Good Grief

Its been some time since my last blog post. Since then, MaryEllen turned 24. For her birthday we went to the temple. We had a lot of family there and it was good to see them. The temple was only okay. Is it bad that I am saying that? I can qualify the statement. The Atlanta temple is closed for some reason so for the past 6 months or so the temple has been packed. We had an appointment but it doesnt really matter. There is just too many people trying to fit into too little space. I know it may be a good thing to see the temple so full and active but it just makes it 97% less reverant and as such I got less out it. We went to a Mexican place for lunch after and enjoyed the time with family and friends.

A few days later was Thanksgiving. This year we decided it would be fun to go south to Savannah. My parents rented a beach house and the whole Southern crew went down. On the way down, Ellen and I stopped in Hilton Head for lunch. We went to Salty Dog cafe, its famous down in Hilton Head. We went to check it out and we werent too impressed but we bought t-shirts anyways just because we are cool like that. We also went to the lighthouse there so we could check another one off.



We made it to Tybee/Savannah aroun 3 and the others were already unpacking and relaxing. The house was nice and yellow and just a block from the ocean. One bad thing about the house/Tybee: the water smells like rotten eggs or sulfer, it is really off putting so everyting we used water for had to be bottled. Not that its not drinkable, just that nobody wanted a rotten egg flavored drink. Wednesday night we played games and ate a good amount of junk food. In our room we left the bathroom fan on as a noise maker, in the middle of the night I woke up and heard it was off. I assumed Ellen turned it off. Then I realized the ceiling fan was off too and assumed the power had been turned off or went out. I woke up at 7 and went looking around. I went outside and a neighboor told me her power was out too. Great, Thanksgiving in a place we dont know a lot about and no power, how are we gonna cook? Dad called the cops to see the issue, they told him it would be on by 10.

Everyone still got ready, taking showers in the dark. Finally around 10 the power flicked on. It was as if we had all won the powerball. Unfortunatley it shut back off. Finally it came on for good shortly after and we got to work cooking. Everyone had their assigned dishes to make so it went fairly well. We had dips and some crackers out all day so when it finally came to meal time everyone realized they shouldnt have eaten so much because we werent too hungry. But being Americans and wanting to honor our pilgrim ancestory, we overcame that and stuffed down some great food for lunch. After lunch we went downtown to walk off our gluttony, check out Karl striking a pose.



We played games each night, this is Dad trying to make Karl do charades playing Cranium.




Friday morning we woke up at 3:40 for black friday shopping. We had our routes all planned out. Target was insane, I couldnt find a parking spot so just Ellen and mom went in and quickly came back out saying it was too crazy. We did a lot of shopping and were home by 8:30. After a quick rest we all went to some local sights, we climbed to the top of a tall lighthouse and enjoyed the views, some more than others. After the lighthouse we went to an old fort Robert E Lee helped build before the Civil War. I thought it was pretty fun but I think some were getting tired of being awake so we went home. According to MaryEllen I fell asleep while channel surfing, I was flipping through and suddenly I just stopped flipping, it was a good nap.

After the nap, Ellen and I went downtown for some pizza. We love this place, its called Vinnie Van Go Go's, delicious! We did a little more walking then went home for so more games.

Saturday morning Onna and Karl left before dawn. We all just packed up and played around. After a few rounds of ping pong (my dad humbled me) Ellen and I left. We stopped at another lighthouse coming home. We heard that at low tide you can walk all the way out to it. Well we rode our bikes pretty close but alas there was a 40 foot gap with a swift current. Oh well this was much closer than we got last time. We were happy to get so close but also happy to get back home.

Yesterday Ellen and I went downtown for the annual reindeer run 5k. It was cold and rainy. Ellen had second and third thoughts but I was committed so she came with. It was cold and uncomfortable but when it was over we were both glad we did it and we each had fun.

Good grief, I am just about sick of school. I have had a very easy semester so far until now. I realize why: I should have been working on these projects all year and not just during the last week like I am. Late nights and lots of research has drained me.

Here are some more pictures from the Savannah trip:

http://picasaweb.google.com/trooperkae/Thanksgiving2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCK73xby7wJqNbw&feat=directlink

Coastal Carolina Fair

This past weekend Ellen and I went to the local fair. It comes every year we just never really wanted to go until now. We left before the fair opened to beat traffic and we pretty much did, we only had to wait to park for about 15 minutes. Others who had gone other days told stories of waiting 2 hours to park.

We bought the hand stamp that lets you ride all the rides you want. We rode all the classics and I went solo the few times that Ellen was intimidated but all in all we had fun on all the rides.

Another fun thing about the fair is all the food. We saw some pretty crazy stuff all fried: snickers, milky way, reese's, cookie dough, pickles, cheese, cheesecake and even BUTTER! We didnt try any of that, thats stuff is bad for you! We stuck to the healthy food: foot long corn dogs, fried oreos, fried peanut butter and jelly and even fried Captain Crunch. Wow. The corn dog, oreos and PB&J was good, the Captain Crunch put us over the edge. We ate it right before we left and we were quiet most the way home for feeling sick and maybe somewhat guilty/gluttonous for all the trans fat coursing (slowly) through our veins.

When we got home and after a long walk to make us feel better, we made flour tortillas. They were very good and maybe soon we wont have to buy tortillas from the man anymore.
This month is November which means its No Shave November, for me anyway, hopefully Ellen doesnt catch the fever. It is crazy itchy and I wanted to shave before church but Karl said he still had his so I couldnt shave mine. Instead I just got mean mugged by half the church, come on people I even wore a suit to counter balance the beard factor.

You can click this link to see more pictures from the fair.

Here are the pictures of our Halloween. If you click the picture it should take you to my web album.

Camping

While I was at home for conference I converted a couple old church videos into DVD's with my dads converter. Its great, I now have digital copies of The Buttercream Gang, Ensign to the Nations and On Our Own.Last week the weather was really making me mad. It was freezing one weekend and then the next it was above normal warm. On Friday last week we went camping. I have had this planned for this since August so I was really excited when the time finally came. Ellen took the day off and I took a half day. We packed my jeep almost full, its a bit odd to stuff all this stuff and plan for weeks all to go sleep outside for one night.




It was good times. We met my parents and brother with his kids at the site. We camped at Poinsett State park near Sumter. Dad's truck was more full than mine with all the stuff they brought. Turns out half the stuff they brought were Sonoco cores (thick cardboard tubes used to wrap various things on) Karl does testing on them and heard they make good fire wood. We had hot dogs and smores and just sat by the warm fire (even though it wasnt cold out). The kids got bored because they dont appreciate sitting and staring at a fire but they went to bed early. Ellen and I had the smallest tent, Karl's was huge as was my parents and they all had air mattresses. They probably slept better than we did but it really wasnt too bad of a sleep. I woke got up around 5:30 and started the fire. For breakfast we had biscuits and gravy and then packed up. Once we had burned all the cores we all headed home, we made it back by 12. It was a lot of work for about 20 hours of camping but worth it to me.

Iwasnt planning on dressing up for Halloween this year until my office decided to have a costume party. I couldnt think of any good costume ideas, then one night it came to me, be domo. Domo is a Japanese TV network mascot and has also been used as Targets Halloween mascot. Nobody sells a Domo costume so I ended up making it. A box, brown fleece, screen and a Styrofoam ball.I wore it last night to the ward Trunk or Treat, I thought it went pretty well. I couldnt see much because I used screen for the mouth and it was kinda low. Ellen pretty much guided me around the church. I won a cake in the cake walk, I knew I would, I am dang good at cake walk.

Tonight we are cleaning our house that has turned into a monstrosity. I started opening the pile of junk mail and found a jury summons for me. Then I noticed it was last week. It had been sitting on our desk since September 28, eek. So, I filled out the form and said I couldnt come because I am a student. Not sure if its a big deal or if I have a warrant out for my arrest and if this will damage my future political aspirations. I hope not.
We also bought Beatles Rockband, it is intense, a lot of colors and psychedelic backdrops that make it quite difficult to focus on the notes!

From time to time I have thought about my dusty old blog and how its been so long, (not quite a month) I generally like to post pictures and blog about them. My camera has been on the fritz (its being sent back and hopefully replaced with my product protection plan) and moose ate or at least mangled Ellen's memory card. Hence slim pickings on the picture front.

I have had a fairly easy time with school up until about 3 days ago when my classes all had papers and tests. It was a weekend of pain but now its over, no big deal. The weather here has been quite schizophrenic, record heat for a few days followed by record cold. Just pick a temperature and stick with it, preferably chilly so I can wear my sweatpants.

I use picasa to manage my photos and recently they came out with facial recognition software. It has been busy looking through all my pictures and identifying people with remarkable accuracy. Well its about done, Ellen has the most pictures with her face in it, somewhere around 2900, I have about 2500. Third place is Karl with around 600.

This is a collage of all the pictures of me!

Oh yea, Moose jumped out of the back of the truck while we were in Hartsville. She did on the her first ride but something got to her on the second trip and she jumped. I looked in the rear view mirror just in time to see moose flying to the ground and tumbling. She was pretty startled but is okay.

What we've been eating, for some reason I take pictures of the food we eat on my phone. Maybe you can guess some of them but probably not all!

My bike has been sitting on our porch all summer, looking so pathetic and ugly. Well finally the weather has began to cool off so I motivated myself to get back on. It needed some repairs and a new tire but it works, albeit with just one brake connected but who needs two? I have been riding around at night for fun, exercise and transportation. Ellen wants a basket so moose can ride too.

I have written a lot about my woes with parking tickets. Well twice in the past week I have evened the score. On Monday I left my car for a few minutes to go get a hot dog. I kept my eyes peeled and saw a meter checker heading to my car area ( I swear she has it out for me). Well I grabbed my dog and high tailed it. She was too far ahead of me to catch her, I knew I was caught again. She got to the car right before mine and a miracle happened-the car in front of mine got a ticket giving me just enough time to speed walk past the lady and zoom off. happened again today but this time I ran past her, she was one car away again! When I drove past I swear we caught eyes, her squinted, defeated eyes said "Next time blue jeep, next time". I loved it but am somewhat afraid I have only drawn attention to me.

Ellen and I have put together our 72 hour kits. Mine is pretty legit. If there is some catastrophic event, your gonna want to be around me. I have sutcher wire and a really awesome pair of surgical scissors among other things. Maybe we can strike deals, I will sew up your smelly wound in exchange for a granola bar or a meatloaf MRE. Added to that, I have seen every episode of Survivor Man, so yeah.

I am trying to get a kickball team together. This is something I have wanted to do for a while, the fall season (yep there are seasons) is starting soon. I am having trouble getting 12 of my peers to commit. Of course they all want to play but when I tell them its $50 each they all kinda shy away. Oh well, Ellen and I are doing it, we will just be on some random team (together). I cant wait for the season to start.

Tomorrow, Ellen and I are taking wedding photos. Yes, we have been married for 2 years now but we want beach pictures without having to worry about getting the dress dirty before the wedding. Better late than never I guess. Maybe this time pictures wont be so frustrating and stressful!

This post has been quite ADD, perhaps even ADHD. Sorry for that.

Bugged

Happy Labor day. Unfortunately for me, I had to go to school today. It makes it especially annoying when everybody else in the country can sleep in and relax but here we are going to school. Apparently, the faculty voted to work on Labor day so they could have an extra day off during Christmas, the jerks, they bug me.

Also this past week I received probably my 15th parking ticket since being in school here, I'm bugged. I have about 3 more months, if I am careful, I can keep it under 20.

Tomorrow, the President will brain wash all the kids in America. Or at least thats what wonderful people like Glenn Beck want everyone to think. I used to listen to Glenn and he has changed quite a bit over the past few years. He has to sensationalize EVERY piece of news so his listeners or viewers will keep tuning in. Anyway, he bugs me.