden)

Excellent blog program

2008-06-24T17:04:00.000-06:00

I've always hated using Blogger's built in post editor...putting in pictures, changing fonts - very annoying and not always correct. So, I went looking for a replacement program and have been using one called, "Windows Live Writer". It is actually pretty sweet because not only does it have a spell checker, you have the ability to write your blogs "offline". So, you can be on an airplane, traveling in the outback or just kicking it at home offline and creating your blogs. You will see exactly how it looks as you type (and can choose to view it how it looks in a web page as well)...it is also very fast and easy to upload your finished post or pull it back to make changes. Plus, you can save your posts as drafts if you want.

I've only found a couple quirks with it, but after looking at the HTML code behind it I'm sold that it is the one I'm going to use from now on. Usually Microsoft products have horrible code behind them, but his code is VERY clean. So, go download it and see what you think (if you hate Blogger's way of doing it that is).

kids!

2008-06-23T15:12:00.010-06:00

Well, i realize looking over my blog thus far that it is WAY more fun with pictures :-) i love the pic of the hot dog on my desk...so, i decided to throw a pic on this one and point you to others...we are blessed to know and have as friends a few VERY talented photographers (Sara Staker, Wayne, etc.) -- I also love taking pictures, but ALWAYS forget to bring my camera (or if i do, it usually ends up being forgotten in the car!) So, i will take pictures anyway i can get them (especially of my kids)...

About 2 - 3 months ago Jane posted some pics of Dusty and Sela on her blog that were taken by a girl named Nicole Hill. Well, they were very cool and I asked dusty about them and how much it cost to have them done...he said that Nicole actually takes these shots to turn around and sell as Stock Photography. So, not only did she not charge him but she actually paid him to let her shoot them...

Well, i thought this is a great way to get shots of my kids for free! So, i contacted her and, in true humble daddy fasion, told her my kids are the cutest kids she'd ever see :-). I sent some pics and we wrote back and forth a few times about ages, nationalities, etc...she then asked if i could bring them in for a "casting" shoot to see if they have a cool look for future needs...we didn't get paid, but i don't care at all because she gave me the shots of the kids and now i have some sweet pics of them!!!

I've attached some of the coolest ones here and here is a link to some others on her blog...

NICOLE HILL "A Little Sussy"

rock on,
jared

me so tired...

2008-06-23T14:54:00.004-06:00

well, one of the aspects of my job that i honestly LOVE is making computers that don't work so well nice and happy again...i've been trying to get everyone here at the office up to date and working well because it saves me so much more time in the long run (less errors for them means less panic calls to me)...

Well, Dan has been here at the office now for about 8 months or so and I decided it was time to tackle his computer, upgrade it to the network and make it happy (he has been getting little error windows for while now)...he has Vista on it, so i knew i would be in for a little more work, but I had NO idea how much of a pain in the butt it would end up being...

I started it Friday night and ran into issues with his Mail and getting it backed up (he had many errors i had to scan/fix)...Saturday i had issues with the other backups and Sunday i had issues with the reformat process...i was up until 7:30 AM Saturday Morning and slept for about 3 hours before the girls softball games...then i was up that night until 8:00 am Sunday morning and got about 4.5 hours sleep before Church and then last night i was working on it until about 7:00 am this morning...i slept about 4 hours before getting up to bring it in here and keep working on it...it NEVER takes me this long to get a computer going, so i feel quite blessed :-) (sarcasm intended!)

look at this, doesn't write for years and now two posts the same day!

2008-06-20T12:51:00.009-06:00

so, just an update -- reached for my j dawg just now and BAM, spilled my water all over my desk! Luckily there was just a little bit in the bottom of the glass, but my office/desk is a MESS, so a bunch of things got wet! We've been moving people around to different offices so all things IT have landed in here and i'm "organizing" it all into some semblance of order and it has taken me more than a while...i can blame most of the tardiness on dealing with e-mails, requests for my time at other areas of the company fixing issues, etc - but there is a part of the blame laid squarely at the feet of PROCRASTINATION (A.K.A. - my middle name)...

i'm posting a picture of the Dawg next to some water soaked papers to show my little Ying/Yang, sweet/sour, God/Satan juxtaposition...hope you enjoy the dichotomy...

jared

ok, ok, i hear ya...

2008-06-20T12:28:00.002-06:00

so, i was hungry for J Dawgs and wanted to buy some for my staff so i went around and asked if anyone else wanted one...so Brian asked "what toppings do they have" so we looked up their site (see previous link :-) and i threw the money at Jason and told him to hurry (love that kid!)...so, i started looking at the J Dawgs site a little closer since i'm a HUGE fan of the place and have a great respect for the guy that started it from the things i've read (plus, in person he is very very cool)...so, i googled around and found his wife's blog and started reading about them (living vicariously on my lunch break is what i do :-) and after reading a few things from her blog i finally realized IT IS TIME...i know i know...you people have been telling me this for a while now...i've got your posts (Jane, Terri, Sara and Emily...all of them say the same thing -- POST POST POST)...

well, it is finally time to do it...freak, i've had this thing 6 years now and haven't done a thing with it (except get angry at it for changing my sign up date to 2007 -- i signed up in 2002, but i guess when it converted to blogger from blogspot or whatever they reset my signup??? i know, petty - but i like that i've had my account so long - even if i didn't use it)...i've also seen all of my friends posts (and have helped a few of them with their blog layouts) and i've been jealous they've found time to post when they all seem even more busy then me (that's right Jackie, you are BUSY - watching 500 kids every day is hard work!!!)...

So, this is my first OFFICIAL real live post...i will have more and hopefully they will be regular posts...i'll have to make this page my startup page to remind me...i've always said i was too busy, but with how things are going here at work i don't see an end to that :-), so no time like the present!!!

...out

woo hoo

2007-09-18T19:50:00.000-06:00

had this account 5 years and am now just getting around to posting :-)