T-LOW

4th times the charm

2011-02-23T18:37:00.011-07:00

The story goes something like this...

With precious cargo on board I stepped on the plane keeping a closer eye on my bag this time. This weekend was going to be one of a kind. This weekend I was leaving single and coming back engaged (at least I hoped :).

The plan was as followed...

Saturday: Go to Sam's baptism, afterwards head to the hills to snowboard and propose on top of the mountain, then return to her place for a romantic candle light dinner set up by Mom and Devin.

That was the plan at least, but today the plans had a mind of their own...and decided to play tricks on me.

We reached Sundance ski resort after a memorable drive up the canyon passing the frozen water falls and the car that slid off the road landing nose down in the creek. This should have been a sign that not everything goes as planned.

This was Amber's first time snowboarding so we started off on the tow line. Well if you have ever been snowboarding you can recall the first time as being one of the most frustrating days of your life. I remember mine, I just wanted to quit and was mad at everyone trying to help me. Well, after stumbling several times frustration was setting in on Amber and I began to think that this wasn't such a good idea. What if she said "no" out of frustrations?!? We took the lift up twice and on the second time was show time. We got off the lift and I tried to get Amber to walk over to a more secluded area but she didn't want to unbuckle the board and take the walk. Strike one.

So I think, "well, I'll just find a spot lower on the mountain." and we start so ski down.

A little further down now, I motion for Amber to come join me, which she did...But I watched as she wasn't wanting to stop along and continued down the mountatin. Strike two.

We reached the bottom and having missed my chances on the mountain we headed back to the car.

Determined to make it happen today I texted Devin the alarming news, "It didn't happen...but proceed with the plans. We'll be home in about an hour."

On our way down through the canyon I told Amber to pull off to one of the parks along the canyon so we could "take more pictures of us", secretly thinking I could find a pretty spot to propose. As we traveled up towards South Fork a policeman decides to worry us by following us. We SLOWLY drive all the way up to the park only to find a park that wasn't that pretty, the sunlight nearly gone (ruining any hope of pictures) and a cop that just needed to use the restroom. So I decided to just head back home, thinking I could ask her during the romantic dinner. Strike three.

About 10 minutes before reaching her apartment I text Devin, "we'll be home in 10, how are things going?" and I wait...and wait....nothing. Starting to get a little nervous I text him again as we are pulling into Amber's apartment complex, "We're pulling in, where are you at?" And again...nothing. As we drive up to her stall we can see lights on in her apartment. Not the soft glow of candle light but the flood light coming from every bulb illuminating brightly in the apartment. Amber thinks it's her roommate which I knew wasn't the case because I had spoken with the roommate. Before I could stall, Amber had parked, jumped out of the car and was running to the apartment leaving the phrase, "grab what you can, and lets go" trailing behind her. I started to shout "wait...wait!!"

Reaching the front door Amber burst inside finding the most unexpected sight...her boyfriend's mother standing in her kitchen. Like two deer caught in the headlights they stared at each other. Finally Amber backed out of the apartment and shut the front door. "uh....TRAVIS!" Down at the car I just shrugged my shoulders and thought, "oh well."

I join her at the top of the steps and went into the apartment together, "surprise" I nonchalantly said. Grinning, Amber is getting a kick out of stumbling upon the surprise not fully understanding the circumstances. I wasn't quite so giddy seeing how this day wasn't as smooth as I intended it to be. I sent her to the back room to wait while we finished getting the table decoration for the dinner. At this point Mom fills me in on the hang ups. All the flower shops were out of Amber's favorite flower (gerber daises) so finally after visiting 4 shops they were able to put a bouquet together. Then the ordered dinner was taking longer to make so Devin dropped off mom to start decorating and he went back for the food. Well Devin's phone died so he took mom's phone which left her unexpecting at the apartment and which is why Devin wasn't answering my texts. When devin got the food he found out they forgot the salmon so he had to wait on that

Finally, after everything was in place I brought Amber out to the candle lit room, with our songs playing in the background. My thought now is that I would propose during dessert. Neither one of us were that hungry but we ate anyway leaving us stuffed. So when I brought on dessert Amber says, "Oh, I can't eat any more. Can we just watch a movie instead."
"Are you sure you don't want dessert??"
"Yeah, I'm stuffed. Let's just watch a movie and we can have dessert after. Can I blow out the candles?"
"uh....(long hesitation)....ok." Strike four.

Well we got through about 30 minutes of the worst chick flick in the world when I couldn't take any more and Amber agreed and said, "I'm really tired, Can I just go to bed."
"Sure" I reluctantly say.

As she heads to the bathroom to start getting ready for bed I start lighting the candles on the table again--One way or another I've got to do it! Desperately thinking I write on a conversation heart which was decorating the table.

"Amber, you need to come back out here"
"I only have one contact in, is that ok?"
"Oh Yeah, that's just fine..."

I explained that we needed to play a game where we picked one of the conversation candy hearts decorating the table and do whatever it says. I select first pulling a heart that says, "big hugs", so I gave her a big hug.

"Alirght your turn," I wait...praying she picks the right heart. She picks THE pink one and reads, "Will you marry me."

That's when I got down on one knee and proposed. Finally Success!

Well that's the story. Not quite as planned but the job was done and she said "Yes". I'm excited to get married to a wonderful girl and start a life together. Special thanks to Devin and Mom. Even though things didn't work out....in actuality they really did. Thanks for your help.

Go to Amber's blog to hear her side.

For my Valentine

2011-02-13T21:10:00.002-07:00

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Jesse's wedding

2011-02-13T07:58:00.016-07:00

One of my good friends and college roommate moved to southern California after graduating. There he quickly found a girl that he fell in love with and the two got married in January. My other roommates and I decided it would be fun to get a way from the cold weather and join our friend in San Diego for the wedding. Plus it gave an excuse for the old gang to get back together and spend the weekend together just like old times.

We all got down there Thursday night and checked into a Marriott. Conveniently, Caleb works at Marriott so we got a sweet deal on a nice room for our stay...I just wish their hide-a-bed didn't feel like a spring factory and didn't ever seem to have enough towels (I don't know when Jeffery started using one towel for each appendage). After our complimentary breakfast, which we eagerly looked forward to every morning, we headed out to Sea World. Thanks again to Caleb's hook-ups we got into sea world for free and got a spacial picture with the Shamu and his buddies after the show. It was impressive that they can train sea creatures to flip around. We spent the day exploring the exhibits and being entertained by the shows. I've decided I want a few pet dolphins to ride around on.

Can't you just imagine me riding like this? 4D movie experience where we would even get sprayed with water during the show
Water ride with some Aussies
Shamu and the gang

Saturday we went to the wedding at the San Diego Temple. That temple is awe inspiring. It was so neat to be there and see our buddy get married. After a few pictures, Caleb, Jared, and our friend Veda, who lives in the area, and I did a session. It was a neat experience and the Celestial room is a beautiful two story sanctuary.

Yea! Jesse and Katie

Good luck getting the girls looking like that. (Caleb, Jeff)Gary (Jesse's friend)and Wife, Jared, Caleb, Mckell (Jesse's sister), Jeff, Me, Kristen (Jesse's sister)
The gang
I always laugh a ton when I'm with the boys. Whether it was telling Jared that breakfast ended in 15 minutes and see him jump out of bed just so he didn't miss a meal or Caleb's random "RAGNAR!" comments, or Jefferey's "special bond" with the temple worker-- I was laughing the whole weekend. Thanks for the good times and fond memories and congrats Jesse!

Thanksgiving

2010-12-04T17:19:00.018-07:00

I couldn't wait for the first three days of the week to be done. Because that meant I was done with work for the week and off to Utah for Thanksgiving break. The day I left, Dayton was under flood warnings but luckily that didn't slow things down and I touched down in Salt Lake late that evening.

Amber and I stayed up at Devin's for a few days. For Thanksgiving we went up to Logan and got together with the Utah Barlows. It was good to see family again especially grandma. Amber got a warm welcome from the family with Gordan announcing, "We'll have Travis introduce his girlfriend and then I want everyone to come up and talk to her at some point." With that unexpected announcement Amber got to know the family quickly.

This year I didn't really have the desire to get up early on Black Friday. Even when Devin asked me to get up at 3:00am, I had to "regretfully" decline. Amber and I did brave the stores later that day to seek out a new SLR camera for Amber. She got a great camera and we had fun testing it out with a little photo shoot up the canyon.

This weekend was the weekend of animation. We saw Toy Story 3 with Devin and Katie and watched the New Disney movie Tangled. I really wanted to go to it because if Amber was made into a cartoon figure she would look exactly like Rapunzel from Tangled. Both of the movies were really good.

Friday night we took a carriage ride to see the lights at thanksgiving point. It was a cold night and I felt bad for our horse Jody for working under such harsh conditions. We also went down to Provo to watch the BYU game. It was fun to see my friends but heart breaking to watch BYU lose to Utah.

The weekend came to an end all to fast and I found myself back on the plane to Ohio on Sunday. I'm looking forward to Christmas break in Georgia with Amber's family.

photoshoot

2010-10-24T15:34:00.010-06:00

Who doesn't like a photo shoot when they are the star? Well, when you have a talented Sister-in-law that is always looking for "test" subjects and a gorgeous girl-friend it's not a hard sell. So I couldn't turn down the chance to have us magically transform through the lens of Shonda's camera. Here are a couple of pictures from that shoot back in July.

This last weekend when Amber came out we took our own little photo shoot because the leaves looked wonderful. For some reason, I've appreciated the beauty of fall a lot more this year then ever before.

2010-10-17T18:50:00.010-06:00

After a long 49 days I finally got to see Amber again. I've been looking forward to this weekend and it was fabulous. First off Amber helped me pick out a couch. It's great to finally have something to sit on.

My boss recommended the Haunted Cave so on Friday we decided to check it out. About 30 minutes away after passing through this spooky ghost like town we arrive at this old mine that is now haunted by the undead. As we pulled up we were surprised to see probably 100+ people waiting to enter the cave. Intense music and Signs warning about bats and other things and lined the 80 ft slope down into the cave. We entered the cave in a group of about 8 people. The first part was surreal. With Amber tightly gripping my arm and her head buried in my sweater we started by walking across this rickety bridge which seemed to be suspended 100's of feet in the air. It was nearly completely dark and foggy and it sounded like things were falling on the bridge and falling in to the water below. That is when something grabbed my ankle! To make an hour long adventure short, it was very well done and will be in the Guinness Book Of Worlds Records as the longest haunt.

On Saturday we went to Hocking Hills state park which is like a outdoor playground.

From coast to coast

2010-09-04T20:41:00.009-06:00

The second half of my vacation took me from wading in the waves of the Atlantic to tickling the shores of the pacific. Trying to get out of the airport in Atlanta was crazy though and we wondered if we'd ever make it. Who knew plane traffic gets so bad. We were about an hour late in leaving.

I flew with Amber into Portland, Oregon where we met up with Devin and Kati to drive to Corvallis. We got there later that evening just in time to catch the end of the madness for the day. Thursday we went to the coast in Newport (hence the coast to coast). The Oregon coast is quite different then the coast in NC. Amber learned that real quick.

We had a great time playing in the sand and even brought the trampoline with us to jump on at the coast! Of course we had to have an obstacle course and this time Zac caught some crabs to eat.

On Friday, we went to the park and played games like blob tag, drip drip drop and sponge relay. We also played a movie on the barn. Saturday we headed up to Portland to take a jet boat ride down the Willamette river. Other then that the family reunion had the typical food, teasing and good times. I was grateful to see my family and introduce Amber to them. She seemed to fit right in. I'm looking forward to the next time we all get together as it is sure to bring good times.

The Southern Way Of Life

2010-07-17T18:32:00.011-06:00

What a great way to start a vacation. I took the red eye out on Tuesday night to Georgia. After a prolonged flight I touched down in Atlanta. I was picked up by Amber's dad and younger brother and we headed out to the North Carolina beach. Of course we didn't get far before I got my first taste of southern food at one of the many Waffle Houses that dot this area like bugs on your windshield. It took about 8 hours to get to the beach house on Emerald Isle, where Amber's family congregate every year.

In all there were about 5 families staying at beach. We had a great time! We played in the waves, body surfed, went skim boarding, played Frisbee, went for walks, looked for shells, played mini golf, and visited the third oldest town in North Carolina--Beaufort. We capped the beach trip off with parasailing!! It was a blast!

Putt putt with the kids

Welcome to Beaufort.

We found a lot of great hats on a window shopping adventure.

Up...up....and away!

Beach Fun

2010-06-16T21:44:00.016-06:00

High heel shoes......................$50
Black Blouse from Express.....$40
Designer Jeans from Buckle.....$100
Gucci Purse..............................$1,000

Finding your exact shirt at the thrift store............Priceless.
There's some things money can't buy....but apparently my shirt goes for $4.

We were all set for a night out on the town, but when our plans fell through we found ourselves at the local thrift store (DI) to pick out some cowboy clothes for tomorrow's rodeo. I couldn't help but laugh as we entered the thrift store all dressed up. Something just seemed amiss. We found what we were looking for--a nice cowgirl shirt for Amber. Next we poked around the Mens section to see what we could find. That is when I spotted it.....the exact shirt I was wearing. At first embarrassment struck me and then laughter. One must be really out of touch with style when you find not only a shirt you own at the thrift store, but one that you are actually wearing!

2010-04-01T11:26:00.005-06:00

So I know it's been a while since I last updated my blog, but no time like the present right? Anywhos, there's been some exciting things going on in Utah. Just to give you an update on things...

A few months ago I injured my knee really badly. I thought surgery was inevitable but it turns out that I don't have to have surgery. So instead I'm on the long road of rehab to get my full movement back.

I'm still working at Qualtrics and its been working out great. The panel division that I am over has been doing really well and growing steadily. We've been able to meet our quarterly goals for the last two quarters. It is interesting to see some of the studies that are passing through and and the public response about terrorism, media production etc.

It's starting to warm up now and I'm looking forward to the summer. I feel like it's going to be a really good one. I'm excited to see everyone in July maybe sooner :)

2009-05-28T23:11:00.010-06:00

This last winter we got about 30-40 friends to come up to the church campgrounds in Heber and spent the night in two rented cabins. The main cabin had a huge kitchen where we served pizza for dinner and then cooked eggs and pancakes in the morning. The nights activities consisted of various games like "bear, bear...moose, moose", some kinda "pirate game", cards, curses, catch phrase etc. We also had an acoustic guitar performance and I did a magic show. It was probably the largest crowd I've ever done a show for. It was probably the funnest show I've done. I messed up a few times (but I don't think anyone really noticed) and my knife literally broke in half during the card stab! But it made it all the more entertaining. After all of the games we watched a movie on a projector. It was a ton of fun and I think everyone enjoyed the evening.

Prank Wars

2009-01-25T22:07:00.008-07:00

One evening I got a covert text saying, "Can I trust you?" A sudden excitement and curiosity shot through my spine. I quickly replied in the affirmative, eager for any action that might ensue. The plan was then revealed to me that this apartment of girls wanted to pull a prank on the guys who's apartment I was staying at. The time was set and my involvement clear: I was to leave the basement door unlocked and create some background noise so the sleeping guys upstairs wouldn't hear anything. Around 1:00 am 5 girls slipped into the downstairs room with hundreds of newspapers. Crumpling them up they began to bury the floor of the room. The plan worked perfect and after 45min the fiends snuck away and left this mess...

The next morning the guys were surprised to find the cluttered mess downstairs and plans of retaliation were immediately put into effect. It took 3 of us with two shopping carts a half hour to clear out the newspapers.

An apartment meeting was quickly called and I, being accused as an accomplice, wasn't invited. Ideas were pooled together and a plan was concocted. It took a few days but eventually the guys forgave me and let me join in on their evil plan. We let a week or so go by, so that the girls wouldn't expect when the retribution would come. Finally on Sunday, when everyone was at church I went over to the girls apartment and rang the door bell. I rang it again and knocked loudly making sure no one was home and to my delight no one was---perfect! I texted the guys, "No one is home, it's on!" I was soon joined at home by the others. We got our supplies and being cunning men got into their apartment. We started by stacking all their furniture against the front door. A can of tuna fish was put up in the ceiling vent in their front room. Then we greased up 3 bowling balls, plugged the holes and stuck them in the 3 toilets of their apartment. We also caused the water to become yellow (easily done by guys) and made the bathrooms reek of dead animal and poo. With the awful smell leaking from under the bathroom doors and through the rest of the house we quickly left--not being able to stand the stench.

The girls thought the furniture was funny but were quite concerned about the smell coming from the bathrooms. We told them it was coyote urine and fungus's...which in reality it may or may not be true...the truth will have to remain a mystery. They also complained of smelling tuna but couldn't find the source for a week or so. We all were laughing so hard especially when we pretended like we couldn't smell the tuna or we would walk by and leave the bathroom door open letting the smell out again and tease them about the awful rashes they would get. Oh gosh...it was hilarious. When you pick a fight with a bunch of boys you better know it's not going to be pretty.

Not for the Squeamish

2009-01-07T13:34:00.013-07:00

WARNING: Do not look at the following pictures if you can't handle flesh wounds and blood.

Now I'm sure with a warning like that no one will be able to resist looking at my latest test of human regeneration. "Be safe, and come back alive," the wives and loved ones said as we packed the Jeep with our snowboards. "Yeah...yeah...we'll be fine," was our response to the worried women. No pain no gain right? Besides we were men and mother nature was calling us to conquer its snowy slopes. The conditions on the mountain were cold and rainy but we still had a fun time attempting jumps and sliding across the rails in the snow park. Late in the afternoon tragedy struck as I was waiting on the slope for Ty. He came skidding to a stop, but didn't stop fast enough and his board collided into my leg. Whether it was the cold or the rain, or maybe both, the impact didn't seem to hurt and I didn't at all feel the blood start oozing from my leg. So we happily got up and snowboarded for another hour. It wasn't until I got to the car and took off my snow pants that I saw this eyeball looking flesh wound staring at me with dried blood down my leg. I went to the ski patrol and they gave me 2 gauze pads and an alcohol pad. Boy, with this top notch medical equipment I was now ready to fix a paper cut. Once we got back to Ty's house his mother-in-law helped clean and bandage things up. The guys were excited about a cool scar and the girls were maybe a little more worried. But what good is an adventure without a war wound to remember it by.

Thanks for the story Ty.

Thanks for cleaning and sterilizing your bathroom in world record time Shonda.

Thanks for your Dr. skills Sandy.

I warned you about looking. Pretty sweet though huh?

Busta Move

2009-01-01T12:50:00.005-07:00

You may see guys like this. Guys who dedicate their lively hood to sign waving, often distracting you from your driving to focus your attention on some gimmick or sale. I've seen them holding signs, guitars, and even saw one dressed as the Statue of Liberty. When I'm stopped at a red light, i try not to, but I can't stop my eyes shifting to settle on them as they dance to the music coming from their mp3 player. Recently I may have found the best sign dancer out there. Props to T-mobile for finding this diamond among the sign dancer community.

2008-12-30T17:28:00.003-07:00

Its been a longer time since I've updated my blog. I feel like I've let down the blogging community. I hope all my readers (ha ha the 3 who maybe read this) haven't completely given up checking my blog. Now for a little update....

I returned to the land of my birth(Corvallis, OR) for Christmas. It was a quite Christmas as I was the only one home for Christmas. My mom and I spent most of the day at my sister's place playing with her kids and their new toys. While I was home I got to see a bunch of old friends. I got together with some of my best high school friends at American Dream Pizza. Also someone from my high school had a great idea of organizing a CV alumni get together. At around 8pm people started trickling into the peacock in downtown Corvallis. Some of the faces I instantly recognized and some I had to do double takes before it hit me. I was fun seeing old friends which brought back wonderful memories of the 4 years I walked the halls of CV.

The three bones are re-united once again.

Rachel, Michelle, Dom, Marc and I

Marc is the first of the crew to get married and have a Kid!

Dinner at American Dream Pizza

Northwestern Prosthetic School

2008-09-24T20:05:00.006-06:00

My time here is Chicago is about up. Its been a fun experience living in Chicago and going through the prosthetic program at Northwestern. Our class of 22 will graduate this Friday and then branch off on our separate ways. I feel like we had a special class in that everyone really bonded and helped each other out. School has consisted of assessing patients and casting them for a prosthesis. I'd then build it and try fitting it to the patient. We all completed 7 prosthesis projects in 8 weeks so it has been busy and time has flown by. Our class laughed a lot together making being in "school" enjoyable and when we'd get together to party and danced everyone had fun. Some memorable moments included dissecting the human body (new experience for me), Elvis singing happy birthday to Tom(our prosthetic instructor), Team Uniforms, Mullets, kidney stone hospital run (luckily it wasn't mine), Critiques, foot braking, Shannigans, Mcfadden's, O'tooles, and getting free stuff at AOPA. Chicago has been pretty fun too, but I'm ready to get back an area that has mountains, lakes, canyons and grass.

Tom gets serenaded by Elvis Tom and Mark rockin' it proudly
Class picture with 'The King' James and Scott pulling plastic on a socket
Modifying Dustin drape forming
Nice seam Ryan
Trans humeral prosthesis (none of our projects were completely finished all the way but just enough for trial fittings)

Trans tibial Prosthesis

Papa smurf

2008-09-08T18:26:00.006-06:00

Thousands of people flocked to watch Flugtag put on by RedBull. I think I saw something like this on TV once but it's an unusual competition where a team of individuals build a contraption that supposedly glides when they run it off a platform 30 feet in the air, after performing a short skit. Basically what happens is the contraption crashes into the water and everyone cheers. It seemed like something off MTV or those Chinese game shows.It was pretty entertaining.

Tour de donut: The Conclusion

2008-09-07T22:05:00.002-06:00

Who attends a Donut Race?? I thought it would draw a larger crowd (pun intended) because of the love for donuts. So I thought a race against a bunch of overweight people would be a cinch. Right?? Well my high hopes of first prize quickly dissipated as soon as I got to the race and saw everyone with their thousand dollar bikes and spandex outfits. You have to be pretty serious about biking to take the time to stretch into spandex. I instantly realized I wasn't up against the fellow that had eaten one too many donuts for this pant size but I was going head to head with Lance Armstrong. This didn't completely crush my spirits though. Like Martin Luther I had a dream and it was 21 miles away with about 300 bikes in my way and I was determined to come out on top. The excitement in the air was electrifying and everyone was anxious to start the race. The gun sounded catching me off guard as I was still trying to pump up the tires of my dilapidated mountain bike. I quickly stopped pumping and mounted my 2 wheel stead to start the first lap. During the first lap I raced with the fury of Seabiscuit and had enough mustard to stay up with the pack and found myself in 16th place. However keeping that pace took everything I had and so when I got to the first donut round the mere sight of them almost had me blowing chunks. After racing as hard as I could for 7 miles a donut is not the first thing I wanted to see. It was then that I sadly realized that I wasn't in this race to win but to somehow finish. But even sadder was the thought that maybe I didn't enjoy donuts as much as I thought. I began to seriously doubt I'd ever finish the race but instead be found lying on the side of the road in a pile of donut crumbs. All these thoughts swam in my head as I struggled to eat one donut that would deduct 3 mintues off my time. "Trav, your wasting more time eating. Just get going", Devin's logical resoning broke the conversation in my head. I guess he could see I wasn't getting anywhere fast by staring at the glazed goodness in my hand. I got back on my bike and made decision to take it easy and enjoy the race.

Well needless to say the next two laps were much easier but I saw my Lutherian dream pass as I watched kids and those individuals who really did love deep fried foods whiz by on their bikes. About an hour and thirty minutes after the race began I crossed the finish line with 5 donuts in the tank and happy to have completed the race. I was nowhere near the first biker who finished in 38 minutes or beat the record of eating 25 donuts but it was a fun experience.

Air and Water Show

2008-08-26T16:18:00.002-06:00

Chicago had it's 50th anniversary of the air and water show the other weekend. It was pretty exciting to see and hear the jets as they would go by. The sound from them would literally shake the buildings. The jets were way louder then I imagined. The planes were pretty impressive as they would do loop to loops, and hammerheads and other stunts. The big performance was from the blue angles. They fly so close together its amazing! Supposedly they pack in 18inches apart. Do you remember those old pictures of those girls in matching funny outfits waving as they skied by or formed a pyramid? I always thought that was funny and I actually got to see some of that. It was more funny to actually see it because of the old pictures then it was impressive. I didn't think people actually did that anymore. Here are some pics from that weekend.

I was hoping for something more impressive... and where are the flags and crowns??

There were hundreds of boats out on the lake watching the show

Phew! that was close
Blue angles
ahh, touching. The crowd liked this one.

2008-08-22T16:51:00.010-06:00

Every day on my way back from school I walk down Rush street which often has me gawking at some of the most amazing cars I've ever seen in my life. At this stretch of the road Mercedes and BMW's are common and look like our families 1983 VW Rabbit when compared to these high-end luxury sports cars. I started taking pictures of the cars I see and the following is a sample of the mechanical beauty I've seen so far...

Aston Martin V8 Vantage

$113,400-$126,400

Porche 911
$73,500-$136,500
1939 ish Buick Special convertible

$55,000
Bentley Continental GTC
$193,990

Maserati GranTurismo
$110,000

Lamborghini Gallardo
$190,600 - $228,040

Ferrari F430
$173,079 - $201,213
Porsche Carrera GT
$328,700 - $341,500

Lamborghini Murcielago LP640

$339,400-$372,200

Meet Melvin

2008-08-12T20:02:00.008-06:00

I would like to introduce my third roommate. I got Melvin from a neighbor who's wife didn't like reptiles so I took him thinking he would make a good summer pet. I think he would qualify as my first pet. He was fun to have for a short time but I don't think I would want to keep a reptile for a long period of time. Since moving to Chicago I had to pass Melvin along to a co-worker.

This picture is almost disturbing like that close up picture of

the horse in the movie The man from Snowy river.

2008-08-05T17:09:00.005-06:00

It was my second night living in Chicago and a very exciting one at that. I've seen some storms but nothing quite like what I experienced on Monday night. About 6 or 7 pm the winds picked up and merciless lightening crashing down on the city and tremendous thunder shook the buildings. The people on the streets were in as much as a frenzy as the night sky. People were running back and forth taking cover as the rain pounded down. Everywhere I walked I heard sirens from police and firetrucks. The city turned on its tornado warning, debris littered the ground, tree branches snapped as the sky continued to unleash its anger on the city all night long. The thunder was so loud that it would actually startle me and the lightening was so intense that the thought of actually being struck crossed my mind several times. To add to the mayhem of the night another bizarre thing happened to me as I left a grocery store about 10:30pm I notice some people gawking at something and a fire truck on an adjacent street. Chicago is full of bars so I thought that some poor fool had drunken himself to a stupor. As I got closer I saw orange flames flickering from inside a store. That was enough to peak my interest and I joined the gawking crowd, watching the fireman break the glass windows of the store and drench the inside with water. About 3 other fire trucks pulled up to help and they quickly extinguished the fire that was supposedly started by a neon sign in the window. A news reporter saw me taking pictures and asked me to send him the pictures because it was so unexpected he didn't have his camera on him. Anyways it was a wild night in the windy city.

Exploring Utah

2008-08-04T23:00:00.000-06:00

Sadly it was time to leave Utah and move on to the next chapter in life. When I first started school I was rather disgusted with Utah in more ways then one. However, as I've spent more time in Utah I've been able to see its natural beauty as I traveled the state in search of new adventures. In the 4 years I've lived here I feel as though I've really gotten to experience Utah and have seen a lot of the state. The following is a list of places I've been or things I've done in Utah:

Bridal Vail falls

The abandoned restaurant

Stewart falls

Provo Canyon

American Fork Canyon

Wake boarded at Deer Creek Reservoir

Wake boarded on Utah Lake

Sailed on Utah Lake

Sailed at Sand Hollow

Sundance

Snowboarding at Brighton

Snowboarding at The Canyons

Climbing in Rock Canyon

Climbing in Maple Canyon

General Conference

MOTAB Christmas concert

Lights on Temple square

Energy Solutions Center (Formally known as Delta Center)

Fort Douglas

Gobblin Valley

Zion National Park

Mystery Canyon

Narrows

Misery Canyon

Emerald Pools

Pine Creek

Arches National Park

Canyon Lands National Park

Dead Horse Point State Park

Climbing in St. George

Float the Colorado River

Climbing In Moab

Kolob Canyon

Climbing in Kolob

Kanara Creek

Strawberry Days Rodeo (Pleasant Grove)

Fiesta Days Rodeo (Spanish Fork)

Scottish Festival

Diamond Fork Canyon Hot Pots

Camping at Payson lakes

Snowshoeing/camping/snowcaves at Strawberry reservoir

Bear Lake

Escalante

Peek-a-boo canyon

Spooky canyon

Freedom Festival (Provo)

Summerfest (Orem)

Bear Lake

Lake Powell

Nutty Putty Caves

Fished the Provo River

Park City

Upper Calf Creek Falls

Mona rope swing

Yuba lake

Silver Lake

American Fork Canyon

Bonneville Salt Flats

Hiked the Y

Ringling Brothers Circus

Disney On ice

Grizzlies Hockey Game

Real Salt Lake Soccer Game

Squaw Peak

I'll miss little happy valley and the beautiful mountains that guard it. Even more though I'll miss the friends I left behind. Utah's found a niche in my heart to stay. I'll be back again to conquer the next adventure, walk the nostalgic roads and visit the friends who made it all worth it.

American Fork Camping

2008-07-19T10:00:00.006-06:00

A bunch of us went up to American Fork to camp and do some hiking. We drove up to Silver lake flatts and looked for a campsite. We couldn't find any without a considerable hike to regardless of the signs telling us that we can't camp within a half mile of the lake we pitched our tents in a little clearing nearby the lake. I discovered a few natural poles and decided to make myself a teepee to sleep in. I've always wanted to make and sleep in a teepee so I was really excited to do it. The teepee wasn't quite big enough enough but I managed to sleep the night. The next morning we were greeted by a disgruntled ranger saying, "didn't you know you couldn't camp here," in his stern ranger voice. Unfortantely that slapped us with a fine that taught us to get up and pack up before the rangers come :) . After Breakfest we hiked to silver lake which was beautiful. I was shocked when we got there and there was still snow at the banks of the river. I had brought tubes to play in the water with but they quickly became our down hill sledding machines. Who would have thought we would be going sledding in the middle of june when it was 80 plus degrees?? The whole trip was fun despite the ranger.

Tour de Donut Training

2008-07-09T22:55:00.005-06:00

I entered to race in the Tour de Donut coming up this weekend. It is a bike race held in American Fork. Here's the skinny on the race....

"It's simple. Race 21 miles and see who is the king donut! In circuit style, ride 7 miles, then eat as many donuts as you would like. No limit. Then, ride 7 more miles, eat more donuts, then ride the last 7 mile lap. Glory and adulation are waiting for you at the Finish Line. Proceeds benefit the Utah Amber Alert ID project."

I've always loved donuts and i think this is my time to shine. Practicing for it has been hard work...

to be continued......

My attempt to be a Photographer

2008-06-22T00:29:00.010-06:00

Here are a few pictures from my latest adventure (in American Fork Canyon at Silver Lake) that I took with my new camera. I'm still trying to play around with the different features and settings so that the pictures turn out good. Most of the pictures I took were duds but I got a few that I was pleased with. I apologize to the rest of the people with me if they got annoyed with me stopping at every bend to take a dozen pictures. I'm sorry I'm sure this will wear off in time but I'm a little obsessed right now. I'll do a posting on the adventure later. Enjoy.

My camera has a cool macro setting that I like to use.

Playing with the ISO

This is the moon coming up captured by having the shutter open for a longer time

The credit for this picture actually goes to Liz. I really like the symmetry in it.

New Camera!!

2008-06-18T21:25:00.003-06:00

A week ago I decided I wanted to buy a digital camera. So I began the quest to find the right camera. That quest consumed my life and for a week I was a slave to learning about cameras. Finally, after hours and HOURS of reading reviews, 4 trips to Best Buy, 2 trips to Circuit City, talking with 6 sales employees, and Shonda twice, I bought one. I decided on the Canon powershot sd 870 IS digital elph. You know with a name like that it's gotta be good. So far I'm loving it. I've read over 100 pages in the manual and have learned way more then I'll ever remember. I just want to take pictures now.

The Return to Moab

2008-06-01T20:21:00.026-06:00

I had so much fun the last time I was in Moab I was anxious to take some more friends down and show them the good things Moab has to offer. Sadly this kind of marked the last campout or big activity that some of us would have together as some of my friends we're moving on (Jared and Ann moving to Denver, Brett to Chicago). Our cozy little camp site.

There was 9 of us that went down to Moab. We started our days adventure with the hike to morning glory. This is the hike I had previously done with Michelle about a month ago.

Our modern Moses leading the way...

Teaching them the ropes at the first repel...

We did the second repel over morning glory arch a little differently this time. We did what is known as a simul repel. That is where two people go off the arch at the same time on opposite sides using each others weight as the counter balance. Brett, weighing 30 lbs more, and I were the first ones to go. I got a little nervous after we started walking backwards and I started to get tugged back up the arch a step. Visions of me flying over the side flashed through my mind. However we made it down alright and anchored the bottom for the everyone else. It was sweet repelling down together! We were greeted by what seemed like the paparazzi as a bunch of onlookers were taking pictures from the bottom.

This is probably one of my favorite pictures. I think everyone was a little nervous and needed a little assurance that things would be ok.

The second arch on our list was Corona Arch. This one was new to me and so I was really excited to repel it. The hike to the top of the arch followed these footprints that were worn into the rock and ran up this really steep (almost vertical) sketchy slope. We managed to get to the top and as the sun was starting to set we repelled off the 140 ft arch.

The scenery was gorgeous. And we all got your glamour shots taken...

Jared

Brett

Devin
Me

The theme of the trip was to be "Hard Core" and we we're all proud that we had become so.

Beware of Feet

2008-05-27T22:54:00.006-06:00

"Fear of feet it a typical phobic condition in which you feel disturbed and irritated when you look at feet, touch feet (may be yours or someone else’s) or even talk about feet.You even dislike people coming and touching your own foot. You cannot explain exactly how you feel, but what you feel is indeed unpleasant. The wrath gradually develops within you and you feel utterly uncomfortable. The other name for fear of feet is podophobia. A condition of podophobia is in no way funny. When others see you suffering from fear of feet they can easily make fun of your condition, but that does not make the matter less serious." www.phobia-fear-release.com/fear-of-feet-2.html

This was the exact objective for this year's April fools joke and one of my best friends ,Michelle, fit the bill perfectly. My fiendish plan was put into action at 9 pm April fools night, fully knowing that she suffers from an awful case of podophobia. It all started by coaxing her out of her apartment with several text messages. Then hiding behind a car I waited for her leave her apartment, once she did I hefted a large black garbage sack onto my back like St. Nick and crept to to her door. The lock on her front door was circumvented using an old visa card that I took from my wallet. Once inside I stealthily made my way to her bed and opened the plastic sack i was carrying. One by one I pulled out old prosthetic feet and shoved it under the covers of her bed. I then left to meet Michelle who was by now waiting for me at my apartment....

About 10:40pm as I was getting ready for bed I received a phone call from Michelle jovially threatening me and relating the story of her discovery.... So after getting back to her apartment she soon got ready for bed. She had been "a little out of it" due to her feeling a little under-the-weather the last couple of days so the extra "lumps" in her bed went unnoticed. She flicked the flights out and crawled into bed with her Ipod on. As she began to settle in... that's when she felt something... several somethings. In wonderment she grabbed hold of the foreign bed dweller and pulled it out. Using the glow from her Ipod to illuminate the object she was now holding she realized she was holding an old, dirty, stinky, foot. She began gasping because she was too sick to yell and she ran to the living room to question her roommates . I didn't take long for her to trace the deed back to me and tell me the story that had me rolling with laughter.

One of the funniest parts to the story happened several weeks later when Michelle tried to email me the pictures her roommates took that night. She sent two emails of pictures to a wrong address that I mistakenly gave her. When I never got them she sent them again to the same wrong address. The following is part of a reply she got back from her unknown pen-pal after receiving 4 emails from her...

"...please stop sending me pictures of nasty feet."

This little piggy went to the hospital

2008-05-15T19:06:00.004-06:00

I've hit my fingers with a hammer before but never this hard. I was breaking plaster casts off of pipes and pinched my finger between the hammer and the pipe. I'm doing ok in case your worried. Working at a prosthetic place brings to life the reality of ever losing a limb. I now seemed to be plagued with the "it could happen to you" voice playing in my head every time I don't take care of myself. So I take more precautions now (in caring for wounds not necessarily avoiding dangerous situations :).

MOAB

2008-04-09T20:19:00.032-06:00

I was looking for any excuse to get away for the weekend and enjoy the outdoors, so when my old high school friend, Michelle, called me up and announced that she would be in Moab that coming weekend it didn't take long before I had my bags packed. I drove down Friday afternoon and met up with Michelle and her friend Ariel.

Our first objective was to find a free place to camp. Our search for this "free" camping site led us out of town on a dusty back road. We stopped to get some directions from a hippie doing yoga on top of an old dilapidated school bus that sat stranded in a large field. Following his directions we continued along the windy road another 6 miles or so. The road led us down a canyon-edge road until we got to the bottom and across a small stream which my little Honda tackled with the heart of a monster truck. The sights were beautiful and after a little off-roading we found a nice campsite by the river to pitch our tent. I was so excited to be camping again! In the distance, as if providing a lullaby, we could hear the "who-ing" of an owl.

The next morning we had a great breakfast at the EckleticCafe, a uniquely-earthly, organic establishment. We then raided the climbing stores trying to find someone who could give us information on how to find the trail to Morning Glory Arch. We struck gold inside Pagan Mountaineering with a lady with a thick east coast accent. Our conversation went something like this...

"We're looking to repel off morning glory arch. Do you know how to get there?" I said.

"Why sure, do you have a map"? At this point i began to unfold my tourist cartoon map of Moab printed on the back of some brochure I picked up at the cafe.

"Yeah, I've got a map". I replied.

Stepping back to study us over again she said, "Now your really starting to scare me".

The display of our tourist map didn't impress her so it took a little convincing to make it seem like we were experienced enough but we acted the part well. She was actually a very nice lady and we became good friends. However the directions we're vague, all she could say was to "go to the radio tower on the slick rock trail and look left for a wash". Well, we went up to slick rock, found the radio tower and started hiking to the left...

Fortunately we managed to hike down the right wash and found our first repel which was about 100 feet long.

We hiked about 5 minutes further and the trail led right to the top of Morning Glory Arch the 6th longest natural land bridge in America and about 110ft tall.

OurAnchor was this little tree.

The hike back to the road was only about a mile or so and the trip to town was a breeze.

The Windy City

2008-03-08T00:45:00.009-07:00

I had to attend an orientation meeting on campus in chicago from January 15-18th. I flew in monday night and stayed at the inn of chicago. I think I was blessed because I had a Dunkin' Donuts shop right across the street and a subway that was open late just down the road that saved me from nearly starving one night. I couldn't have asked for a better Chicago experience. This was my first time to the windy city and I packed everything I could into one week. I walked up and down the magnificent mile visiting the different shops. I saw tribune tower and the NBC studio. I was able to get a half price ticket to go and see the broadway musical Wicked. I saw where the Cubs and Bears play and visited the paintings in the museum of art. I also went to Navy Pier and helped in a magic show and almost got my head chopped off, ate a chicago hot dog and watched I am Legend at the Imax theatre. Later in the week I also took the ride up to the top of the Hancock building during sunset before going to watch the Bulls play the Pistons. I visited the giant bean in the park, was on the 10 o'clock news with a wierdo in a purple suit, heard some blues, slept on a park bench and ate at Pizza Uno--the original chicago deep dish pizza (absolutely disgusting by the way). During the day I was in classes and meetings with the other students and program directors.

There are about 20 other prosthetic students from around the country. They are all pretty cool and we were able to bond by playing pool and having drinks (Sprite for me of course) at Timothy O'Toole's Pub. I only booked the hotel for two nights due to...how do you say....insuffiecient funds. So the other four nights was the adventure of finding a place to stay. I got in contact with a few locals from couchsurfing.com. I emailed them telling them I was going to be in town and if they could put me up for a night or two. Metin, the first guy I stayed with, worked at the Evanston campus as an I.T. guru. I was surprised to find that he lived in a studio apartment and that we would be sharing the same room!My first experience couch surfing took me off guard in more ways then one but Metin was a very nice guy and I had a roof over my head. I stayed with another local chicagoan named Dave on the weekend. His place was very nice and I didn't even have to sleep on the couch because he had a guest room. Dave was an awesome host and he took me around to see many of the sights, take pictures and showed me some great places to eat. There are a lot of good sandwhich shops around Chicago. Dave even came to church with me on sunday. It was by far one of the most abnormal sacrament meetings I've been to. It just so happened that there was like two baby blessings and a family of 4 being confirmed. Those things alone pretty much took up all of the time. One last thing I have to make mention about the weather there. They're not kidding when they say its the windy city and that the winters are cold. It was freezing! It was -15 degrees with the wind chill. It was suicide to go outside without a scarf and stocking cap. Occasionally we would have to duck inside a building just to warm up to walk the next block. I wore a huge ski jacket and a soft shell jacket and was still cold. It made sleeping on the bench impossible.

I'll be out in Chicago August through September so come visit!!!

Prosthetic School

2008-03-08T00:42:00.005-07:00

So this is old news to most but I wanted to blog it. I sent in my application to apply for Northwestern's prosthetic program back in November. I was told that if I saw a big envelope it would be a good sign. A few weeks later destiny came in a large brown envelope. I was just glad someone was there to capture the moment.

Northwestern Prosthetic Program Feburary 4th 2008- Sept 2008

15 years in the making!

2008-01-22T21:46:00.021-07:00

BEEP....BEEP.....BEEP....ever since I can remember that dreadful noise coming from my alarm clock meant getting up and strapping a ridiculously too heavy bag to my now crooked back and heading for long hours at school. Well after 15 years in the making I finally finished school and received my bachelors degree. I now have that peaceful feeling again that I've long since missed. Its that feeling you get when you go to sleep happy because there isn't any homework lingering overhead. In celebration of this monumental event in my life I wanted to reminisce on the highlights of my last 15 years of school:

Preschool: I attended preschool in a small room in the back of Crescent Valley High School. It was there as a young lad that I received my first kiss. I was sitting in the back of the room on a chair waiting for someone to pick me up when this girl came walking straight for me. She had one thing on her mind and that was to leave a wet one on my face. There was no stopping her the red of her lips came at me like a missle. She planted a kiss on the cheek and walked away. Sadly I don't remember who my young Juliet is. Well that started the beginning of a wonderful new past time :) Just kidding mom.

Elementary School: I went to Hoover school for grades 1-5. Hoover has a special place in my heart because it was also the place where my dad took me (and probably many of the other siblings) to learn to ride a bike. After learning I was able to ride my bike to school with Devin and our neighbor Kurt Harper. I also learned to overcome my speech problem and say my "R's" there. I can now correctly say "girl" instead of saying "gurl". It was here that I had my first crush on a girl (Allison Wales), burnt my finger, ate school lunches, had intense 6 square games, tried to beat Leo, the playground champion, at teatherball, learned my times tables, and played the best game in the world heads up 7-up. Also who could forget the jog-a-thons with Mrs. Strowbridge, where I bugged everyone to give me pennies for every lap I did. Didn't think this little 7 yr old could run 42 laps did you? I also starred in a school assembly by making that popping noise when you stick your finger inside your mouth against your cheek and flick out. Apparently I was one of the kids that could do it the best...pop!

Middle School: Some of you may remember pictures like this. Dad probably took one of you out by the old oak every year on the first day of class. With my hair parted and wearing my new 'Gotcha' shirt I was all set to make my grande entrance at the new school. These next three years of public school education took place at Cheldelin middle school. Many new things happened once I entered middle school. I started getting involved in school sports. My basketball glory moment came in the Cheldelin gym when I fell to the ground at about the free throw line. I was quickly surrounded by 4 defenders who were waving there arms like starving monkeys and I had the last banana. All my teammates were blocked and the only open view I had was at the hoop. Out of options, I threw the ball towards the hoop. Amazingly it went in. Who cares who won the game....I think I became a hero that day. It was also in middle school that starting my musical interest by blowing through a trombone. This instrument when extended was probably taller then I was. I played the trombone in the school jazz band for a year which was a ton of fun. I quickly made friends and started a rowdy band of hooligans with two other tromboners, Matt Jasperson and Zach Payne. We nick-named ourselves the "3 bones". Our goal was to have fun, pick on the band geeks and cause grief for our band teacher Mr. Janes. Our favorite game was "musical chairs". The game was played by the three of us swapping seats as the band practiced. Then when Mr. Janes cut the band off we quickly sprawled out purposely covering as many seats as we could leaving one of us to be left standing or falling on the ground. The game was quickly broken up by Mr. Janes who scattered us throughout the band. I spent the duration of the next few practices feeling very out of place in the clarinet section. In middle school I also saw my first school fights, got caught up in latest fads like poggs and magic cards. I remember when Kurt Harper had a pogg birthday party and lets just say that I was intune with my slammer. I came home with a lot more poggs that night.

High School: My four years of high school was spent at Crescent Valley High School. I continued to play school sports and played on the soccer team for 3 years before being cut my senior year. Being cut was hard but I joined the cross country team and was good enough to make the traveling team. It was a good year to join because the team traveled to Washington and Hawaii to run meets. The trip to hawaii was awesome! We ran one meet, practiced once and spent the other 5 days snorkeling, shopping, visiting the dole plantation, body surfing and hanging out on the beaches. One of the stupidest but daring moments of my life happened on the north shore in Hawaii. There is a huge rock near the shore that the locals climb to the top and dive off. After jumping a few times into the ocean below I decided I wanted to try a back flip. I climbed up the rock and stood with my back facing the water trying to gather the nerve. The locals would egg me on and demonstrate how easy it was by fliping off and slapping the water real hard. They would then surface screaming that "certain" body parts hurt. Finally after staring at the water for probably about 45 minutes I felt myself falling backwards toward the water. I don't ever concsiously remember making the desiosn to jump but as my feet were leaving the ground I remember thinking "what the crap am I doing?!" By that time it was too late. With a SLAP!...It was my side that hit first as I rotated awkwardly. I came out of the water alive but with my side in pain.

In band the "3 bones" were back for more trouble in high school. I was nick-named "skinny bone", Matt was "tall bone" and Zach was "fat bone" for obvious physical reasons. This time we enjoyed using our long slides to open the cases from the saxphone players infront of us and steal things from inside and then hiding them in our band locker. We also would fill our slides up with water and blow it out the bell or drip it from our spit valves among other general bullying like bumping the elbows of the musicains infront of us with our slides. These were my dark bully days which I have long since given up . We played in the marching band (winning Band Day twice), pep band and competed in competitions.

I also attented and graduated from early morning seminary. I went to prom my junior year with Shannon Harmon and went to my senior prom with Janna Hickerson. I invited Janna over one night and when her green Tarus pulled up the road I was still unprepared. so I had the Jensen girls distracter her as I set things up. When I gave the signal she was told to go down to the pond where I had a fishing pole waiting. she reeled in the line and found a fish that had a special message saying "Of all the fish in the sea you're the one for me". Watching....and waiting...for the right moment I smoothly emerged from the weeds that kept me hidden from sight and paddled our red canoe accross the pond toward her. I loaded her up and guided the canoe back across the pond to our waiting candle light, fast food, chinese dinner. During the dinner I preformed a magic trick where I forced (magic term for causing someone to pick a card of your choosing) her to choose the queen of hearts. I then mixed the card back in the deck and tried to relocate it. My every attempt failed, purposely of course because at that very moment the gray Izuzu's engine roared to life and sped down the hill with Devin at the wheel. His destination was the Hickerson home. He got there and had Janna's mom careful place the jumbo fortune cookie I had made for her on her bed. Her fortune was a qeen of hearts playing card that had the message, "You've stolen my heart, now won't you be my queen and go to the prom with me?" The answer was in the affirmative.

My last couple of years I met some of my best and life long friends; Dominic Ciciriello, Gerrick Lindberg, Marc Andresen, Michelle Harsono and Alyson Emmett. We made countless memories which would take too long to tell. I will mention one revolutionizing sport we made up called "couching". Dom, mark and I attached wheels to the bottom of a few couches and then rode them down the street bobsled style. It was way fun as the wheels would fly off and begun dragging on the pavement causing sparks to fly behind us until we came to a stop by smashing into the curb at the bottom.

College: My first college experience was at Linn Benton Community College because I didn't get accpeted into BYU. This school hardly challenged me though. I felt like it was easier then high school. I tried to take my ID picture in a clown suit but I guess it was against school policy to wear a wig so instead I wore my referee jersey and spiked my hair. This was the next craizest thing that I thought of and it turned out to look more like a prison shot...plus they got my name wrong. Graduating from high school seemed to transform many of my friends to particpate in nightly activites that I didn't care for. During this time is when I saw drug and alcohol use-- neither of which appealed to me and which I had long before decided never to use.

After my mission I was accpeted at Brigham Young Univeristy. Going to school in Provo has been such a wonderful experience. I've met many wonderful people and have had so much fun. During these years I spent a lot of time seeking outdoors adventures starting with the BYU outdoor adventure club. I've spent my free time traveling throughout Utah and other states hiking, rock climbing, camping, wakeboarding, snowboarding, splunking, snow shoeing, snow camping and canyoneering. My first job was on campus at the BYU heating plant a.k.a. the Cole Mines. Did you know, that during certain months BYU will burn 65-70 tons of coal a day? Its from working there that my friends joke about me catching the black lung. A few other student workers and I took on the name of the Rat Pack. We would scour the "secret" underground tunnels at BYU and find new passageways, hidden time capsuls and staircases that lead to nowwhere. We would make noises through the grates and talk to people on the sidewalks above us . We'd say things like, "help! they have us trapped down here!". Once I almost lost a dollar because I set Mr. Washington as bait through one of the slits in a grate and waited for someone to try and pick it up. I barley managed to pull it back from a co-ed's grasp in time. I also bought my first car in college from Jared and Alyssa. I've been able to learn a lot about cars by having to work on it to keep it going. It's a pretty sweet ride.

About my junior year I decided to go into prosthetics and so I picked Biopohysics as my major because it filled the most pre-requisits required for the prosthetic program. My program emphasised in three main areas: biology, physics, and chemistry. In a nut shell biopyhsics in the study of biological processes by the use of physical principles. I decided to throw in a chemistry minor since I only had to take one extra class. The following is a video that does a good job of pretty much showing what I studied. Its called the "inner life of a cell". Its amazing what every cell in your body is doing hundreds of times every day. I studied all about the different proteins and structures you'll see in the video and used physical principles like newtons laws of motion and kinetics to calculate movements and reactions. I helped do research in two laboratories. First with Dr. Woodbury, we studied SNARE proteins and then with Dr. Sudweeks in which we studied acetacholine receptors. Well that's been the last 15 years in a nut shell. I've now started a new chapter in life by going to prosthetic school and starting a careear. Time will tell what experiences that will bring. I will miss Provo and all my friends here when I move.

Britain's Talent

2008-01-13T13:28:00.002-07:00

So you've probably heard of American Idol. Well England has a similar show called Britain's Got Talent. A friend showed me the audition of one of the contestants and I thought it was truly remarkable. If I wasn't a guy I may have cried--I didn't, however I did get goose bumps. I just think its an inspiring story. Watch the first video and then the second video is the finally and they announce the winner.

I liked it so much I got his music the next day. Hope you enjoyed.

Unlucky Sailing

2007-11-09T21:36:00.000-07:00

Sand Hollow BYU Sailing Club

What could be better then joining the BYU sailing club? And go on trips down to Sand Hollow and sail on a beautiful lake? Well that's what Jared and I thought when we joined the sailing club. Little did we know that the most anticipated trip this fall was going to turn out to be a catastrophe. The following took place on the evening of Oct 26th.....

We left Provo around 6pm pulling a 16' Hobie catamaran so we could make it into the park before it closes at 10pm. About 60 miles later we heard the trailer start to vibrate abnormally. Upon inspection we found the center of the the right trailer tire missing.

We drove on it nearly 60 miles further so we could buy a new one at Walmart. We were just about wore through the tube, thankfully we didn't have a blow-out. Jared and I got to demonstrate our manly skills.

An hour later as we pulled into a gas station we heard an awful .....crunch! We got out of the vehicle and joined the other cringed faces gawking at our shattered window. Apparently all the vibration from the damaged tire loosened one of the straps and the whole boat shifted forward, and so while turning the pontoon slammed into the $300 window.

The originally 4 hour ride took a little longer (as you could imagine) and around 1am we were driving hopelessly around the lake trying to find the entrance to the park. Luckily for us we happened upon someone to ask. The uniformed gentleman had a few questions for us too.

When we final found the entrance to the park the gate was already locked. So we had to get in another way.....The club provided a breakfast the next morning that we were a little late to. By the time we got there all that was left was a few cold pancakes. But even those had already been claimed by dozens of gnats chewing possessively. Hungry and sleep deprived we spent the next few hours preparing the boats to sail. This was probably the funnest part of the whole trip.

To top the whole trip off we must have had the calmest day of the year. No wind meant that we paddled out on the lake, sat there hoping for some wind, and paddled back. Don't let this discourage you from sailing, it can actually be very fun on a normal day.

Yo Ho...Yo Ho, a pirates life for me.

2007-11-04T23:40:00.000-07:00

Did you know??

The archetypal pirate grunt "Arrr!" (alternatively "Rrrr!" or "Yarrr!") first appeared in the classic 1950 Disney film Treasure Island, according to research by Mark Liberman (Wikipedia)

Ever since I first wanted to go into prosthetics I imagined cool Halloween costumes I could make. Well it turned out that I wasn't the first one with the idea. When I heard that the guys at work had made a peg leg and a hook for a pirates costume I abandoned my other costume ideas and decided to take advantage of the available accessories. With my leg bent and wrapped around my body in the most awkward way possible, I slipped into the prosthetic leg socket. It was so difficult I had to get my roommates to help me dress. Not to mention walking took a little getting use to. Regardless of the uncomfortableness and the pain afterwards it was all worth it. Hope you all had a happy Halloween.

My roommate Jeff and I

Kimmy, Me, Jeff, Michelle, Suzie, & Ashley all dressed up

"This Halloween the most popular mask is the Arnold Schwarzenegger mask. And the best part? With a mouth full of candy you will sound just like him."

Conan O'Brien