Jeff's World

Scout Camp

2009-07-19T20:51:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, Friday, and part of Saturday I had the opportunity to attend Scout Camp with my boys in the Deacons quorum. I couldn’t get away from work for the whole week so I was there for just two and a half days. It was at Camp Easton which is on Lake Coeur d’Alene in Idaho. It is a beautiful camp with tons of fun activities.

I will have a sidebar now to talk about the last time I visited Camp Easton. It was when I was 12 years old and it was my first scout camp. I had a great time but at the end of the week the whole troop was called into the mess hall. No one was allowed to talk to each other. I didn’t know what was going on. My dad was the Bishop at the time and he was at camp and was doing some interviews. I went into the room and they asked me if I knew what was going on. I said I had no idea what this was all about to which I was told that the others said I was not involved. Well, it turns out that one of the boys had been stealing credit cards, pocket knives and other items from other troops and their leaders. There were also some other boys involved in some vandalism. What a mess. Needless to say, our troop was banned from attending Camp Easton.

Back to the present. The boys had a blast. They all earned three merit badges and three partials. We had combined with another ward/troop because we only had 4 boys in our Deacon’s Quorum. Well, we challenged the camp staff to a game of Ultimate Frisbee. We ended up playing 5 games over two days. We won all five! The boys loved it.

The worst part of the camp was the heat. It was so hot! I took a nap in my tent one afternoon and woke up with big sweat spots on the top of my sleeping bag. It was a good thing that they had lots of water activities. I am glad the boys had such a good time.

As for me, I had a good time too, but I really missed Whit and Justin. Justin rolled over for the first time while I was gone. Both front to back and back to front. He has become really drooly these last few days. We think he is starting to cut teeth. Well, that is it for now. Here are some pics of the view at camp.

Life rolls on

2009-06-28T19:30:00.000-07:00

Life just seems to fly by. I try to keep up with my blog but it just doesn't happen. I made my last post with full intention of posting again quickly and low and behold it is months before I get around to it again. It doesn't help being gone from the house for 12 hours Monday-Thursday. It doesn't leave a lot of time in the evenings to do things like blog. I have to many other really important things to do, like spend time with Whit and Justin.

I love being a dad. I just feel my heart swell with love and hope and happiness whenever I look at, think about, play with, or hear about my wonderful son. What a blessing Heavenly Father has given to me and Whit. Justin is such a character. He never wants to smile once he sees the camera or the webcam, but we can usually coax out some laughs and smiles if we are tricky enough. He has no problem smiling or laughing when the camera isn't on.

He is also so curious. He loves to look around the room and see what is going on. Sometimes he cries and you can't figure out why, but then you sit him up and turn him to see the room and he calms right down. It is really funny to see him get frustrated. This has started recently. He will be trying to do something like play with a hanging toy or with a chewie book and when he can't get it to do what he wants he throws a little tantrum for a second. He stomps his feet yells. But he stops as soon as he starts and he is back to concentrating on doing something with his toy. He has also been sleeping through the night. At first it was 6 hours and now it is 8 hours. We have been waking up at those times to make sure he is eating. He then usually goes back to sleep for 3-4 more hours. Everyone tells us how lucky we are.

I have been called into the Young Men again. This time I am the second counselor in the YM Presidency. That means I am over the Deacons. It is a small quorum but it has been interesting. They are a lot different than teachers. I really think there is something that happens when kids become teenagers. They just act differently. Whit has been called as the primary pianist again. She loves it.

Well this is long enough for now. I will post a couple of pictures for your enjoyment.

Ooooohhhhh the Pain!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-04-01T20:13:00.000-07:00

Well, the title may be a little exaggerated but I have hurt my back again. This time is pretty bad. My chiropractor has said that I sprained the lowest disk in my back. There was no moment when I did something that I felt it go or felt a tweak, it just came on gradual. My back starts to tighten up as a defense mechanism and one day it just hurts too much to do anything.

But oh how I am thankful for my chiropractor. He makes me feel better. It will still take time for my back to heal. I have been instructed not to lift anything, that includes Justin. What it really means is I have to find creative ways to pick things up so I don't "lift" them. I really do try to be careful because I don't want to hurt my back worse. But I am still going to hold and take care of Justin! If you have ever had real back problems you know what I am talking about. Here's to hoping for a speedy recovery.

Winter Hibernation

2009-03-15T18:17:00.000-07:00

I have noticed that since Christmas break there have been a lot of people who have fallen behind in posting on their blog, me included. I am going to chalk it up to hibernating for the winter. But now that it is spring time this big bear is waking from his slumber. I am hoping to start using my blog as more of a journal (since I don't keep one regularly).

A lot has happened since I last posted. Christmas, my birthday (29 years old!), moving out of the house into an apartment, and the biggest of all, the birth of my first child, Justin James Larson. It is hard to express orally or in written word the feelings of being a father and holding your son for the first time. It was amazing! Just look at this picture.

The joy burst in my chest when I saw him and heard his little squeak. I had such a huge smile on my face for hours and hours. I also can't describe the feelings of joy in my heart and on Whit's face when she got to hold little Justin. The look of happiness and love on her face made me beam. What a wonderful family I have and how blessed of Lord I am.

My time is busier now trying to figure out how to be a daddy and take care of Whit at the same time. I am worried as much or more for her as I am for him. I just know that the Lord is blessing us everyday.

I am surprised at how easy it is for me to take care of the "yucky" stuff. The things that grossed me out before seem to have no effect on me. I guess I am just good at dealing with what needs to be done. I also suppose Whit is going to use this to make me clean up the throw up. Until next time, Have a great day!

You Can Quote Me on This

2008-11-15T20:54:00.000-08:00

Have you ever noticed yourself quoting movies, TV shows, songs, or books in your everyday conversations? I have come to discover that I quote movies and TV a lot. Most of it is with Whitney, but I do it with other people too. It's really hard (that's what she said) not to use these quotes. At work the other day the company provided lunch for the employees. It was Chicken Cordon Blue, corn, salad, and mashed potatoes. If you know me you know what's coming. These mashed potatoes are so creamy. Caesar Romero was tall. Only one person at my table laughed. Oh well. I guess not everyone has my sense of humor. I guess I'll just have to hang in there like the little boy cat. Nailed it. Like many people, I have a lot of things I quote, but I have discovered that I quote some things more than others. Here is how I would list the top shows/movies I quote by percentage.

45% The Office

45% Psych

10% Other assorted movies/shows

I guess even Bruton Gastor would be able to tell what my favorite shows are right now. What is interesting is that most of the stuff I quote is from comedy shows. I just thought it would be fun find out what other people like to quote. Leave your own list in comments.

In case anybody was wondering, I do not have a deep seeded jealousy for a tiny little boy cat.

5 things I miss (and don't miss) about Utah

2008-11-06T19:36:00.000-08:00

Whitney made a post about this a few weeks back and I thought I would do the same. Only I don't know that I could come up with 10 things so I went with 5. Most of my friends know that I never wanted to live in Utah for any long period of time. But now that I lived there for 6 years and have moved away, I have found that there are some things that I miss. Here we go!

What I miss:
1. Living in a college town. I loved living right next to BYU. There always seemed to be things going on and places to go. It is a different atmosphere. Along with this comes college sports. This is related to #1. Game days are awesome. There is excitement in the air and I love going to the games.
2. KSL. It was just fun to watch (or listen) their news broadcasts. They are just more professional than the news casters I have seen.
3. Utah Jazz. I am a basketball nut and I loved being able to listen or watch all of the Jazz games. I was a Sonics fan growing up and hated the Jazz, but I grew to like them a lot.
4. In-laws. As strange as it sounds to some people, I love my in-laws. They have been so good to me and I love being with them.
5. Friends. Whit and I made so many friends and I miss them. It was fun to have people to talk to and spend time with that are in the same stage of life as you. I know that everyone will move away, but I will keep in touch. I suppose that this also includes the friends that I made working at the bindery. We had good times and I miss them too.

Don't Miss:
1. Crazy and impolite drivers. It is nice to have people who let you in when you put on your signal, enough said.
2. Insincerity. I told lots of people that I would get a feeling of insincerity from some of the members of the Church. It just felt like some people did things just for the appearance rather than because it was the right thing to do. Let me emphasize that it was not everyone. I guess I grew up in a community with a lot of really sincere and good people both members and non-members.
3. Having no money. This really had to do with being a student more than living in Utah, but because I was in Utah when I was a student I think it applies. While I have more expenses and responsibility now, it is just nice to have greater income and being paying off the debt.
4. Inversion. It was terrible at times. I really didn't have much of that where I grew up. It would just get so nasty, eeeewwww!
5. High food prices. My dad was a farmer and I grew up in an agricultural area. The food prices were significantly lower. And not only that, Washington does not have sales tax on groceries.

So there you go, hope you enjoy.

Joining the ranks

2008-10-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

I have had a cell phone now for 3 years. In all this time I have not had text messaging or any other type of messaging (picture or video) Whit and I have been on her parents family plan with Verizon. It really helps as far as cost, but we had no options on our plan because they didn't want to pay for them (not that I blame them). But this past weekend The decided to renew and upgrade their plan. I now have all the types of messaging. The only thing they didn't get was a data plan. So now I have joined the ranks of the many who message with their phones.

As a consequence of the renewal we were able to get new phones for the upgrade price. We went to the Verizon store to look at what phones we could get and their costs. The salesman was nice to point out some good features and problems with some of the phones. We were poised to purchase our phones but we couldn't because of some account access problems. It was a good thing too. As we had decided to get the phones the salesman started pressuring us to buy things we didn't want. He started bring accessories over that we didn't ask for and was strongly encouraging us to purchase the insurance for our phones. We left and didn't go back. We instead went to Bestbuy. What a different experience. They were helpful, answered all our questions and the phones were cheaper. They didn't pressure us to buy other things either. So now for the main event: Which phones did we buy?

Whitney got the new LG Chocolate. It has an extra 1GB of memory for songs. It is a flip phone instead of the original chocolate which was slide. My brother Steven has the original chocolate and I didn't like the interface at all. This one is much better and most importantly, Whitney likes it.

I went a little more modern. I got the LG Dare which has a touch screen. It is awesome. The touch interface works really well and the menus seem easy to navigate and find what you are looking for. It also has a 3.2 megapixel camera. It is a sweet phone. So for those of you who want to talk or text me, just leave your number (if you know i don't have it already) and we can get started.

A flood of good times?

2008-10-14T22:05:00.000-07:00

This is a story that starts a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. Ever since my family moved into our new house, when I was five, we have had problems with flooding. This is not flooding from tons of rain but mostly from mistakes in watering the lawn, flowers, and garden. It didn't matter too much as the floor was cement and we had most of our possessions out of the way. Now that we have finished half the basement it has become a bigger problem. It involves taking out carpet and replacing carpet pad and the like.

My Mom has had a knack for flooding the basement several times a year. She turns on the hose to water her flowers and forgets it is on. This happened earlier this year and while I was not here, I heard it was really bad.

I guess you could call me my mother's son. While watering the yard and trying to water the garden, I opened a valve to get a better flow. Unbeknownst to me, the tap by the window well was wide open. It was about an hour before anyone knew. Whitney sent Autumn and the neighbor girls down the basement to play. They came back up announcing that it was all wet. Whit ran to tell me, I was outside, I went running to the window. That is when I found the faucet. After turning it off and rushing to get a bucket with a rope, I bucketed out the water from the window well. It was 2/3 of the way up the window. Whit ran to a rental place to get a carpet cleaning vacuum which sucked better than any shop vac I have ever seen. Scott called friends family and neighbors to come and help us. It took 4-5 hours before we were done cleaning up. At first the water would seep over the top of your shoes when you would step on the carpet in the bedroom. It was really muddy too. But we got it all cleaned up and now we are trying to get it really dry. We will have to replace the carpet pad in the bedroom. This happened on Saturday.

On Monday one of the neighbors that help us clean up called and asked for our help to clean up their basement flood. We thought that it might be a prank they were trying to play on us. So, in the spirit of good fun we decided to dress the part. Here is a picture:

There really was a little flood, but they thought it was hilarious. I hope you do to.

The world continues to turn

2008-09-19T08:06:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since I blogged. Things are starting to fall into a routine. Wake up at 5:00, get ready, catch Van Pool by 5:35, ride into work by 6:30, work, work, work, ride home at 5:00, arrive home just before 6:00, eat dinner, find something fix my lunch for the next day, find something to do, and go to bed a lot later than intended. I always have plans to make it to bed by 9:00 or 9:30, but I always end up not getting to sleep until 10:30 or 11:00. So this part of my routine needs a little work. It is just hard when you only have 2 hours in the evenings to do things with your wife, relax, or do something athletic.

Whit has been terrific! She is a great wife. She cleans all the time, makes me dinner, does her little projects and is all-in-all AMAZING. I am so happy that I am married to her.

I have been learning a lot at work. Many times I feel really stupid because I don't know how to do something. There really is no substitute for experience. Contributing to the problem is the fact that people have different words for the same thing. Occasionally, someone will ask me if I have done something before. I say no. When they sit down to help me I realize that I have done something similar but called it something different. Not that I couldn't use the help anyway. I am trying to learn as much as I can so that I will be more prepared for my next job. This job will probably last 3-5 years. More likely to be 3. Anyway, that's enough of my ramblings. Thank goodness football season is here again!

Proof

2008-08-29T12:13:00.001-07:00

So I heard some people doubting that I was a cowboy and they wanted some proof. O ye of little faith. O ye that must see to believe. Well, here is the proof.

How do you stack four ton of hay? One bale at a time.

2008-08-29T11:43:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, a man came and dropped off some hay for our horse. He brought us four ton of hay when my dad had only ordered 2 ton. Not only did he bring us more than we needed, but he pushed it off his tractor in one very tall stack. As happens in the Tri-Cities, the wind blew hard that night. You can guess what happened next, the stack fell over like Humpty Dumpty falling off the wall. Fortunately for Scott (my older brother) and I, we are not part of all the King's horses or all the King's men so we were able to put it back together again. We also had Whit snap a few pictures of our exploits. Have a gander.

Can you see the fallen stack on the left?

You gotta lift with your legs.

You tend to get a little dirty with all the sweat and flecks of hay flying around.

The stacking job is done!

I'm exhausted.

Rodeo Drive

2008-08-22T23:24:00.003-07:00

Though you may not know it, I am a cowboy. I grew up with horses and rode for 4-H in our County Fair. Walking around the fair and smelling all of the animal stuff brings back memories. Riding our horses to the fairgrounds, dressing up in the cowboy shirts that have snaps instead of buttons, wrangler jeans, boots, hat, the whole bit. It was wonderful times. As gross as this will sound, I like the smell of sawdust, dirt, and manure. There is just something that says fresh and clean. Something that says your in the country with people who have wholesome values, are easy going, and work hard. Maybe you know what I am talking about maybe you don't. But I love it.

Well, the reason for all this nostalgia is I went to the fair and rodeo tonight. It is such a fun atmosphere. Even Whit thinks the rodeo is fun and she doesn't like very many sporting events. We watched the bareback and saddle bronc riding, the steer roping and wrestling, team roping, barrel racing, sheep riding (for the little kids), and bull riding. The announcer was funny as always, the clown was hilarious (he told a joke about how his girlfriend wanted him to take her out to someplace expensive so he took her to the gas station), and the riding and roping was terrific. The only bull rider to stay on got a score of 90! It was an awesome ride. Here are a few pictures from the evening (they are from the beginning because it got too dark to shoot any good pictures).

I added a picture of the "Saloon Girls." Tanner (my nephew who is 1 1/2) had a good time flirting with them. He would wave at them and they would wave back and he would get a big smile. Anyway, if you have never had a chance to attend a rodeo, I would recommend you do so as soon as you can.

Television Heaven

2008-08-20T20:47:00.002-07:00

Some of you already know this as I have talked with you about televisions. My dream television (though I will be the first to admit that future TVs are sure to pass it in time) will be coming out soon. It is a Vizio VP505VXT 50" 1080p plasma TV.

I love this TV. It is a plasma, which I love because of the great colors, deep blacks, and smooth motion. It is nice that it is 1080p because it will be future proof for the next little while. But the thing that I like best is the Silicon Optix chip. This thing is awesome. It helps to process the input to make it the best possible picture. Check out the technology at the website by clicking the link above.

Despite all the love I have for this TV there is one thing I wish it had, a wireless card and the ability to be a media center extender. I love windows media center and it would be awesome to be able to connect the TV to my computer.

Anyway, I won't be getting it anytime soon. So it is just a dream for awhile.

Come on down, You could be the next contestant to have a new Car!

2008-08-17T18:18:00.002-07:00

Well, for those of you who read Whit's blog you already know this but here it is again. We just bought a new car. A 2009 Toyota Camry. It is Whit's dream car. White with a Bisque interior. We really liked our salesman, but not the financing manager. Anyway, go to Whit's blog to check it out.

The beginning of the rest of my life . . . well, sort of

2008-08-16T21:46:00.002-07:00

So I started my new job last Wednesday. I am an IT Specialist at the Umatilla Army Depot located in Umatilla Oregon. It was really exciting and nerve racking to be starting a new job. The reason that this is sort of the beginning of the rest of my life is because first it is new and I have finally joined the ranks of the full time employed and second I will be having to change jobs in 3-5 years. The Army depot housed biological weapons such as Mustard, Serin, and VX gas. The contract of the company I work for, URS Washington Int'l, is to destroy all of the weapons through incineration. The task will be complete in 3-5 years in which I will need to find a new place of employment.

My first day was really interesting. The depot is guarded by the military 24/7. You have to have a badge to get in and your car has to be registered with them to receive the clearance to drive it onto the base. Well, I had not put my current registration in my car, so I could not drive on the base. Fortunately, I was able to ride with another new hire who was apparently more prepared than I was.

I got on the site and was taken to the medical facility where they drew my blood and administered a urine drug test. I was then taken to Masking where I tested and received my very own gas mask. This is the real thing. It fits all the way around my face (it was very comfortable to wear though hard to see through) and has a mouth piece that attaches to a water bottle so you can drink water if you need to wear the mask for an extended period of time. The mask is placed in a bag that contains 3 separate dual injectors for the off chance that you come in contact with the nasty stuff. You are to take the mask with you at all times. So when I get up from my desk to go to the bathroom, I take it. When I go to see someone further than a few cubical away, I take it. It is like I get to carry around a cool looking army purse.

I failed to mention Wednesday was a training day for the military. They simulated a bunch of things like a terrorist attack, people hacking the control room computers, protesters, taking hostiges (real employees were called and had to go be the hostiges), and a many more. We would have to lock all the doors and wait in the trailers (called modules) until a message was sent declaring normal operations. I got stuck in one module for about 30 minutes. It was rather exciting.

Well, this post is getting long. needless to say, there was a lot more sitting and waiting than there was doing. But I will receive tons of training this next week. I will be CPR certified and know a lot more stuff. Hopefully I can be more diligent in writing my blog. I know I always say that but maybe it will come true this time.

Two Nurses+One Doctor+Two Hours = One Intense Physical Exam

2008-06-27T17:59:00.003-07:00

Today I had to get a physical exam as a pre-employment requirement. Washington Demil Umatilla wants to make sure that I am not going to fall over dead at any physical exertion. Or it could be that they want to make sure I am healthy enough not to die too quickly in the event of a chemical weapons leak.

I was put through the gambit. I had a breath alcohol test, hearing test, respitory test (to check the capacity of my lungs and ability to force the air out), vitals, urine test, blood drawn (which they had to do twice because a nurse messed up one of the bottles), EKG, physical by the doctor (including the turn and cough), and an extensive Titmus eye exam (once with glasses and once without). I was extremely fortunate that they did not have to check my prostate because I'm under 40.

To help push me through faster, two of the nurses worked together. I have to say, when they draw blood, I really enjoy seeing the blood squirt into the tubes. It just shoots right in there.

I can now state that I am in good health. The doctor thought that all of my tests were excellent except for one. It was in the EKG. His concern was about (I think) the left ventricle. It took 210 seconds for an electrical pulse to go or do something that I don't know. He told me that it is flagged if it gets over 200. He also thought that I should follow up about it with a cardiologist. But he said it was not a big problem and could be easily treated if need be.

The Sound of Ping!

2008-06-07T10:56:00.003-07:00

WHOOOOOOSSSSSSHHHHHH; PING! I love the sound of swinging a golf club. I love golfing. But I have a little problem. All my clubs are too short! (get it, a little problem) I have always thought that I would be more consistent if I but had clubs that would fit me. My swing would be more consistent and I would hit the ball straighter and longer. So I set out on a journey to get measured for clubs.

I first looked at clubs online and how they rated. I also did some online fitting at ping's website. Then, Steven and I went out to swing a few clubs and see how they felt. We went to Uinta Golf. It was a lot of fun to swing, swing, swing and have their computers measure how far the ball went and how straight. Steve loves the feel of ping. I kind of liked the cobras. The cobras were a bit longer than the pings too.

Next we went to Utah Golf, or something like that, down in Springville. We swung a few more clubs and then signed up for a semi-professional club fitting with some ping representatives.

I must say I was...disappointed. They didn't have the length of shaft needed to fit me. They asked me which club felt best when hitting but the clubs they had me swing with were to short. so I bladed it every time. The guy didn't seem to understand how to fit someone as big as me. It was a big let down. I think that Steven had the same experience as me.

In the end, I still want some custom clubs but now I want to get fitted by a real professional. I also think that I want the Wilson Staff Ci7 clubs. They were rated very high. I might also consider the cobras I tried. Here's to wishful thinking and the knowledge that I won't be getting new clubs anytime soon.

Mario Kart Wii

2008-04-29T12:25:00.003-07:00

Most of you know that I have a Wii. Many of you have played it with me. It is a wonderful system that provides hours and hours of fun. There are games that Whitney and I can play together, which is great. I love playing video games with other people. That being said, I know some of you also have Wiis. I have only one registered friend and that is my brother Matt. I want more friends! Here is my Wii console code:

1690 8407 2543 4210

Post your code in my comments and I will enter it into my console and then we can send each other messages. The online video games have another system though. You have to enter each other's game codes for the game you want to play as well.

This leads me to the real reason for this post

Mario Kart Wii!!!!! Or maybe I should say Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! This game is a blast. It is one of the best games I have ever played. There are new aspects to the game that give it new dimensions. The single player mode is fun, but where it really shines is the multi-player. This game should be the benchmark for how all the rest of their Online games should be. It is slick and seamless and you can't tell that you are online (except for the very very rare connection drop). You can race friends and people you don't know at the same time. There is just too much goodness for me to cover. I have only a few complaints. First, there is no voice chat (this could be a good thing because you don't have to listen to all of the stupid people swearing all the time). Second, the battle mode is always in teams. I think that you should be able to battle individually.

For those of you who have purchased it already, here is my friend code so you can play with me:

3050 8001 9730

Just post your friend code in the comments or email it to me jlars80@gmail.com. So if you haven't yet purchased Mario Kart Wii, get your $50 bucks and go buy it as soon as you can. I look forward to racing you online!

Work, Work, Work

2008-04-04T20:14:00.003-07:00

This has become a killer work week for me. My boss approached me in the late afternoon on monday to ask me about a potential job to run on the stitcher trimmer at the bindery. For those of you who don't know what the stitcher trimmer is, it is a machine that will collate the pages of a magazine, staple it, and then trim three of the edges making the book look really nice. The job was very large for our shop with a book total of 328,000. The job also had to be done by Tuesday April 8th. Our machine can run books at a top speed of 10,100 per/hr but only if you encounter no problems.

I told my boss this and said that we would do whatever he wanted. Well, we took the job and wouldn't you know it but the company who sent it to us had miss labeled everything. We also didn't get the job until late Tuesday and had a few problems getting it to run correctly. Suffice it to say we are not likely to get it done by next Tuesday. But, that doesn't stop me (and those I work with like my brother Steven) from trying. So starting Wednesday I have been putting in 10 hour work days. It wouldn't be that bad except you have to stand all day. My heels and knees hurt. I will also be putting in some time on Saturday (just a few hours because of General Conference) and probably another 10 on Monday and Tuesday. I guess that's why they pay me the BIG BUCKS!

Shoes

2008-04-01T09:09:00.004-07:00

So I have a problem with keeping my website updated. I always think to myself, "Hey, I could blog about that." But, I never do. So here is hoping that I have turned over a new leaf and start doing more blogging about what I am thinking or what I am doing.

For the last year or so I have been having problems with my shins. When I would run I would eventually get really sharp pains in my shins. Some days were worse than other days. This would happen while I would play basketball, run, walk, or anything that required some shock absorption in my feet. I talked to my Chiropractor and he looked and determined that my arches were collapsing and that I was not getting the proper support. He told me to try Superfeet Insoles.

I found a small specialty shoe store that sold Superfeet and when I talked to salesman I found out that part of my problem was the terrible shoes I had been wearing. I don't buy new shoes very often, really almost never, so I had some pretty old shoes. He fit me to my size of Superfeet and explained what I should be looking for in shoes. He then set me up with a pair of Brooks Adrenaline 7 shoes.

Oh! they were Heaven on my feet. I could walk and run and not have my shins kill me.

Fast Forward nine months. Here I am today still with hurt shins because I was too stupid to buy new basketball shoes and/or put the insoles into my old ones. So Whit and I went on a quest last Saturday to find me some new shoes, both running (because the ones I have are worn out) and basketball. We went to 7 stores in hopes of finding what I was looking for. We found my running shoes, Brooks Adrenaline 8, at Fleet Feet in American Fork. Unfortunately, they were having a sale on my old shoes but didn't have my size. We finally ended up at Famous Footware where I found some basketball shoes. They were having a buy one get one 1/2 off sale so I also found a pair of Dr. Martens.

On further inspection and contemplation, I have decided that I don't like the feel of the basketball shoes on my feet. So until such time that I can find a pair that I really like, I have decided to pull the insoles out of my old running shoes and put them into my old basketball shoes. I hope this will give me enough time to find the right pair of basketball shoes without having to deal with the pain.

March Madness

2008-03-07T20:44:00.003-08:00

This is my favorite time of year. I love the passion, the effort, the crowds, the great play, the amazing finishes. It's win or your done. Well, not quite yet for some teams, but for others they are fight for their lives and a chance to make it to the Big Dance. I just can't keep from watching all the games. If I could I would take the days off work to allow me to just soak it all in.

One of the most important things to winning a national title is match-ups so without the brackets I can't yet predict who will be the national champion. I will tell you though that the two teams I think are the best in the country and they are Kansas and UCLA. They having everything you want in a team. Both play great perimeter defense and have good to great players on the inside. UCLA has a better post presence in Kevin Love, but Kansas has more depth in the post.UCLA has some great perimeter players, but they sometimes struggle to hit an outside shot. Kansas is a better shooting team. But they are both terrific teams and I would be hard pressed to pick a winner between the two teams.

I am really excited for BYU and their chances of making the Sweet 16. Of course it will depend on the seed and their draw, but they should get at least a 6 seed as long as they can win the MWC tournament. Maybe even a 5 seed, but that makes me worry because there is always a 5-12 upset. If Plaisted can make his free throws and the cougars play some defense, I think they have a great chance to win a couple of games in the Big Dance. (And Tavernari either has to make everything he shoots or, as I would prefer, he needs to shoot the ball less).

I have also decided to try a new way of predicting games in one of my brackets. I am going to compare each contest by some team stats. A team gets one point for each category that they are better than the other. The team with the most points is going to be the team I pick to win the game. This is more of an experiment than anything else. I just want to see what happens.

I will certainly have more to write as the time grows closer.

The Spiritual World We Live In

2008-01-27T13:30:00.001-08:00

Today I had a very interesting and insightful talk with my home teachers. We talked about cloning and some of the spiritual ramifications of it. It was really interesting to talk about. There are so many things that we don't know about in this life. When thinking about how cloned animals are alive and thus must have spirits, I thought to my self that there may be some sort of binding contract or law that Heavenly Father follows that any new life that comes into the world must be given a spirit. I am not sure that this is true, but it makes sense to me. But, it is something that I may pray about more and see how I feel about it.

I also mentioned to Spencer and Casey a great article that I had read by Spencer W. Kimball. In it he quotes Brigham Young a lot and talks about ordinances that we have not yet received. It also talks about matter and intelligences and lots of other deep doctrine. Click here for the article
from lds.org.

2008-01-27T13:30:00.000-08:00

The best entertainment in the world

2007-12-17T09:39:00.000-08:00

I have been at my parents house in Washington for a few days now. I have to say that I have found the best and most addicting form of entertainment; watching my nephew Tanner toodle around. He is so funny! He dances to the music that plays from the Christmas decorations, he waddles clumsily around falling down often, he jabbers is gobledy gook, pushes a chair around the kitchen in circles, and a million other things that just make me laugh. I seriously can't get enough! He is the cutest little boy I have ever seen (that is until I have my own). His exploration of the new things around him is some of the happiest stuff in the world. And, when he is having a rough time I can hand him to his parents and don't have to deal with all that other heartache. It's the best of both worlds.

Staying in Utah...................................For Now

2007-12-16T21:01:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been a long time since I blogged. But for those of you who know me, Whitney and I have been trying to decide whether to take a job at USAA in San Antonio. We have decided not to take the job and we are going to stay in Utah for the time being. This makes Whit very happy, and I feel good about it too.

It is a little scary to have only one opportunity and not take it. I am sure that some of you can understand what I am talking about. I am turning down a sure thing that would provide for my family. But, we feel like it is the right thing to do. The Lord will provide another opportunity. And it will be a better opportunity.

I have two last topics to talk about. First, the Nintendo Wii is the bomb. I love to play with my family. It is such a blast to have everyone around enjoying a game. It is great to be able to play with Whit, who normally can't compete in video games with me, and with others of my family.

Second, BYU basketball. I can't believe that they won their game last night against Pepperdine. They had 29 turnovers and they still won by 20. That is just sick and ridiculous. I sure hope that they start to play a little cleaner. Also, I still think the Jonathan Tavernari shoots too much. I do like him to shoot and stretch the defense, but he shoots when he isn't open. Also, he only takes fade away jumpers and 3 pointers. His defense is pretty crappy too. If he would improve this stuff it would help the team a lot. Anyway, that finishes my little rant for now.

A long but good day

2007-11-12T21:25:00.000-08:00

Today was a really long but good day. I was up late last night talking to Whitney about our family matters. So I slept in a little bit and didn't have time to read my scriptures in the morning. I went to work at the BYU bindery and cut all of the media guides for Men's Basketball. I also spent some time setting up the program for the Men's basketball game this Wed. It is against Idaho State University.

I then went to class and after talking to my group about our business plan, I worked on the database for Ortho Development. I actually spent a long time working on this database today. I am having a particular problem getting the MS Access forms to pull the description into a text box after the user selects the item they want. It has frustrated me quite a bit. I have tried to look up some help but have not got it to work yet. If you read this and know an answer, please leave me a comment.

I went to my VBA class and learned how to use excel to automate IE to navigate and get the data from a secure web page. This information will be very useful for my final project. I am making an excel application that will take my financial data and turn it into a useful budgeting data.

I went shopping with Whit today as well. We got some flat ware from Dillards. She also got some paint and other craft things. She is so good at doing all crafty things. She paints, sews, scapbooks, crochets, decorates, does digital photo editing, and is in general outstanding at everything she does.

Heroes was good tonight. I wouldn't say that it was the best episode ever, but it was nice to learn what had happened in the time between the first and second seasons. I can't wait to see what they do next. I am happy that they have finally built some tension into the show.

My First Post

2007-11-11T18:32:00.000-08:00

This is my first attempt at creating a public blog. My intention is for this to be a general blog about my life. I think that I will post some of my daily goings on as well as knowledge that I have learned including the following subjects:

technology
sports-the foremost being basketball and football(both college and pro)
spiritual matters
movies
TV shows
other topics as they come up

For my first post I will talk about my day today. Church starts at 8:00 am. Whitney unfortunately has been sick for the last few days and was unable to attend with me. This was much to her dismay as it was the primary program today. We only have 5 children of primary age in our ward. I always enjoy seeing and hearing the primary children sing the primary songs and give their talks. The parents of the children were called up to sing I am a Child of God with their children. One family is from France and another is from Argentina. Each family sang a verse in their native language. It was very beautiful. The children's talks were fun and the second counselor, who is deaf, gave a very good talk as well. I also enjoyed mouthing the words to the songs as they were sung. It was a very good program and reminded me of how much I love children and their simple faith and testimonies.
The rest of the day has been very lazy. I took a 2 1/2 hour nap. I also checked the sports scores and the ads on the internet. I looked through a lot of the Black Friday ads. I was surprised at the prices a a number of items. There are a lot of TVs on sale and I can't believe the prices! 50'' LCD HD TV for $1000! And there are tons of other TVs at great prices too. I saw computer monitors as well. There were also two graphics cards, one 256MB and the other 512MB and they were $50 and $100 respectively. They are essentially the same model but with the upgraded MBs.
There were so many other great deals. To see the website I went to click here.
I think that is all for now. Happy reading.