MazPaz

2010-04-18T21:15:00.006-04:00

Saturday was a really busy day for us. We had a ward service project, we worked around a ladies house just doing odds and ends. I used a hedge trimmer for the first time and after about 18 seconds I managed to cut the extension cord. Luckily the cord was salvaged and I went back to work more careful than before. We finished up around noon and came home to clean up and head out to the World Grits Festival in St George, SC (apparently they eat more grits per capita than anywhere else in the world).

This is the cake they made, it was huge 10 sheet cakes.

MaryEllen is standing by the highlight of the festival. An inflatable pool full of grits. The contest: weigh yourself, then you have 10 seconds to swim, dive, roll in and splash in the grits, finally re-weigh yourself and the winner is the one with the greatest difference in weight. I think the kid that won during this contest had 14 pounds of grits on her!

The best technique was to tuck your shirt in and shove the grits down your neck hole.

Today we went and saw the Blue Angels fly. It was kinda fun but the seats werent that great so we went home and napped.

Photo Dump

2010-04-07T22:31:00.008-04:00

It has been some time since my last post. I cant believe it is April already and the year is just flying by.

We filed our taxes early this year and made a list of the things we wanted/needed. One of the things we wanted/needed was a new vacuum. Our old vacuum was a wedding gift and it was okay but not too powerful and had served its life well. We bought a Dyson and we really like it, I know if has gotten us vacuuming more, and when I say us, I mean me.

A few months ago Karl sent me a link to The O Run, a 4 mile obstacle course. Onna, Karl, MaryEllen and I made up a team and we even had matching tie dye shirts. It was fun and exhausting, I was definitely dead at the end.

The week after the O run was the Cooper River Bridge run. We have seen this every year and I have always wanted to do it but couldnt get MaryEllen to join me. Her friend from Utah, Jenny caught wind of the run and asked Ellen if she'd like to run it with her, and wouldnt you know it? Of course she would!

My parents came to town to do the run as well. We got together with 40,000 of our closest friends and ran the 6k. It was fun and a good experience and my knees hurt for 2 days after.

This is why MaryEllen always wears long sleeves, jk. Some people like to dress crazy and have a good time, one guy pushed his friend the whole way in a shopping cart with a pirate flag attached to it.

Jenny from Utah enjoying the water. I enjoy my head coming out of MaryEllen's shoulder.

Our first night in Utah it snowed as we came out of the Salt Lake temple. The snow reminded us of dipping dots. The temple was cool too and about 17 times larger than Columbia.

We drove by a mexican restaurant that instantly caught our eye. It reminded us of Filibertos from Mesa. The food was identical to Fili's and incredible, needless to say we gorged ourselves.

We were glad to meet up with some friends in Salt Lake, they picked us up downtown and we went to Cafe Rio. Their daughter was in the back seat sleeping and woke up to see Ellen and I, I cant remember seeing a more confused face. It was good to see them and have a great meal with them before they move on to the Gem State.

One morning we went on a "temple tour". I planned out 6 temples to drive around and see. It was fun to be able to drive down the road and see all sorts of chapels and temples. We saw Mt. Timpanogas, Draper, Jordan River, Bountiful, Oquirh Mountain and Salt Lake. Above is the Oquirh Mountain temple.

Draper, UT

On Sunday we went up to Ensign peak just north of the city. We started the hike with 8 in our group and ended with 3. Christian, Karl and I ascended the peak and were rewarded with a great view of the whole valley. The climb was too hard but the air was noticeably thinner than I am used to at sea level and there was a lot of mud.

The trip was really fun and busy. The southern crew flew home on the red eye. That was not a lot of fun. I was so tired all day on Monday and going back to work on Tuesday was miserable being so tired. While we were gone, a tornado hit inside our condo, or at least it looked like it. Such a mess.

I just planted some vegetables for the summer, 10 tomatoes (from seed) 2 okra and one eggplant. I am excited to see how they all do.

Moose

2010-03-10T23:15:00.005-05:00

This is Moose almost 3 years ago, when we first me her. We met 2 puppies and chose one, and it wasnt Moose. We told the lady we wanted a girl so she showed us her 2 she had. The lady called us up a week later and told us that the one we chose was actually a boy and asked if we wanted the other one, we did.

If you have ever met Moose the above picture pretty much sums her up. She is the coolest dog ever.

Here is a movie I made a few years ago.

Memphis and thereafter

2010-01-21T21:01:00.005-05:00

In Memphis we watched the parade for the Liberty bowl, Arkansas vs East Carolina. Dad got tired of standing around so we went to an early dinner. A few different people had recommended a place called Rendezvous for some classic Memphis BBQ. The place was packed, the parade ended right as we were heading to the restaurant, so half of the city and us walked to Rendezvous. We had to wait about 30 minutes for a table but it gave us time to chat.

The food was okay, I was a little bit unimpressed, probably because of all the recommendations. After dinner we walked a little bit downtown and mom and Ellen danced in the street hoping they would get some party beads. Well we soon realized it was about 30 degrees and how cold that is and decided to go check into the hotel. I bought Boggle and we played a few rounds of that before going to bed.

We went to Matthew's wedding, and it was the first time I've been to a wedding not in the scorching heat, instead this time, the blistering cold. Not sure which one is better. After the wedding, we went to Graceland Mansion. It was pretty cool, we can check it off our list of things to see. The house was half gaudy and half kitschy.

That night we went to the reception and ring ceremony. Mom and Dad started to feel sick so we went to the hotel and they were in bed by 8:30! Ellen and I just stayed up and sweaty because the sickies were so cold they cranked the heat way up. In the morning, Ellen and I went to church and were one of 4 couples without kids, very young ward.

After church we drove to Birmingham a long and boring drive with literally nothing between the cities. We saw the temple in Birmingham, surprise surprise, it looked just like the previous 2 we saw.

We woke up early Monday morning and headed home, stopping in Atlanta to see the temple there, a breath of fresh air- a unique looking one.

Now glad to be home in Charleston we are both back to work and staying busy. I have had two scout campouts in the past two weeks. Ellen couldnt be happier, she doesnt have to hear my beg her to go camping.

Nashville, Tennessee

2010-01-09T21:47:00.006-05:00

Johnny Cash's black suit

One of several wall of gold albums

Elvis' gold piano

December 31 we woke up in Hartsville at 4:30, quickly packed up and headed out for Nashville. I had the legs of our trek mapped out, I drove first. MaryEllen didnt last too long before she fell asleep and left me with a Dr Pepper and trail mix to keep me awake. Once the sun came up I was okay and not as sleepy. We made really good time and were in Nashville by noon.

A friend of ours recommended the Opryland hotel as a cool place to see so we went there first. So basically its just a gigantic hotel with a lot of courtyards. We thought it was going to be something different, like more country music displays and memorabilia so we were disappointed, mainly because we had to pay 20 bucks for parking. We then went to the Country Music Hall of Fame and toured around it for a while. It was fun, I liked all the stories about the history of country music. (before they called it country it was called hill billy music, ha) We saw a lot of memorabilia like Elvis' gold Cadillac, Carl Perkin's blue suede shoes and even a wig worn by Dolly Parton!

liked the museum, I am glad MaryEllen made me go! After the museum we walked around downtown seeing all the bars and clubs and hearing a different local band trying to make it big in Music City. We saw some commotion down by the river and investigated. They were setting up for a block party and concert to celebrate New Years. Ellen and I left and checked into the hotel then went to Barbie Cuties, a local barbecue place, it was good and quick.

After sitting around the hotel for a while we got bored and decided to go back downtown to the block party. It was freezing cold. We got near the stage and enjoyed the music of Rodney Atkins until the guitar dropped at midnight. After a little while of fireworks and more music we sped to the car to avoid freezing. MaryEllen's hands were ice cold and white from no blood circulation.

In the morning we checked out and went back downtown to look around some more. We went to Centennial Park, the only place in the world with a true to scale replica of the Parthenon in Greece. After that we went across the street to Vanderbilt University to walk around and see the campus, it was really nice and big.

My parents were flying into Memphis at 3 so we had to leave town to be there in time to pick them up. On the way out of town we stopped in Franklin and saw the "Nashville" temple.

Written in December...

2009-12-28T23:01:00.008-05:00

This month has been crazy. So much to do in so little time. At the beginning of the month, all my classes, that I have felt to be quite easy all semester all came crashing in on me. Final projects that I should have been working on all semester had to be started and finished very quickly. After a crazy week or two it all went away and I felt the relief of my last classes for my undergraduate degree, it did feel good.

The holidays are always crazy busy for me, so many people to buy for and goodies to make for friends. Mom and Dad came down a few times during the month to hang out and help make sweets, toffee, chocolate covered pretzels and peanut butter balls. With all these treats Ellen and I decided to do the Reindeer Run, an annual 5k downtown. The weather didnt cooperate, it was cold and rained the first half of the run so it was just miserable. After we finished and warmed up we realized it was pretty fun and pledged to do more 5ks.

We had company come to town again for my graduation. I had 10 tickets for my graduation and I was glad I used all but 1 (translation: I have 9 friends). The ceremony was good, a lot of work and preparation for a 10 second walk across a stage and shaking the Dean's hand. Afterwards we all went to a local pizza dive that is dear to my heart. We were a tad overdressed but everyone loved the pizza.

While my parents were in town we had our early Christmas since they always leave, they think they are too good for a Southern Christmas apparently. It was nice to open and give presents early, to tide us all over until Christmas. We played dreidel with the boys who loved it and now know at least 6 words in Herbrew.

(written in January...)

We went to Hartsville for Christmas and had a great time with family and enjoying good food and good company. For Christmas I got a bunch of practical gifts, camping gear and kitchen gear basically, but thats what I asked for so thats fine with me. Ellen got a sewing machine and a lot of clothes. Uhhh, a lot of fun was had but I cant recall most of it.

I went full time at work, so they gave me a raise and vacation time and now I can settle in there. Ending the month, we drove back to Hartsville Dec 29 and woke up at 4:30am on the 30th and made our way to Nashville. Also, as a graduation gift, people contributed money towards a new DSLR since I've wanted one for a while, so thats fun.

2009-12-21T23:24:00.001-05:00

Busy busy busy. I plan on writing a long posting soon but I wanted to post the link to our Christmas decorating video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWaJBFdxTZw

Good Grief

2009-12-05T17:48:00.001-05:00

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

2009-11-09T00:16:00.000-05:00

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.

2009-11-01T22:55:00.000-05:00

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

Camping

2009-11-01T13:19:00.000-05:00

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!

2009-10-19T22:23:00.007-04:00

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!

2009-09-18T22:51:00.002-04:00

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

2009-09-07T22:19:00.003-04:00

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.

Birthdays Past

2009-08-28T00:38:00.008-04:00

Just thought of posting a few birthday pics from the past and then it became a quest to find all I had. I am surprised how many I have on my computer. I counted 19 of 26. I do have one of my actual BIRTH day but it wasnt too pretty.

I'm Back Baby

2009-08-25T08:33:00.005-04:00

Its nice to be settling into our condo. After only 2 years we finally have the Internet, something we discussed getting when we first got married. Well we had generous (or ignorant) neighbors so we just used their wifi. Well that dried up about 2 months ago so we had to break down and get our own.

Since I last posted life has been pretty normal. Getting ready for school and working full time. I needed to tell my work about a class that I hadnt told them yet. The class is MWF at 11, kinda in the middle of the day. I tried to work with the teacher to be able to get independent study but he declined. So I figured work would let me go because of this random class that would keep me from work for a few hours each day. Well they havent let me go yet. They told me its not a big deal, its only 3 months. I am still somewhat curious why they kept me, I dont think I am out of the dark yet, I wouldnt be mad or surprised if they let me go, some days at work need a person there all day.

I had my birthday, I am now 26 years OLD! Ellen gave me season 2 of Flight of the Conchords, maybe my favorite gift. She also gave me a new sport coat for me to look dapper and suave in.

Today was supposed to be my first day of school so I woke up quite early and got ready. Using my newly installed wifi, I checked my schedule and was able to change my schedule to have todays class moved to tomorrow. So I think I have my classes figured out, I have 3 and by the end of the semester, Ellen will have my schedule figured out.

Ellen's brother moved to Utah and left most of his furniture. Good for us because we got their armoire/entertainment center. My dad drove it down one day, I spent a few weeks sanding and repainting the unit, I really like it and am ready for Demp to make us some more furniture!

While at home for the wedding we were all looking through old pictures. I took home a big folder and scanned them all in to preserve on my computer. I love looking at the pictures and remembering how awesome I looked as a boy.

Also, another garden update. The okra and jalepenos are winding down. I have enough produce to make it feel like a quasi success!

Fun Weekend

2009-08-02T09:09:00.006-04:00

I am writing today to commemorate the 100th hitting of my head on the low ceiling in the Tallon household attic room. We came to town Thursday night for Karls wedding. Usually when we come to Hartsville, we stay with my parents in our assigned bedroom. I really learned where I stood in my family when I found out that I would be bumped from my room and everyroom for that matter while the rest of the family was in town.

Luckily, Sherry lives nearby so we could stay with her. Sherry also had family in town and we also learned where we stood with them when we got bumped to the upstairs attic/play room/cave. Dont get me wrong, I am glad to have a roof over my head, but in this case it is literally directly over my head and because its the toy room Moose wont be quiet and go to bed. Its like throwing your kid in FAO Schwartz and telling them to go to bed.

Thursday night, a lot of the family got into town and we all met up at Rancho and had some quasi okay Mexican American food. Then we all went to the house and played wii and chatted until late in the night. Friday came early when we had to be out for family pictures at 8:15, it wasnt too hard to get up since Moose had been ready to play since about 6. The pictures went well, I am excited to see if any turned out. Karl's wedding was at 2 so we all headed to the temple for that. The ceremony went well and was over before we knew it.

The after wedding pictures where a chilling reminder of our wedding pictures two years ago. The sun was hot and everything was muggy and gross. We took pictures while the storm cloud rolled in and subsequently dumped rain on the whole party. Most people headed for the dinner, Ellen and I stayed and helped the photographer, it kept raining but they made some pretty good pictures out of it. The power actually went out in the temple while I was waiting for the pictures to finish up, that was weird.

The dinner went well, we all got full on bread and then our entrees came out and we filled up some more. After the dinner the brothers minus Karl went out to Brian Jordans house to fish and shoot. We decided just to shoot since the fishing wasnt good for once. It was real fun shooting trap with all of them. After shooting Brian Jordan told a few jokes that they all politely laughed at (they didnt get the joke) until I told them on the way home. When they actually got the joke they died of laughter and talked about it for hours.

Saturday morning we had a big breakfast at Moms and then just kinda hung out the rest of the day until the reception. I had to go early as I was part of the ever important wedding party. The photographer who was the third one we had in 2 days, (family pics and temple pics) was by far the worst, or at least the meanest. She didnt like me the instant she saw me and had no problem letting me know it. Oh well, the pictures didnt last long so we could get to the party and have some fun. They had good food and the place looked really good. Karl and Onna both wore green low top Chuck Taylors which was a nice touch. The dancing was pretty good, Karl picked out some good songs and I danced to them with my nieces. The party was over quickly and it was a good time. It made Ellen and I want to get remarried so we could have another reception.
Most of the family is heading home today and so are we. It was really good to see a lot of my family that I hadnt seen in a long time. I keep texting Karl but he doesnt respond, come on bro, you have something better to do besides chat with me!?

Swanny

2009-07-19T14:39:00.004-04:00

I swear. My garden started out so promising this season. Tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, okra, and jalepenos. Well after my
Mexico trip I came home to see my garden a mess. My jalepeno plant was destroyed by some bird or rodent. My only comfort is that the pest suffered a great deal of pain upon eating all those jalepenos. Only the okra plant is fruitful now. Next year I will change it up and hopefully have a better harvest.

Yesterday we got up at 5 and went on a youth temple trip. We came home and crashed for a few hours before I went to go help my hometeacher move a piano into his house. It was rough. Some how pianos get into house fairly easily. Getting them out is hard. We picked it up from the craigslist seller and probably destroyed his door squeezing it out. Oh well. After I got home from moving piano, Ellen and I both went to help a family move in, lucky for them we did, because nobody else did. We were deAd after the move and just went home and watched a movie and went to bed. It's good to be weary in the work.

Long time no blog

2009-07-09T20:42:00.007-04:00

It's been a long time. One of the pitfalls of using another household's wireless Internet is that it comes and goes like the wind. Well I think the free Internet tap has run dry, it's been out for 2 weeks. We are currently exploring getting our own.

Since I last blogged we took our trip to Mexico.

It's was pretty fun. When we first got to Guadalajara, it was dark and rainy. We took a cab to the hotel and it wasnt very nice, it was hot and the traffic and driving made most of us a little sick. I started to think this was gonna be not fun. The hotel was cool and authentic Mexican, we settled in and went out to get food. The only thing open was a convenience store. I never saw too many grocery stores, but a ton of little 711's and other mini stores. Karl and I found a taco stand on the way home and stopped in. The tacos were great, the place put plastic bags on the plates so they wouldnt have to wash them, just take the plastic off.

In the morning we went to some pyramids about an hour away. We had a Spanish speaking guide so Karl translated most of it and we all learned a lot (death soccer). My favorite part was when we all noticed the sign saying no climbing on the pyramids and then saw the guides dog blow past the sign and climb all over the pyramid like he owned them. It was good for a bilingual laugh. After the pyramids we toured the town in the valley and just walked around the shops and town square. After that we went to a mall, pretty uneventful, it may as well have been in the US, actually it was cleaner than US malls.

That afternoon we went to Karne Girabaldi, Guiness Book record holder for fastest Mexican food (13 seconds) One thing I dont like about Mexican restaruants down there: right when you sit down they expect you to order, I know they mostly just have tacos so it shouldnt take long but come on stop hovering over me! We went to the hugest market I've ever seen, it had many levels. They looked like slums, all small and stacked atop each other. Some stuff was just too smelly for Ellen, when we stumbled on the butcher, she almost lost it. I stuck around and watched all the people buying menudo and hoofs. After a while, the stuff all started looking the same. We went home and rested. By this time I had pretty much drank nothing but horchata and I was getting pretty sick of it, I had enough to not want it for at least 2 weeks.

Sunday morning we went to church. It was interesting, no AC, not a lot of people and it was in Spanish. I understood some, well enough anyways. After church we walked around the temple and then went back to the hotel and packed. We went to the bus station and took a four hour bus ride to Manzanillo. This was the nicest bus I've ever been on, tons of recline, movies and good food. It was at this time that I discovered a new drink, Manzana. Its made by coke and its just carbonated apple, delicious. Getting sick of all these details! Gonna take a cue from Jennifer: Manzanillo was fun and relaxing.

We took a taxi everywhere we went in Mexico, only taking the bus a few times. More shopping, everywhere we went, more shopping! Our hotel in Tlaquepaque was great. We had two villas and a shared courtyard. It was right down the street from the main market. More tacos for dinner, more shopping after dinner. At this time some of our less zealous travelers began to tire of tacos, blasphemy! We took another taxi to another town and did more shopping, can you see a theme or pattern?

We were all ready to go home by Wednesday night, mainly because we had no more room in our luggage to do more shopping. Mom and Dad cleaned out a Nativity display. The lady was extactic. Her normal daily earnings: 0, on this day between all 5 of us, she pulled in like 2000 pesos. Only 40 times the daily average for a worker in Mexico! We stuffed all our wares into our bags, mom and dad had to buy a new bag to hold their stuff. In Houston we parted ways, Mom and Dad went to Arizona and we all came home to the South, good to see all the diversity. Ellen commented that it was sad because now we couldnt act like ignorant Americans anymore.

All in all, an incredible trip and a great time had by all, I think.

Here is a link to more pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/trooperkae/Mexico?authkey=Gv1sRgCL7WucLZi9aqHQ&feat=directlink

Misery

2009-06-21T19:14:00.005-04:00

The weather here has been disgusting. In A blog a while back I stated that nothing could be better than the south. I may need to redact that statement. The past 3 days the weather has been like 95 degrees plus humidity and just absolutely miserable. My poor dog, not getting good walks during the day to avoid heat, I just don't want to go outside ever.

On Saturday, Ellen and I met Karl, mom and dad in Columbia to go to the temple and shopping. The temple was packed, never seen it so full and overcrowded. After the temple we ate and went shopping an spent too much money on clothes.

Right when we got home we changed and headed to a reception for a friends sister. Did I mention it was hot? It was dang hot outside and when we walked in it was hotter. I got a drink and I was ready to go, just too hot for me. I walked to my car and text Ellen to come out so we could leave, I tried to call Karl to chat but he was busy so I went back in to retrieve Ellen. I took my jacket off and so it was a bit more comfortable, go figure. We hung out more and then it ended and somehow we just started cleaning up. So we stayed and took down chairs and tables and cleaned. I was having a sweaty day.

We had friends over after and we hung out and played wii until like 12:30. We were so tired yesterday, it wasnt fun to wake up this morning. Adding to the difficult wake up was the fact that we had NO food in our fridge, literally it was almost barren empty. Sooner or later we will go grocery shopping and have food again, some day.

My jalepenos are the trophy children of my garden. The big one is like 2 inches long.

What?

2009-06-15T21:42:00.006-04:00

Work has gotten better, some times I wish for more work and other times I have so much going on I get dizzy. Why cant it just be even?

A quick word on the garden: it keeps growing, so much so that I have had to foster out some plants. My okra plant got a new larger container and a new home at MaryEllen's aunts house. I go water her tomato plants several times a week so I figured I'd know they were taken care of. My squash, I will be replanting it tomorrow, it ran out of room in its make shift topsy turvy. So now I will see if it make the transition from upside down to right side up and survive. I finally have some female blossoms, up until 3 days ago my cucumber plant was nothing but a bunch of dudes, kinda like the parties I went to in high school.

On Saturday, the weather was nice enough for our helicopter ride. I rode up front, Ellen in back. We were happy to see the helicopter had air conditioning, apparently, most dont. We kinda were confused when it took the pilot 2 or 3 tries to start the engine but once it cranked it seemed pretty strong. I was surprised he didnt give us any training or safety tips, he just turned on the helicopter and we floated away. I had heard they were quite smooth and it kinda was, just not as smooth as I had thought. He took us on a ride around all the major Charleston land marks. It was cool to see everything from above and get a different perspective on things. It was over in about 35 minutes but it was fun and a great anniversary gift from Ellen.

A friend gave us some zucchini so on Saturday so that night I decided to try and make zucchini bread. It ended up okay. Tonight I'm making banana bread.

2009-06-09T23:39:00.005-04:00

Friday night, Ellen and I watched Paul Blart and during the movie we made two lists. One was for grocery shopping which was desperately needed. Literally it had been over a month since we went shopping for groceries. The other list was for all the things I/we wanted to do on Saturday, items included cleaning, gardening, and other things around the house.

Saturday, we started doing the list. I cleaned the fridge, which wasnt too hard- take out mustard jar,wipe underneath it, done. Our fridge was so empty. Around 12, I sit to take a break and Ellen decides to give me my anniversary present. Its a card saying we are going on a helicopter ride and the appointment is at 2. Well, most people would have been excited, not me. I thought of my list and all the things that "couldnt wait". I really wasnt too excited, even requesting that we move it to another day. To put it mildly, Ellen was a bit taken back at my reaction. I felt justified, I'm not a big surprise guy, she surprised me last year with a trip to Savannah and I reacted similarly, she should have known, right?

Well after 45 minutes, I decided I would be okay with postponing my all important list. So we drove over to James Island and got a call from the pilot who explained the weather was too bad for the trip. I was let down, a complete roller coaster, I went from not wanting to go, to wanting to go to being canceled on. Oh well, we rescheduled for this upcoming Saturday and I am pretty excited. Saturday night, we went to dinner downtown. We had some good eats, we ate too much but it was just too good, best shrimp and grits* of my lifetime. I gave Ellen some bath and body stuff and a container with 5 pounds of hot tamales, she loves them. Also she can pick a new watch for me to buy her. Will she step outside the box and get a new style or just get a new color? (she has 3 of the same watch, just different colors)

So its another week of work for me. Its still hit and miss on busy and slow days. It may be picking up, but even today, half the day I was just sitting there bored. At the end of the day, my boss tells me "sorry we threw all this work on you, we know its a lot for your second week". Um, no, give me more so the day wont be so boring! I just finished listening to a book Tuesdays with Morrie, I had heard from a lot of people that it was good. I guess I just wasnt in the mood to read it. Next on my list is Diary of Anne Frank, whats up with all these depressing books!?

Job

2009-06-04T00:36:00.003-04:00

All last weekend I had mixed emotions. On one hand, I was happy and excited to start a new job, not only to increase experience but also to get some cash money! On the other hand I was bummed to be wrapping up my last few days of complete and utter laziness and apathy.

Sunday night I was checking my email as I layed in bed and received an email from the other job I had hoped would call me back. I was mad. Here I was 8 hours from my first day at my new job and I get this email to interview for another. I wasnt sure what to do. Dad suggested I try for a phone interview.

Monday came so very early. I had all my new shirts ironed and hanging, so it was nice to look into the closet and make a pick. Work is about 20 minutes away, luckily I drive the opposite way of the heavy traffic both ways. I am starting to like the job. The first day or so was quite boring. A lot of papers to sign and manuals to acknowledge. My trainer really didnt seem to have a lot of time for me so I felt like a burden. I am starting to get work and be able to do things on my own so it makes time go faster. At lunch today I had my phone interview. It was interesting to be interviewing and not feel the nervousness of needing a job, I felt casual and relaxed.

I wont take the job if they offer it to me. I have hope my current job will be good for me for the next little while. The one thing I liked about it was its only 2 miles away, but alas, my current commute isnt too long or hard. Plus, I am now downloading audio books to keep me happy on the drives.

One thing I still need to perfect if sleep. Each day I wake up and say "tonight I'm going to bed earlier!" but, invariably, I dont. I forget all about the misery of waking up and get busy doing nothing and end up going to bed the same time. I hope I will just get used to it.

I know on to the garden. I know I talk about it a lot but dang! I now have 5 tomato coming, ranging in size from the size of a pea up to a foosball. My jalapeno plant is producing buds. I could keep going with how happy I am. Ellen makes fun of me for checking on them every few minutes when I wake up and come home from work. I swear they change a lot over the course of the day.

Sunday

2009-05-31T14:19:00.002-04:00

This past week was pretty good. Just another week of looking for a job and being bored and tired of being bored. On Tuesday, I applied for a couple of jobs that had been posted over the weekend. One was right by Ellen's work and we could easily car pool so I was really hoping for that. The other was about 15 miles away, both of the jobs were similar.

I got emails from both of them on Tuesday, the further job, with a company called ShipCo, called me and had a phone interview and set up a interview for the next day. The interview went well, it was actually like 3 interviews because I had to meet with different people there. Tuesday night,I went home teaching and then my home teacher called and asked me to help him move some stuff "probably like an hour, just a couple of things". I said sure and went to help. Well, of course it was more than a few things and over an hour, I am fine with that, no complaints just funny.

Thursday, my other home teacher called and asked if I would come downtown and give his mom a blessing. I agreed, but this week has been a little backwards, my home teachers should come help me move, come give me a blessing, I felt like should share the First Presidency message with them too! On Friday, Bryant and I went fishing again. Right before we left, ShipCo called me and offered me the job, I accepted. Dang it! No more lazy days that I despised and loathed only minutes before the offer, no more sleeping in and playing with moose all day. But also, no more poor.

The crabbing was poor, we didnt even get one. I caught 4 small fish that promptly got thrown back into the river. I was supposed to be going on a campout with the scouts but the leader called and canceled it because one of the boats that was transporting us broke. I was mad because I had looked forward to the campout and fishing. Ellen had a babysitting gig on Friday so I rented Valkyrie. It stormed so hard that night, I no longer was upset the campout go canceled.

Yesterday, I helped my home teacher move again for a "half an hour" and two hours later came home and got ready to go the movies, we saw Night at the Museum.

Today was good at church, this week was good. I did some good service and my home teaching and that made me feel good. I needed it because last week at Myrtle Beach I was bitter. I see so many members who just dont care or find so many excuses to not go to church, it just really bugged me, so this week was good and it let me forget about all that.

On a lighter note, I have my first tomato coming up, two actually, both the size of marbles but still the experiment is working.

Lazy Days

2009-05-26T13:33:00.005-04:00

Since I have been jobless I have had time to do a lot of the things I hadnt made time for in the past. My garden is fantastic and growing. MaryEllen says its redneck and ghetto because sometimes I use old jugs or potato salad containers for planters. I wonder if she will complain when I reap the bounty from my ghetto-garden. I have planted all I can, squash, okra, jalepeno, tomato, cucumber and some flowers and a vine. I have even expanded to a friends backyard.

If you live in the south, you've tried boiled peanuts, if not, you should come and try them. They are sold all over, usually by little road side stands. Ellen and I made our own this week, it took a long time, they boiled in salt water for about 6 hours, this makes them soft and salty and delicious.

Thursday night we went to a Sugarland concert. MaryEllen is a big fan and has been ready for this show for a while. I kinda like Sugarland and the lead singer is kinda pretty so it wasnt too bad for me. It was better than the Taylor Swift concert because the average age of the concertgoer wasnt 11. It was still quite loud, we sat on the 4th row and we were really close to speakers. Next time, ear plugs. It was rainy and the concert was outside so that was interesting. It rained pretty good during the time between the opener and Sugarland but then it held off.

On Friday, I went fishing/crabbing. It was such a nice day, perfect to stand out in the sun and wait for something to bite. Ellen's brother Bryant came with me to try his luck in getting some crabs. The fish werent biting but the we managed to trap 5 decent sized blue crabs and a ton of hermit crabs. I threw them all back, it didnt feel like dealing with all the work. It was fun and I plan on going to a different place sometime this week to try for some more.

After MaryEllen got off work, we cruised up to Myrtle Beach for the long weekend. Demp and Sherry are spending a month at Ocean Lakes in their camper and its nice every couple of years to go relax with them on the beach. Pretty much all we did for the weekend was sit and relax which is both nice and boring. Karl was at the campground right next door so we hung out a few times, it was nice since we hadnt seen him since he came home.

On Monday, we pretty much did more of the same. Ellen got her hair done by Mindee and when she was done we headed home. My plants were looking pretty rough when I got home, I hadnt watered them in 3 days so they were thirsty. Tuesday morning they were back to normal, I was surprised at how fast they rebounded.

update

2009-05-12T23:33:00.005-04:00

Tomato plant, now is all the way to top of container

Cucumber

My plants are doing so well. Last week, given the success of my homemade topsy turvy tomato, I made another one. This time I planted cucumbers. I measured the plant on day one to track growth, it is doing very well too. So now I have a tough choice, I want to plant more, so do I make more topsy turvys and make the porch that much more redneck? Or do I just buy containers and use the rail containers that lie empty now? Tomorrow, Ellen's coworker is giving me "a bunch" of tomato plants, where will I put them? I also went to lowes today and decided what I will plant next- pimento, jalepeno and okra.

Also, I got sick of my long hair and shaved it off.

Wilmington

2009-05-11T17:28:00.006-04:00

Last week I finished my finals and now have one semester left. I have all my grades but one and it is looking good. My dad text me on Tuesday and told me of my unlce's passing and that they were going to the funeral in Arizona. I was sad, we lived in Arizona for a while and our families were pretty close. I didnt know him all that well, probably because I was a punk teenager, but he always seemed genuinely interested in how things were going with everyone. Another memory was from my wedding. After the sealing, the whole room was hugging, John came up to Ellen and hugged her, she hadnt met him before and was confused who he was, it was funny.

So with mom and dad going to Arizona, that left us with a decision, do we cancel Wilmington or go without them? We decided since it was planned and arrangements had been made that we would go ahead with plans. Friday morning we woke up early and took moose to the beach. In the early mornings its legal to let dogs run off leash. We were somewhat unsure if she would just run away and never come back but went ahead anyways. She stayed pretty close to us, running after the big dogs on occasion.

I had a job interview at 10, waste of time. The job described hardly resembled the job talked about during the interview. After I got home, we hit the road for the 3 hour drive to Wilmy. We pit stopped in Myrtle Beach to eat at Margarittaville. Side note on MB: I dont like the town. If it werent for friends and family that lived there and a church, I'd say just burn it to the ground. Traffic is terrible all year round, even the bypass is backed up. They need a bypass to bypass the bypass.

After we ate our Cheeseburgers in Paradise we drove on and were in Wilmy in no time. Its a little southern city right on the coast, similar to Charleston but smaller, and cleaner. We walked around, checked into the hotel and ate some delicious pizza. The hotel was nice but some people outside our door made noise every now and then which was kinda annoying. That didnt stop us from soaking up every once of free cable we could! We say we dont need it at home, and we dont, but dang we love it.

We toured an WWII battleship which was pretty cool, we took a trolley tour, went to a farmers market, window shopped and a lot more. We spent about 45 minutes in a store that sells nothing but beads. Ellen designed 2 sets of earrings and they make them for you right there. We saw Ben Matlock's house (from the show) and a store from One Tree Hill, Clothes over Bros. We stopped into a national cemetery, for some reason I like to look at cemeteries, but not at night. At night, I couldnt be more scared of them, even the one in Ellen's backyard. Anywho, I looked at the grave roster and found an Ensign. Benjamin Ensign, died in 1865. I am not sure if we are related but how random was that?!

We went to the beach, watched people fish off a pier and enjoyed the sunset in North Carolina. Saturday night, I had one of the best burritos in my lifetime. Flaming Amy's was phenomenal. They have a salsa bar was amazing with such salsas as Ginger Peach and Pineapple Jalepeno. For that reason, I wish we could swap Myrtle Beach for Wilmington in a city for city trade. Sunday we went to church and had an interesting time. The family in front of us had 6 kids under 8 and two of them did nothing else but turn towards us and play the whole time. Ellen entertained them and tried to keep them quiet as the solo dad remained oblivious. When the organist mom came to her seat she seemed put off that Ellen was trying to keep her kids quiet. (Somewhere in Wilmington an angry organist mother blogged about how rude the visitors behind them were)

After church we headed for Southport, NC. Here is a ferry that takes people over to Bald Head Island. BHI is a private, vacation island for wealthy people with nothing better to do. The island is nothing but houses, a golf course and 2 restaurants. I wouldnt want to stay on the island for more than a few hours because there isnt much to do. I guess people who like to just literally rest on vacation go there. Not for me. We rented bikes and rode around (no cars allowed on the island) We saw and climbed an old lighthouse called Old Baldy, it was looking pretty tore up. We hurried around the island and hopped back on the ferry.

On our way home we saw another lighthouse, we are working our way through seeing all the east coast lights, we have now seen 7 of 130.

Another Long One

2009-05-02T16:36:00.005-04:00

A lot has been going on since my last long post. I have just 2 finals this year, so thats good. My hard one was on the first day so I didnt have a lot of time to prepare. Fortunately, I have done well enough throughout the semester that I dont need to panic during finals.

After Jimmy Buffett, I had a ton of papers to write and projects to complete, thankfully that is done and over now. Just one more final and its not too tricky.

Last week the news started talking about this Mexican swine flu. At first we just figured it was random and we didnt think twice about it effecting our Mexico trip. Well, each day it got worse and more and more people got it. Karl was telling us what the conditions were in Mexico and how everything was closing and shutting down. So after talking with Mom and Dad, we decided to postpone the trip. So now we are trying to decide if we will go to Mexico in July or to another locale. We dont want to rebook Mexico and have the same problem two months later. Our other possibilities are Guatemala, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica. So thats that. We were all bummed that our trip got bumped. My parents were nice enough to offer us a "mini-vacation" next weekend. Just a short trip up to Wilmington to get away and relax, so I am excited for that.

Have you ever been hypnotized or entranced by infomercials? Sometimes I find myself glued to them and I dont know why. The other day I was stuck on a Topsy Turvy infomercial. This thing supposedly can grow mammoth tomatoes with little effort or time. Well before I could buy one, I realized maybe I could make my own. So I got a Hawaiian punch bottle and went to work. So far so good. I planted early girl tomatoes because they only take 50 days plus my deck only gets light for about 3 hours in the afternoon. Over the past 4 days I have seen tremendous improvement. The vine is climbing upwards and growing fast.

I had a job interview on Thursday. They selected 7 out of 30 to interview for 2 internships. I'd love to be chosen, the money isnt great but its good experience and looks nice on a resume. So we will see. That night Mindee, her sister and friend came to town for the Taylor Swift concert. I wasn't too excited for this concert, I told MaryEllen to find someone else to go but she couldn't (or she didnt try so I would have to go). So it was about 9,999 girls and me that night. Just kidding, there may have been 100 guys. One nice thing was the guys bathroom was never crowded. Kelly Pickler opened and Taylor Swift came on. In the parking lot were 8 Taylor Swift semis, she had several set changes. Anyways, she did alright, it got so loud with the girls screaming, I had to plug my ears often.

Friday, I woke up at 4:15 to go fishing with my friend. I had to get some snacks and ice but I was in his parking lot at 5 am. Gerald, his roommate Tradd, and his dad Mike and I all piled into his boat and headed off. The boat ride was 3 of the longest hours of my life. The seas were high that day and the boat was small, translation: extremely bumpy and unpleasant. I am lucky I dont tend to get seasick otherwise it would have been game over. I got soaked to the bone with all the sea spray, absolutely miserable. But finally, we arrived, 68 miles off shore.

Once we got out, we rigged up all the rods and began trolling with 4 poles. We drove around for a while and it started to get boring when all of the sudden the whir of the fishing line sprung us all into action. All four rods had a fish on them. We all went to work reeling our fish in. 2 fish got off and 2 stayed on. I caught my first mahi mahi. It was like 3 feet long! We all re rigged and started trolling more. We caught several more mahi. My line had a bit so I started reeling and noticed it was especially heavy. I couldnt reel it in, so we just battled and I let it get tired. It turned out to be a 6 foot sand shark! It was huge and viscous! We couldnt get it into the boat and when we did we couldnt control it. So finally we got the hook out, the hook was straight, it was tugged so hard it straightened instead of pulling through the shark skin.

We caught a few more mahi and sat around for a while. Around 3 we started back home. Another 3 hour ride. The ride home wasnt so bad, I sat in the back out of the way of the spray. I was so happy to be off the boat. I loved fishing, I caught 2 mahi and 1 shark, but hated the commute.

2009-04-28T15:57:00.001-04:00

Walking to my car after a study session- a bird just attacked me! Twice it flew at my head, once striking me. Stupid bird, probably funny to watch though.

2009-04-23T11:59:00.002-04:00

Holy crap. I just saw a Cirque du Soleil show, Saltimbanco. That had to have been one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Its has all the spectacular acts of a circus but without all the animal torture of a Ringling circus. I highly recommend seeing the show if it comes near you.

Jimmy Buffett

2009-04-22T11:26:00.013-04:00

Heading back from the concert now. Yesterday we piled into the car, Jenny (from Utah), Bryant, Ellen and I and drove up to Charlotte. On the way we picked up Jacob Edwards in Columbia. In Charlotte we got some food (JITB) and went and relaxed at the hotel. The weather was very windy and a bit chilly, completely opposite than last year in Hotlanta. We went to the concert about 4 hours early and stood in line. We were first in line and when they opened we were first inside and got pretty much the best lawn seats. It was nice to just lie on the blankets and not have the weather scorch our faces.

After the concert we went to ihop and then back to the hotel. I stayed up late finishing a presentation I have to give today.

The concert was fun, not so much as last years. He played a lot of his NOT greatest hits, why? I dont know but I didnt like it as much.

School is getting down to crunch time, just one week till finals. I have to take 2 for sure, if I do well on a test tomorrow I wont have to take a third.

I went to Hartsville this past weekend to chill with Karl and do Christmas in April, it was a fun trip. Ellen stayed home because she had church meetings.

Driving home from Hartsville I realized how much I like the South. In my opinion its far superior than the west, if you dont agree, you are only lying to yourself.

Everything is so green here.

Speaking of green, happy Earth Day. Change a light bulb, compost, recycle, bring your own bags, plant a tree or a crummy cactus.

2009-04-15T09:23:00.001-04:00

Simple pleasures

Dont you love it when you think its almost time to wake up then you realize you still have four hours to sleep! Thats the best. Also I'am testing out the new text to blog feature.

stuff

2009-04-13T23:49:00.007-04:00

So much has happened since my last post, too much to write it all.

2 weeks ago, we got an email asking us to help out on stake youth conference. This year the youth conference was a pioneer trek, they do it every four years here. We were assigned to be parents of a trek family. They gave us a list of things to get so we quickly went to work buying all the things we needed. I guess normal, established families have all these items all ready but we really had nothing and had to buy it all.

I have been doing my job shadow with the SC Port Authority and it has been both good and bad. The bad, I really didn't pick this shadow and it isnt really what I have an interest in, port operations. So it can be somewhat stale to sit and discuss Gantry Cranes for 2 hours. But some fun things we have done: we have gone onto the port a few times, we climbed to the highest point in Mt Pleasant, 267 feet, its on top of a crane, crazy high- and it has metal grate floor so you can see all the way down. We also went onto a tug boat (yes Jen, they still use tug boats). It was cool to be on the boat and see things up close, although this got boring too. I am now done with my shadow experience.

Last Saturday we had good weather, so during the break in conference we took a blanket outside and read our books relaxing. We laid our blanket half in the shade half out. I fell asleep quickly after laying out there, I stayed asleep for an hour, half in the sun half out. Why the shade didnt move with the sun, I dont know, all I know is half my body was burnt and the other half was not.

My parents came to town this week because my dad had a meeting Wednesday morning. They came Tuesday night and had dinner and played guitar hero. I shopped around with my mom Wednesday morning and had a good time. That night we worked hard to pack our stuff for trek.

Thursday started trek, 5am. We were out in the forest by 7 meeting our family and hitting the trail. It has been kinda rainy here recently and it was quite evident on the trail. We soon found water and mud up to our knees. Our family was smaller than most but they all worked together and made due. Thursday morning the trail wasnt too bad but by the afternoon it had turned horrible. We were told not to pull the cart and let the youth figure it out but I couldnt help but pull. The water and mud was so bad and everyone was so tired. I pulled most of the afternoon and about died. What a relief it was when we made it to the camp. It felt so good to take off my wet boots and put on dry shoes and socks. We had meager meals all day and we all just sat around by the fire until bedtime. The girls had a huge tent and the guys had a little lean to tent, which was had no room for me so I just slept by the fire, it was nice.

Friday was another early day, 5 am wake up. We made oatmeal and it was horrible! No flavor, no sugar, just plain oats, gross. We were on the trail by 7 and walking again. The trail wasnt so wet as the day before but still hard. One of the things we did was a "womens pull", all the guys get drafted to the war and girls are left to pull the carts by themselves. That was kinda sad to think of and experience but soon it was over. The mud in the afternoon was gross, we got stuck several times, and I have no idea how we kept moving. We made it to camp and had a bunch of workshops and old pioneer fun to enjoy. Unfortunately, most were too tired to really enjoy themselves.

In the morning we had a testimony meeting and then packed up and walked a short trail to a breakfast feast. I think everyone ate more in that meal than they did the previous 2 days. All in all it was a great experience that helped me to understand some of the sacrifice my ancestors made.

I slept all day on Saturday, I was so tired. Sunday we spent Easter at home just relaxing and having a good time.

One more post

2009-03-25T17:21:00.006-04:00

Just one more post about my trip then I'm done.

Saturday morning, the one day we could have slept in, we didnt. Someone had read a tourism book that said Amsterdam has a city market every Saturday and it was from 8-9. S0 we got out very early to go check out this local market. I think we got there before many of the vendors, we found out the market is open from 8 am to 9 pm. I guess that makes more sense than only staying open for an hour. The market was a joke, mostly fruit or just stuff nobody wanted. A local directed us to another market that ended up being just a huge garage sale.

I heard a bicycle tour is the best way to see the city so I found a coupon for one that started at 11. Nobody wanted to go with me fearing having to ride a bicycle in the city. That is a fairly valid fear, bikes are like cars there, they have there own lanes, traffic signals and right of way laws. There is so much going on that riding a bicycle can be very difficult. Regardless, I wanted to see more of the city. So I went to the place and they dont give tours until May, when it warms up. They did offer me a rental bike for 5 euro, deal. So I grabbed a map and hit the road, or rather the bike lane. It was great to be able to move so fast. I went and found some cool sites, a old windmill, cool buildings, old museums. The bad thing about moving so fast is that I also got lost very fast. I kept looking on my map and then trying to find street names or landmarks but I couldnt find a thing. It wasnt like I was in a sketchy area, I wasnt afraid or anything, just unsure where the heck I was. I just kept riding sure that I would soon pass a landmark and realize where I was. So I just kept riding, and riding, and riding. I knew my destination was right around the next corner, then the next corner, and so on. Finally I admitted defeat as I was now far outside of the city. So when I came across a fellow biker, I asked if she could show me where I was on my map. Well, she laughed at me when she said my map wasnt big enough to show me where I was.

She gestured to an area about 5 inches off of the map, great. She was nice and pointed me in the right direction. So I headed that way and got lost again. I asked another lady and she showed me where on the map I was, finally at least I was on the map. Well I realized I was close to the Riksmuseum, the national museum in Holland. I decided to get off the bike and check out this museum. I really thought it would be like a Smithsonian type museum, you know, fun things to look at. Well it wasnt, it was nothing but art. I dont mind art but this just wasnt doing it for me, so I hurried through the museum realizing I had wasted 15 euro.

I left and followed the main tram into town to make sure I didnt get lost again. Back inside the city, it was much harder to navigate my bike, so much traffic. So after a little while I dropped the bike off and felt good about my little bike adventure.

I grabbed some food and shopped around for gifts before taking the tram back out to the museum area. Our group was supposed to meet at the Van Gogh museum at 5. Surprisingly, the whole group showed up in waves. We walked through the museum, which was slightly better than the one I went to earlier. But even that got to be a little too much art, half the museum wasnt even Van Gogh, I didnt pay 15 euro for some no name. So after the museum we went and got food, tapas actually. Tapas are basically like appetizers and you are supposed to order a whole bunch and share so it was fun. It was getting late once dinner got over and I knew I had to get up at 5 to pack for the return flight.

So after a little more time hanging out with the group, myself and Colt decided to call it a night. We made it to the train station just missing the 12:30 train but the 1:00 am train was already there so we went ahead and got on. As 1 came closer, our train kept getting fuller and fuller, one group even asked me if this was the Schipol train and I said it was. Well, Colt passed out after about 38 seconds in the train so I decided to watch a tv show on my ipod. I watched a monk episode. Or at least I started to watch it. I woke up when I felt my ipod slipping off my leg, I quickly recognized our once packed train car was now empty. I started to freak out. I asked the one guy that was still in our car if we have passed Schipol yet, we had. CRAP. So I grab Colt who is totally out of it and we get off on the next stop. This stop is a ghost town, absolutely nobody else there. I looked at a train map, we slept passed our stop by 3 stops and the next train to Schipol was in 20 minutes, 1:45. No big deal normally, BUT, the shuttle bus from the airport to our hotel leaves at 1:55. So anyways, finally our train comes and I ask a lady, 20 minutes to the airport. So I decided I would run like crazy at the airport and see if by chance we could catch the bus. No dice. Bus was long gone. So we decided that we would have to sleep at the airport and catch the shuttle again at 4 am. So we headed back in to take a nap when a taxi driver yells out to us. "Going to Ibis?" Thats our hotel, basically the driver hangs out there knowing the buses dont pick up and people will be desperate. So he offered 20 euro and we took it.
So we made it home safe and sound, around 2:30. I got back up at 4:30 and packed and was off to the airport. I spent my last few euro and made it to the plane. I was fortunate to be on the aisle with nobody next to me. I stayed up the whole time watching movies, I watched 3 or 4.

Finally I made it home, I missed home.

Update

2009-03-21T21:34:00.005-04:00

Dang, I've been trying to blog all about my Europe trip but I have been home for 2 weeks and I have neglected current events in my life.

So, I came back from Holland unemployed and okay with it. I am bummed to have gotten layed off but at least it was across the board, all part timers. I am not without my spite though. I have been looking for a job, we could survive on MaryEllen's wage but it wouldnt be as comfortable as we want. I do enjoy having nothing to do after school, maybe I study more, I dont know. But I also kinda feel like a bump on a log too. Catch 22.

I have started a job shadow with a guy at the SC Port Authority, it should be interesting to see how he runs his operation. Its only a few hours a week.

While I have been without a job I have been working on a piece of furniture MaryEllens dad made for us. We showed him a Pottery Barn catalog and he made the piece we wanted. I just had to paint it. Well its all done now, we just need one of our moms to make a cushion for us. Nobody loves the bench more than Moose. She literally spends hours on it everyday. She just sits on it and looks out the window. Sometimes I just want to push her out the window because she is just too cute (thats a natural feeling towards something cute right?). Its like a whole new world for her.

Last Friday, we decided to go to Hartsville because Karl was flying home for the weekend. Friday morning I went past Target to get some Easter candy for the trek. I got these new runt jelly beans and said, "Hmm, these look good!" I bought some other candy and headed for home. I decided to try out those good looking runt jelly beans, yum! So I took a handful to the mouth and went directly to bite them. Crush! Wow, these arent jelly beans, they are regular hard runts, and what is this extra hard thing in my mouth? Well, I broke a tooth. A chunk broke off and left a nice little sharp edge on the tooth. DANG. So after a quick inventory, I realized I wasnt in pain. My dentist office closes early on Friday so I just decided to wait till Monday with this dagger tooth in my mouth. Stupid runts. I did go to the dentist and he rounded off the sharp part.

So Hartsville was fun, Karl at 50 chicken mcnuggets one night and then we all played guitar hero. In the morning we woke up bright and early and drove to Charlotte to shop at the new Ikea. We didnt buy too much, just some smaller decorating stuff. Karl and Onna bought a new couch and kitchen table. It rained all Saturday so the stuff got wet for a little bit because our tarp was to small until we found a Walmart and bought a bigger tarp.

This week I have been watching enough college basketball to make up for the fact that I dont watch a single game during the regular season.

My ipod touch crashed on Friday, I dont know why but it did. I had to restore it, which means fully clear off all my apps and music and start over. This couldnt have come at a worse time, my bracket was on my ipod! Its gone now, as are a lot of my apps and music, oh well.

Friday night we went out a little before midnight to go get the Twilight dvd. I was surprised how many people were at the store. By some stroke of luck, we got to the front of a line and managed to get the last double disk. We got out of there in a hurry just in case it got ugly. At home we layed all our blankets out and watched the movie on the floor. Also last week I finished reading Breaking Dawn, the last in the Twilight series.

This blog is kinda jumpy but I wanted to write all the stuff thats happened lately.

Friday

2009-03-20T21:17:00.010-04:00

Friday morning was an early start yet again. We had to be in the lobby at 7:15 to get into our taxis. One thing thats kinda fun is that most taxis there are Mercedes Benz, a great deal nicer than our Ford junk (no offense to Ford fans, I once had a loveable Ford, well loveable in hindsight). Anyways, we went to the worlds largest flower auction, right there in some little town called Aalsmeer. We had a tour of the site, the building is gigantic, probably the biggest I've ever been in. Maybe because its the second biggest building in the WORLD! In terms of floor space anyways, 10.6 million square feet, thats 50 times larger than the average Super Walmart! At this daily auction, most of all the worlds flowers are sold.

Buyers from big and small companies come and buy flowers to sell all over the world. It all happens so fast. A conveyor belt brings in a batch of flowers and they are sold before they leave the room 15 seconds later. Right after the flowers are bought, they are on their way to their destination. Proflowers buys here as do all the other big name flower sellers. You cant buy a dozen flowers here, you can buy one hundred dozen but not much less. Oh yeah, the flowers that aren't sold are shredded immediately, they use the shredded flower for composting and it keeps the prices of the next flowers high. Cant I just have a few dozen? No.

So we walked all over the building and after a while it gets a bit boring, flowers, flowers and more flowers. We went into a room where they test new breeds of flowers, pretty cool. One more thing I found out, basically each flower-rose, tulip, sunflower sells for about 10-15 cents each.

KLM

After the flower auction, we were off to KLM air freight, one of the biggest airlines in the world. We went to the site where they handle all of the air freight for that part of Europe. Everything and anything you can imagine gets shipped here. My favorite thing I saw were 9 Ferraris, all bound for LAX.

They have a fairly large wing dedicated only to livestock and animals. We saw live fish being transported in big bags with a little air in them, just enough air for the trip. Apparently and sadly, the international puppy trade is alive and well. We saw a room full of puppies bound for the USA. Are there not enough dogs and puppies here already, we need to pay for dogs to be shipped here?

We saw older dogs who were moving or going on vacation with their humans. We saw horses going to various races throughout the world. And we saw chicks, tons and tons of chicks, baby chickens I mean, all bound for China. Each box had 64 chicks and we saw hundreds of boxes.

After we left KLM, our teachers cut us loose, they told us to meet back at the airport Sunday morning and that was that.

Gerald and I left the hotel and went out on the city to see what we could do. We arranged with the group to meet up for dinner and whatever so we had about 6 hours. We found our way to the Anne Frank house and took the tour there. It was a nice place. Having read The Diary of Anne Frank I thought I knew a thing or two, wrong. So from reading the book I was under the impression the family was jam packed into some small closet in the house. Not so, in fact their hideout was like twice as big as my place! I am not trying to be harsh or understate what they had to do, they couldnt leave and didnt leave for 3 years when someone ratted them out. That was pretty crappy I imagine. I have a few pictures of her actual diary and I will post them sometime as I cant find them right now.

After the museum house, we wondered all over place seeing the city, we found sketchy neighborhoods, nice places, scary places and every other kind of place. Finally we met up with our group and went to dinner at some Uruguayan steak place, nicer than I would have chosen but pretty good. I cant recall what we did later that night, I didnt stay out too late though.

This is a public toilet in Amsterdam, it has 4 "stalls", they only have them for men, because according to Amy, we are more primitive than women.

The stalls arent high enough to cover your face so you are basically looking straight at another guy.

Amsterdamster

2009-03-15T22:34:00.008-04:00

On Thursday we went to the Rail Service Center. Its a gigantic rail hub for all the port traffic. This place was huge lot with tons of containers on it. A train comes in with containers on it and they are offloaded and then reloaded to another train heading to another destination. This happens all day here.

The cool thing about it was that they let us walk around the yard. They gave us a hard hat and a vest and let us go. This stuff just doesn't happen in the states, too much liability. We went high up into the container cranes and lifters. I was amazed as containers literally dangled over our heads, as if the hard hat would benefit much when 40,000 pounds comes crashing down. I was really amazed and excited while it was happening but now that I am thinking about it, it was crazy dangerous.

After the RSC, we went on a Bataan Death march to some tiny restaurant. Somehow, the teachers found this little place, it was like 3 miles away. So not really a death march but everyone was so confused where we were going and how on earth they ever found a place so far off the beaten path.

Tiny Drink

After lunch, we picked up our luggage from our old hotel and made it to the train station and hoped the train for Amsterdam! We got off at the airport, Schiphol, and from here we took a hotel shuttle to our hotel about 3 miles away. Unfortunately, unlike Rotterdam, we had to share rooms in this hotel. The rooms were said to have 2 twins beds, and they did, but they were pushed together to make a king with immovable headrests on each side. So basically, we had to share a bed.

Once everyone got checked in and ready, we all shuttled back to Schiphol and got train tickets to Amsterdam Central (8 euro round trip). To save some money, our hotel is about 25 minutes outside of the heart of Amsterdam. The city was crazy, very lively and packed. Some said it was similar to New York City. The whole group stuck together for a while and we found some little Italian place and enjoyed some great pizza. After dinner we split up and kinda did our own thing. We walked around the city at night trying to get our bearings and a feel for the city.

It may be hard to see but this is a bike parking garage for an apartment building.

Med Shipping

2009-03-12T16:42:00.005-04:00

Wednesday morning we woke up to typical dutch weather: cold, wet and ugly. We walked over to the Mediterranean Shipping Company in Rotterdam.

We were supposed to have a presentation from a high up company officer but last minute he canceled and had another guy do the presentation. It was kinda crappy because the guy only knew he was doing the presentation the day before. So the presentation was pretty poor, he basically read the slides and skimmed over everything. The meeting that was supposed to last 3 hours lasted 1.5.

One nice thing the company did was book us a harbor tour. The boat pickup was right by our hotel so we just went back and napped until 2 for our tour. It was still kinda rainy and dark but the boat was big and had plenty of interior seating. The boat tour was fun and educational. After the tour I went souvenir shopping and went back to the hotel for a nap.

For our last night in Rotterdam we all went out to dinner. Each year the whole group goes to an Indonesian place. The teachers love it. We ordered a rice table, its basically a table chuck full of food of all kinds: rice, eggs, beans, meats and tons of other things that I couldn't identify. In the end it was kind of a raw deal, the meal costs about $30 each and we all have to pay for ourselves. I think the teachers like the deal because they get a ton of food and dont have to pay so much for it. Myself and many other students had plenty of buyers remorse after we ate there.

That night we went to a pub downtown, my other classmates had gone there every night and it had turned into their little hangout. It was a fun night for the last time in Rotterdam.

Tuesday- Belgium

2009-03-11T21:58:00.006-04:00

Tuesday morning we got up early and got on our tour bus. Gerald and Tom were about 3 seconds away from getting left (late night), fortunately they both made it and we made our way to Ghent, Belgium.

In Ghent, we visited the Honda Europe facility. They receive and send all Honda cars, motorcycles and generators for all of Europe. It was quite the set up. Because of the slowdown in at buying their lot was chuck full of cars and SUVs. We saw some new cars, the next day they were expecting delivery of the brand new Honda Insight hybrid. That would have been cool to see in mass.

After the morning at Honda we spent he afternoon in Bruges. It's a tiny little village that has near little stores and shops. They have a year round Christmas store so I stepped in and bought my mom a nativity, some of sets were selling for 450 €!

We walked around the town and shopped. It was fairly cold outside, around 40 so we true to stay in shops as often as we could.

Well that's where the day gets funnier. So in the main square of the town is a gigantic fountain, about 15 meters in diameter. Tom, had run out of money and jokingly said he would transect the fountain for ten euro. Gerald and I said deal which took him by surprise. After a bit of wheeling a dealing the deal stood at 10 euro each, a steal at any rate. We still had a few hours in the city and thought it best to wait until we were on the way out.

I thought he would decide not to, but sure enough, here we are in this square, in suits mind you, and this American is stripping down to his boxers and running through the city fountain. Needless to say he drew some attention. Somehow Tom didn't freeze or get arrested and he made himself some good money!
(sidenote: Americans aren't allowed back to that city. Jk)

Once we got back to Rotterdam, we went out to dinner and I went in early to rest and relax.

Monday- Port of Rotterdam

2009-03-10T13:58:00.004-04:00

View from my hotel room door. See how small it is.

Today was our first day of reality. The idea of the trip is to expose us too international logistics and transportation, so the teachers planned A series of lectures and tours to accomplish that.

This morning we went to the port of Rotterdam headquarters. So they put us all in comfy chairs, turn the lights off and presumably crank the heat up. Needless to say it was somewhat difficult to stay awake.For lunch we went to the hotel new York located in the old headquarters of the Holland America line. The HA line brought thousands of Europeans to America in he early 1900's. After lunch we had a private bus take us onto the port of Rotterdam. Words cannot describe the size of this place. It's the largest port in Europe and third largest in the world (behind Shanghai and Singapore).

The port in Charleston has about 13 cranes and 10 berths, Rotterdam has over 150 cranes and 100 berths. All you could see was cranes, vessels and windmills ( they use windmills a lot for power generation). The port has grown by stealing land from the north sea. They fill in large plots of land with sand and rock and then put cranes on it. They call it maasvlakta. They are working on another one called maasvlakta 2 that will add 3000 acres to the port.The tour kinda got boring because it was just so much. The Port actually is 40 square miles, huge.

Traffic is terrible in the Netherlands, one road called the A15 is the worst and we got stuck in it on the way back to the hotel. Finally after we got back to the hotel, Gerald and I walked to the cube houses. They are kinda like an apartment complex but the second story is a cube lying on a corner, very interesting looking and probably fairly odd to live in. For dinner we went to a place called Brutus beer. I'm not sure if I mentioned the poor service in restaurants here. But this place was no exception. It was not good.Things that I dislike about dining in Europe:

1. No free water

2. No free ketchup

3. Very poor service

4. Tiny soft drinks (6 ounces)

5. No free refills on anything

Belgium

2009-03-09T16:43:00.006-04:00

This construction worker is making a wall of fries and his mortar is mayo!

Sunday we woke up and headed for the train station. We took a high speed train to Antwerp Belgium. The ride took about an hour and the first half was excellent, plush seats, super recline, very comfortable. Well when the ticket lady came by she informed us we were in first class when we should have been in second. Well second class was not as comfy to say the least. Once in Antwerp we went to work seeing the city. So they have these stands all over the place that sell Belgian waffles kinda glazed like a donut. Similar to crack, once you have one you're hooked. We saw more old churches and official buildings from
200 years ago. Everything is so big and yet cramped into a small area.

Fries are like the official food here. And dont even think about calling the FRENCH fries! They love them. Soggy and with mayonnaise, no ketchup. If you want ketchup it's like .65 € more and they give you one packet! Well after about 4 hours in Antwerp we felt that we had seen enough so we went back to the station. We found out that Brussels was only 20 minutes away and a ticket was only 8€ so we figured we might as well.

Someone told us to go to the Zuid, or south, so that's where we got off. Gross. Not too pretty. Trash ALL over the ground, this must have been the ghetto so we started walking north as it started to sprinkle on us. Once we made it out of the ghetto it was better. The Center of the city is packed with historic buildings. I believe some EU headquarters are here and we saw a few cops holding huge machine guns just standing on the corner and they dont play with stupid Americans wanting to take their picture.
After a while we stumbled upon a huge crowd taking pictures, we couldn't see what everyone was doing so finally we made our way to the front. Manneken pis. It means boy pees, it's like a 2 foot statue of a boy peeing. Supposedly the most famous peeing statue in the world. What a title.

We took the train to the Noord or north part of the city. Grosser. Ever been to India?Turkey? Pakistan? I have, all three in one city. I guess the north is nothing but Indians and lots of them. The streets were dirtier than the south and it was packed full of people. We couldnt get away from the masses, we just didnt feel safe so we walked about 5 blocks and walked back, we couldn't get out of there fast enough.

We changed trains in Antwerp and had an hour so we grabbed dinner at a place called Quality Burger Restaurant. Once again fries with no ketchup. and we had to pay to use the bathroom, I will say I've never seen a fast food restroom so clean. So think about it, would you rather have a free, probably not clean bathroom- or a clean bathroom and pay about 50 cents?

We got back to the station, grabbed a waffle and made our train to Rotterdam. That night MaryEllen got a phone card and I chatted with her for an hour. It was nice to hear from her.

Den Haag

2009-02-28T13:28:00.000-05:00

Wow, I am so tired right now. My clever scheme to try and sleep on the
plane didn't work to well. The flight was 9.5 hours instead of 8 hours
like I had heard.

I couldn't sleep despite being quite Sleepy, it was kinda miserable.
Well anyways, I watched a couple movies played some video trivia on
the plane, and won.

Finally we made it bright and early into schiphol, got our bags and
made the train to Rotterdam. Our hotel is nice, right on the river and
my room has a wonderful view. Speaking of rooms, they are tiny!!
Literally less than 10 x 10.

I took a quick shower and met up with gerald and hoped a train to The
Hague. This is he first time I've been to Europe and I thought more
stuff would be in english, wrong. It's really confusing, not kmowing
directions, no kind of maps available for tourists, just a ton of
people seemingly in a big rush I get somewhere.

Gerald and I ate Turkish food for lunch and started walking, great day
we walked a lot. Gerald estimated 15 miles. We saw all the world
court stuff, the palace of peace, tons of churches, one that was 800
years old.

We kept looking for a certain church we had seen on a postcard but we
couldn't find it, no map. At the very end of our trip we walked right
past the church, we thought it was a miracle. So we made it back to
the train and I started looking through my pics when I notice the
second picture I took all day was of the backside of this dang
church!!!!

Well now I am riding the train back to the hotel, I want to just to
and pass out but I don't want to wake up all early.

There isn't much to do besides party and dance and I am just too tired
tonight.

Tired

2009-02-27T10:21:00.002-05:00

So if you read my last post, I was sounding off about my frustration with the thermostat at work. Well, problem solved. I got fired, layed off, let go and shown the door. Thats the last time I complain about the temperature. Jk. I did get the boot but not because of the thermostat drama. My ex company is letting its part time staff go. I really didnt have any worry of losing my job because imports have been fairly strong and the big hit has been to the export side, the side I have nothing to do with. Unfortunately, we are the same company and they needed to balance the hemorrhaging in exports. I got a nice little package to keep me paid for a little while in exchange for me agreeing to never sue them. So I am bummed but not too depressed, I wasnt very happy with the job, I liked the people and thats really it.

So now, I am just a few hours away from my Rotterdam trip, and the fact that I am now without employment get me down. I will start looking for a job when I get back.

So I had this idea to help me sleep on the 8 hour flight. Stay up real late last night so I will be a zombie when I get on the plane thus allowing me to sleep. Well, I made it to just after 4 and I decided to get a quick nap before waking back up and heading to my 8 am class. I made it to class, I dont know why I went, as I had planned, I was a zombie, it just hit me earlier than I had planned. I hope my teacher wasn't offended by my nearly constant yawn.

I am all packed up and surprised I fit it all in one suitcase. We have some fun things planned and hopefully I will have some wifi access here or there so I can blog my experience.

Vent

2009-02-24T15:59:00.001-05:00

I am about to roast! Sitting here in my office, which is just a big room
with 10 desks in it. The problem: one side of the room gets hit by the
air vents all day, while the other half gets nothing. I am on the side
that gets nothing. Another problem: all the older ladies with zero
circulation sit on the side that the air vents hit. Wonderful. So
there is one lady who controls the thermostat. We are all supposed to
be able to adjust it but that's not how it works.

I got up 20 minutes ago to bump it down a bit( it was on 76 heat) so I
turned it to 73 heat. Literally, 13 minutes later she hobbled over to
the thermostat and cranked it back up.

Listen people, Don't make me take clothes off, I will and it will not be
pretty. Why don't they just put on their jackets? No, that's too much
to ask. Better to have half the office suffer in stifling heat than to
have the other half wear the jackets they brought to keep them warm.

Kyle Ensign

Import Department
Panalpina, Inc.
207 East Bay St #209
Charleston, SC 29401 U.S.A
843-577-9982

2009-02-18T00:04:00.007-05:00

It has been so long since I have blogged, I just havent had the motivation. Each day passes and more stuff happens and I just keep realizing it will be harder and harder to blog so I put it off more. I have been really busy with school. The first round of tests has come and gone so that had me out each night studying with various groups and friends. Fortunately it has gone and I am very happy with the scores.

2 weeks ago our ward hosted a youth dance. I didnt go to many youth dances when I was younger so I dont remember a lot. I do remember one thing- the music. I remember they played the same songs at all the dances: Love Shack, I Would Walk 500 Miles, The Electric Slide, YMCA, the Macarena and Red Red Wine. Even back then, those songs were older, not current. Well, I wasnt too surprised when they played 4 out of the 6. Come on, has there been no more "church appropriate" dance songs created since 1995? And another thing, Love Shack? Really? And Red Red Wine, a song about red red wine making you feel so good, all of the time? Dont get me started on the Macarena.

This past weekend was fun. My sister Jen and Grace were in South Carolina visiting so they all came down to Charleston for the weekend. On Friday, we hung out and shopped downtown for a while. My dad wanted Jen to see some good sites so he took us on a carriage tour. This was my second one and not as good as the first in my opinion. Yet I saw some things I have never seen before and had a good time. After the tour we went home and relaxed for a little while and got ready to go to the beach. The weather wasn't the best but Jen and Grace both wanted to experience the beach. The beach was cold and the water was even colder. We walked along the beach gathering shells and sand dollars for Grace.

We went to Sticky Fingers for dinner, my dad had won some gift cards at auction so we went where the free meal was. The food was tasty. We played games at night, dominoes.

In the morning we went to ihop for breakfast, we paid to say thanks to my dad for filing our taxes for us. Oh yea, we filed our taxes and have now received our return. We just need to figure out what to spend it on. But I digress, after breakfast we went to SEWE, (Southeastern Wildlife Expo) its an annual expo with tons of wildlife displays and wildlife junk. It was pretty fun, we watched dog demonstrations, Grace rode a camel and pet(?) a whole slew of barnyard animals. Well the rain cut our SEWE short so we left and headed to costco to shop.

We came home and had pizza and played more games. Soon enough, our company left in time for us to get ready for Valentines day. We exchanged gifts before dinner, she got me 4 nice new bowties and I got her some new jewelry- earrings, necklaces and a new ring. We both were glad for our gifts and pleased to receive them.

For dinner, we went to Poogan's Porch a really nice southern restaurant downtown. I wanted to try the fried alligator for an appetizer but when the waitress described the texture as chicken and the flavor as "tasting like the ocean smells in the morning" yea, no thank you. The food was good, we had a great time and that was that.

This week I am wrapping up school things before my big trip to Europe. I am excited but still not ready, I have so much to get together!

Oh yeah, Jen came and brought some gifts, one of which was Guitar Hero. We love it, sometimes I rock out a little too hard.

moose warhol

2009-01-31T12:24:00.002-05:00

I made this little creation for moose. We plan on putting it on canvas and eventually on the wall. I am trying to decide if I like the pink one, maybe I will make her green.

School, Work, Home...

2009-01-26T23:48:00.005-05:00

School, work, home, school, work, home, school, work, home. Over and over again. This past week I felt like I was in a rutt. Not much changed besides meals and tv shows. Friday night we wanted to go see a movie and get dinner but nothing really caught our eye at the theatres. All the movies we wanted to see werent even at the theatre anymore! So we went to a Japanese hibachi, our favorite. The wait was like 20 minutes and we foolishly left for "greener pastures". We tried out a new upscale mexican place. Talk about buyer's remorse. Upscale Mexican wasnt so good. Picture typical dishes but with flamboyant and extravagant ingredients. Chihuahua cheese (what?), ceviche, oaxaca crap, jicama infused this and that. No thank you. Ellen played it safe with a quesadilla, cant go wrong with that right. Wrong, to nice for her, you can take the girl to city but you cant take the afore mentioned girl to a nice mexican restaurant in said city. Oh well.

Saturday we started our weekend babysitting stint with the twins. We pretty much just hung out and played Guitar Hero. A friend called and offered us tickets to the Rascal Flatts concert that night. Ellen is a fan so she accepted. So we went, I was kind of excited because the tickets were in a private box, this meant I wouldnt have to be cramped in and pushy the whole time.

How do you spell fun in South Carolina? J-E-S-S-I-C-A-S-I-M-P-S-O-N. not.

She was opening for the Rascal Flatts so adding to my joy of seeing Rascal Flatts was an even more impressive show by Jessica Simpson. But at least I can cross that off my bucket list.

Listen to Jessica Simpson at 120 dB. Check.

Doing research, I read the threshold of pain is 130 dB and instant eardrum perforation is 160 dB. It was painful, but maybe for other reasons.

Enough ripping. Rascal Flatts put on a good show and before long it was over and we made it back home.

I know she doesn't like me posting the pics of her sleeping because she says it makes it seem like its all she does. She does more, and thats why I get so many of these pictures. They are just too good to not post.

100th Post

2009-01-18T23:49:00.009-05:00

I have arrived, my 100th post. An elite club, no doubt. Just a small milestone going towards 1000!

School is back into full swing and my schedule isnt too bad. One of my classes all we do is talk about our upcoming Holland trip. After we get back we only meet for class two more times. So that shouldnt be too difficult. Work was kinda slow this week which was good to allow me to relax and ease into the new schedule.

This past week was faReexing! Over Christmas the weather was so warm and now we are paying for it. The past 2 days didnt get above 45. That might not seem cold to some but it really is, I dont care that is was -15 in Des Moines, still cold!

Saturday we babysat Mikey Goltra again, which usually is fun and it still was but he came to our house at 7:30 am! Rise and Shine! It wasnt bad it was just early and he is a ball of energy. We took moose to get her hair cut, the groomer probably thought Ellen was a bad owner when she told her to shave our dog when it was 35 degrees outside. Since it was so cold, we figured we should find an inside activity to keep all of us occupied and entertained. We decided to do tie dye!

Both Mikey and Ellen had previous experience but I honestly don't think I had ever done it before. It was fun, we each had a plain white shirt to do, we liked it so much Ellen and I dug into our closets to find anything else we could dye. The worst part about the process is that you have to wait until the next day to see your masterpiece. Mikey wanted to go bowling, we wanted to see a movie and neither wanted to compromise.

Eventually we went bowling, Ellen won once and I won once, we should start a team, unstoppable. We could wear tie dye as our team uniforms. Anyways...

After Mikey went home around 7:30 we were dead! It was so tiring to entertain a kid. My tiredness was evidenced by my sleeping in this morning. I woke up at 9:15, an hour past my alarm. Church starts at 9:30, Ellen had a meeting at 8 so I had been sleeping soundly for some time since she left. So I text her that I just woke up and got in the shower. When I got out, she text me back and said she had my car keys, so now I was was stuck at home. Luckily, Bryant was running late too so he swung by to pick me up. My lucky streak continued when I learned that no bread was at the church for sacrament so it was delayed until after the first two talks. So while it was bad that my teachers quorum dropped the ball big time, it allowed me not to miss out.

Tonight we relaxed and napped and finally unveiled our tie dye creations. We were really happy with our designs and they all turned out well. I even tie dyed a pillow case for moose's pillow bed the discovered last week.

Not really sure what moose is doing but she was obsessed with digging into her pillow case for about 20 minutes.

Cleaning

2009-01-11T21:20:00.003-05:00

Friday night we went to what we thought was a rodeo. I love the rodeo, I saw a few while I was on my mission, so I convinced Ellen that it would be fun. We even invited some young kids from our ward. Well it turned out to not be a rodeo but professional bull riding. Still cool but after about 10 runs they all look the same. At least at the rodeo there is variety. So after a while we left we went home and played wii for a little while waiting for one of the kids parents to get home. (Turns out they had been home all night, they just didn't answer the cell phone!)

Saturday morning, what a day! We finally dug out heels in and started to clean the condo. We just turned on some music and went to work. After about 4 hours we took a break, looking at the even bigger mess we made cleaning up. We went and got pizza and some other cleaning supplies and just chilled for a while. Before we got too lazy we got back to work, for seriously 4 more hours. We must have spent 2 hours on our closet. I cant believe how long we cleaned, and now just 2 days later, it doesn't look like we did a single thing. It turns out we unearthed so much stuff that our house is messy again.

Cleaning Stats:
18 man hours (50 square feet per hour)
5 bags of trash
3 huge bins to Goodwill
2 tired workers
1 pizza
1 still messy house

Humbug! All that work and still a messy place. We are glad we cleaned but we still have more junk to clean!

Sunday we did our normal thing, I made chicken and rice from my mom's recipe and its just not the same.

Today, I started school back up, 2 classes today, one tomorrow and one on Wednesdays. I am excited for this semester because the classes are challenging, unlike my last semester.

We have been looking for a new bed for moose recently. On Saturday we were throwing away a couple of old pillows and moose decided to show us they still had some use. So this is her new bed now, an old pillow and she couldn't love it more!

Now hiring

2009-01-09T11:06:00.002-05:00

Now hiring: a maid!

Interested applicants only. Small one bedroom condo, 2 humans and one dog in desperate need of a maid.

Duties include but are not limited to:

Cleaning all areas of condo (including back porch region)
Sorting, washing, folding and putting away of all laundry
Frequent trips to grocery store, pet supply store and other errands as needed
Planning, preparing and presenting meals in a pleasant manner
Dog walking every 3-4 hours
Handling all finances and money management
Lesson preparation for teachers quorum, every other Sunday

Please note this is only a small sample of the tasks expected from our ideal candidate.

Room and board will be provided and will be deducted from your paycheck. Also a uniform allowance will be available and also deducted from pay.

Si habla espanol

Please apply electronically by commenting on this blog.

New Year

2009-01-04T22:36:00.005-05:00

After Christmas we came home to a house in shambles. We have been so busy with the holidays that we have paid no mind to keeping our house clean. We cleaned for my parents trip here but after that, no more. It was dirty, just extremely cluttery. I think every flat surface in our house was covered in random stuff.

MaryEllen's parents came down to Charleston for the holiday so that meant more partying and less cleaning. We played a lot of games each night and ate more junk food. For New Years we all made dips and finger foods to bring, we made two dips, one in our brand new crock pot. We went to Ann's and ordered pizza and played games. We went out and bought fireworks. One thing that is nice about living here in the lush, moist South is the abundance of legal fireworks. We bought a hundred dollars worth and returned home ready for a show. It has been so warm and nice here lately, but that couldn't last one more day. It was so cold and windy, a night not so great for a firework show.

Somehow we managed to light the fireworks and enjoyed the show. Ann lives on a lake so it was fun to look across the lake and watch other peoples fireworks displays.

A tragedy happened in the kitchen that night. Our brand new crock pot, the one keeping our dip warm, exploded. I heard a popping noise at one point but couldn't find the problem. About 30 minutes later someone noticed the crock pot lid had shattered and littered glass into the dip! Ruined! After the dip incident, we managed to have some fun and play games. Jen gave me Cranium for Christmas and that turned out to be a very popular game.

I think we started the party too early because around 10:30 we were already bored and tired. We tried to go home but were denied so we just settled in and watched the TV shows in Times Square. Please take Dick Clark off TV!

Finally, midnight came, we kissed and went home and went right to sleep. We woke up and went to IHOP and relaxed more. We went and saw Marley and Me, it was a really good movie that had a lot of the theatre tearing up.

Yesterday and Today we finally took down our Holiday decorations. I hate it because now our house looks so empty. It is good because we actually started chipping away at the piles of clutter that have taken over our flat surfaces. Our house now looks somewhat presentable. I still have one full week of no school so I will enjoy it as much as possible. Ellen has a full week of work so she is not too excited to go back to the grind, but it is good to resume normal life after a month of holiday rush.

ChexMix 2008

2008-12-28T19:46:00.005-05:00

Well we kicked off our Hartsville Christmas on Tuesday night as we drove up. Traffic was a bit heavy as we left, I really cant handle driving in traffic. We got to the empty house and unpacked. We opted to stay at my parents house while they were out. Its only a few miles away from the Tallon home so we could spend plenty of time there and still have a place for refuge nearby if we (or rather I) needed to escape. The weather has been so warm, I dont like it. I cant wear my cold weather clothes and it makes it feel more like spring than winter.

Christmas eve we just hung around doing little until the evening when we went to Ellen's grandparents house for festivities and food. I had a great time with all the family, I really got to know a lot of them, that happens when 28 people are in a small 2 bedroom house! After the party we went to the Tallon house and opened some gifts. Minette, my sister in law, and her husband and kids all came to town so we all had a good time watching the little kids going crazy for their gifts. We stayed up late getting the toys ready, batteries charged, gifts wrapped for the next day. Ellen and I watched Muppet Christmas Carol as we went to bed, that has to be my favorite Christmas movie.

Christmas morning was great, we opened gifts and had some great food. I think I received everything I had on my list, and more too. Batman wii game, tripod, itunes card, Dwight bobble head, so much more. Ellen did well for herself too, she got two pairs of boots, polar opposites, moon boots and cowboy boots. She also got some great smelling perfume and clothes. We went home and napped and got ready for more food and partying.

One thing you must understand about Hartsville, first it is a great small town. With all the family in town, we felt like we needed to sit around and hang with the family. So we did that all week, sit around, the whole week we walked a fine line between relaxing and boring, teetering towards the latter. Dont get me wrong, I love the town and my family that lives there, but I just got really bored by sitting in the house all week. So to overcome that boredom Ellen and I ate so much junk food- cookies, cakes, pies, candy, anything with sugar. The binging only added to our boredom.

Christmas night, more of Ellen's family came to town so it was fun catching up with them. Friday morning Ellen and I woke up at 6 am to go shopping and get great sales! When my alarm went off Ellen was secretly hoped that I would turn it off and forget about shopping, no dice! Not a lot of people got up as early as we did so we had wide open lanes and first crack at all the sales. We spent about a hundred bucks all on Christmas stuff that we wont even look at until next year, it is now sitting quietly in my mom's attic. After we got home we both crashed out and didnt wake back up until 12!

Friday we Avery's (my niece) baptism. She turned 8 earlier this month but her baptism was postponed so more family could attend. After the baptism we did some more sitting around and eating. That night we went to Mac's Lounge, a little dive in town. Ellen's brother plays in a band and that night they were playing so we went to see him. Imagine the smokiest place you have ever seen in your entire life and multiply it by 13, this is how smokey Mac's was. Mac's is also the place where all the kids go to see friends who are home from school. So Ellen met up with all her friends and drug me around like beautiful arm candy. Wow, I sure was smokey!

Saturday I was ready to leave, I had spent enough time in Hartsville and enough time eating and sitting around. Ellen wanted to stay so we made a compromise, we decided to stay until Sunday but that we would leave soon after church. The whole day we did more of the same, just relaxing and chilling and eating of course. Today we went to church and then packed up and came home. It was very nice to spend some time relaxing and being with family but nothing is better than coming home. Our house looked like a hurricane had come through while we were gone, such a mess.

I am trying to think of my favorite gift and I really dont know. I like my baseball glove from Ellen, my ipod touch from mom and dad and my sport coat from Sherry. We had a good break and were blessed to have such good family.

I still have like 15 days of winter break so I am excited to relax more and do things around the house.

The Weekend

2008-12-22T22:32:00.006-05:00

Friday was a short work day for me, we had our office not so Secret Santa so I went in to work early. I guess work has slowed down a little for the holiday. I went home early on Friday and waited around for my parents to roll into town. Once they arrived we went off to get dinner and go see the holiday lights on James Island. We have gone most years recently and each year our trip becomes faster and faster, I think we are getting over it. The place has over 2 million lights so it is somewhat spectacular but from year to year its about the same. The park had so much traffic getting in and driving through but we managed to have a good time and make it home safely.That night, my mom and I made some holiday treats. Chocolate dipped smores, and PB ritz crackers, and peanuts. All very tasty and good. In the morning we had an awesome breakfast and then went off shopping. Since they were in the big city they wanted to shop in the big city stores, Costco, they are easily pleased. After dodging all the people and pushing the super huge cart around you would think we had a good work out, notwithstanding we decided to walk the bridge and have a bit more exercise and great views.

The weather has been real warm lately, it is funny to watch the weather and see blizzards and storms around the midwest and then walk outside here with shorts and flip flops on. I do wish it was colder to make it feel more like winter but I am okay with not having to shov

el snow or worry about driving on ice. But I digress, After the bridge walk we grabbed a bite to eat and came home to chill and open our Christmas presents. It was fun, I searched the internet and found diet grape soda, my dad said he couldnt find it anywhere, and neither could I. I checked all the local stores, well finally I found it in Alabama. I ordered a case and had it shipped in, the shipping and handling was more expensive than the soda! Mom got some clicky tops, Ellen got some cool boots and I got an ipod touch. All in all I think everyone liked their gifts. I know I enjoy mine, actually I know Ellen likes it too, she is on it more than me, I keep encouraging her to get one too.

After my parents and Karl left for home, we got ready for another Christmas celebration. We had our dinner and gift exchange with Robert and Stephanie. They made taco soup and we watching Christmas Vacation, it was very funny. We all exchanged gifts and then made snowmen cakes. Ellen and I decorated ours and it was looking pretty bad. Oh well, it was fun

and we had a good time playing around.

Sunday was fun, it was normal at church, except that half the ward was gone. After church we drove out to Andrews to visit Ellen's great aunt Mary. That house was probably 93 degrees when we got there, not very comfortable. We stayed for about 2 hours and I think I lost about 11 pounds of sweat. We got home and made more candy for me to bring into work. Tomorrow we are going to Hartsville for the holiday, we look forward to seeing nephews and the one niece.

Oh yeah, I got my grades back, 3 b's and an A. Not too bad, considering the effort I put in.

2008-12-19T16:02:00.003-05:00

Last week, our neighbors asked us to take their dog out while they were working a night shift. We agreed because we love their dog. Moose likes the dog too but as we discovered she can be very territorial too.

When we let the other dog in moose went berserk. "who is this new dog in my house?" After a few minutes she settled down and started to play. It was so fun to watch the two dogs.

Molly, picked up moose's whale toy, the toy that moose cares nothing for, and ran around the whole condo. Moose gave chase as if Molly had her most prized possession. We took it away from molly and gave it moose but she didnt want it. So molly grabbed it again and the chase continued.

Molly didnt really want the toy either, when moose stopped chasing her, Molly would pick up the toy and go and literally, put it right in mooses face so they could play more. It was so hilarious. They both got real tired after a while and just layed down to chill.

Moose probably realized she would never get that whale and started going for the ears. She always goes for the ears!

The Past Week

2008-12-19T00:14:00.005-05:00

With school wrapping up and Christmas coming we decided to go to Myrtle Beach for the weekend to see our friends, Mindee and Geoff. Friday, I had a final, I must say it was probably in the top three worse classes I have ever had, not hardest, just pointless. The final was a presentation and he kept interrupting telling groups they were doing one thing or another that wasnt professional. Um hello! Constantly interrupting during presentations isnt the most professional thing either! Wow, glad to be done wit

h that class.

After the test we went up to Myrtle Beach, the moon on our drive there was gigantic, literally the biggest I have ever seen it. We kept watching for it through the trees but by the time we got a real good view of it, it was smaller and higher and not so spectacular, but man, it was big!

In Myrtle Beach we hung out with our friends, I realized that I hadnt been there since March, the time flies by so fast! Saturday morning Geoff woke up and made breakfast for us all, I love it. We then all got ready for a secret mission that is currently still classified Top Secret, I may have already said too much. We shopped around the rest of the afternoon and had a good time looking at all sorts of gifts and decorations we wish we could afford or had place to put them.

Coincidentally, Karl and his girlfriend Onna were in town doing gift exchange on the beach. So on there way out of town, they stopped by to chat. Well Onna came in and was wearing her jacket and had her hand awkwardly in her pocket, her left hand. She spilled the beans, Karl proposed on the beach! Finally I could talk to someone about it, Karl had let me know of his intentions so I knew it was happening but I had to keep it in for so long. Now I could relax and let that part of my vault be opened. (side note on the vault, Ellen really doesnt like the vault, she wants to know the secrets and all the news and gets quite frustrated when I wont open the vault for her. Her reasoning is that she is my wife, valid point, but it defeats the purpose of the vault)

Onna and MaryEllen grew up in Hartsville together and are really excited to be related somewhat. I will have to check with the local family history representative but this marriage may create yet another intertwined family tree in Hartsville, Ellens uncle is also her second cousin, dont worry it was through marriage, but still.

We celebrated Christmas by exchanging gifts and sharing good times with one another and then called it a night. We left for home early so Ellen could tend to her calling at church. Sunday evening was the Mt Pleasant parade, it was really huge, traffic was insane so we finally found a spot and walked a great length to get to a decent spot. This week I had three finals and now I am glad to say I am done!

Tuesday night we went to Ann's house and decorated gingerbread houses, it was really fun and I think mine is the best. I never made a real gingerbread house until Tuesday, I think in the past I just used graham crackers! Wednesday we had our ward Christmas party, it was interesting, only like 6 round tables had been set up. We needed a whole table because Ellen invited a coworker and her kids. My job was to secure and save a entire table. This was so frustrating, people kept loitering closer and closer to my table and I felt like I needed a bat to keep the wolves at bay! Once others came to help me with the table the party got better.

Tonight we stayed busy cleaning the place up getting ready for Mom, Dad and Karl to come tomorrow. We have a fun weekend planned as we celebrate before they all head to Arizona. Its now kinda late, I stayed up reading my Grandma's life history, I couldnt put it down, very nice and I learned some new things about her.

Long Time No Post

2008-12-10T23:05:00.003-05:00

Dang this blog thing is hard to manage with everything getting so busy and out of control. School has been winding down which is both a relief and a terror. I am excited to get out and relax, sleep in and have some free time. However all my teachers are cramming all the stuff they need to teach into a couple of weeks. Saturday night I had my work Christmas party. They are typically very high class, black tie events. This year was pretty much the same, we got all dressed up and headed out. It wasn't as high dollar as last year, but it was still very nice. All my coworkers were like kids in a candy store, OPEN BAR!!! Work parties are always interesting, to see people in a different environment, some are the same, some are different, its funny. While Ellen was in the bathroom the DJ played the cupid slide so we all ran to the dance floor. Ellen was surprised when she came back and found me out there. We danced most the rest of the night and went home tired and sober.

This week we are busy getting things ready for other holiday parties, this weekend: Myrtle Beach, then my work gift exchange, then my mom and dad are coming down for the next weekend, then real Christmas comes and we head to Hartsville. Also studying for finals, getting Christmas cards ready, buying gifts, spending money, sleeping.

It is so busy and stressful and fun.

viernes negra

2008-12-01T00:02:00.005-05:00

Black Friday came early, we woke up at 4, this wasnt too fun for me because Karl and I stayed up until 1:00. We had our routes all planned out, Walmart first and then straight to Target. Walmart was not fun, we got there early and stood in a line, then the line became two. The workers were so clueless, it took so long for us to get what we wanted, 4 gb memory cards. Finally we left and sped to Target which was opening in 15 minutes. Once we were in the store we all ran and got what we wanted, I got a new ipod speaker system and Golden Compass DVD. Target went so well, the whole store was well organized and efficient. After we finished shopping we went back to the hotel. Mom and Dad walked to Belk and we went up to go to bed. I couldnt sleep so I just played around on my computer while everyone else rested.

Once everyone got up and ready, we drove to Chimney Rock Park. It was a nice drive through the mountains but towards the end we were all ready to get off the winding roads. The weather wasnt too cold and it wasnt raining so we were lucky. Chimney Rock has a bunch of trails and stairs all over the place. We were all breathing heavy after a few flights of stairs. We had a good time climbing and hiking and seeing the views from atop the chimney.

After the hike, we went to a place right on the river, the river that leads to Lake Lure, the lake that Dirty Dancing was filmed at.

Later that night we got pizza for dinner, unfortunately, it was disgusting, the pizzas had so much cheese on them that nobody wanted to eat any. We gave them to the hotel staff, I wonder if they ate them.

Saturday morning we packed the car and headed downtown. We did some shopping and then wanted to get some lunch at Early Girl, a place I heard good things about. Too bad for us, a lot of people heard the same thing and the wait was too long. So we just started on our way back to Hartsville.

2008-11-28T08:29:00.004-05:00

Finally, Thanksgiving has arrived, we have been planning this trip since June. I had two short days of school and a lot of work but finally Wednesday came. Wednesday, we drove from Hartsville to Asheville, not a bad drive, about 3 hours, just a little tight. We got to the hotel and noticed a mall was in the same parking lot as out hotel, cool. Well not really, if anyone has ever been to Inlet Square mall in Myrtle Beach, this is not as good as Inlet Square. The mall is apparently old, but some of the stores were- a thrift store, a car dealership, airbrushed t shirts, etc. The mall had no kiosks because it was cheap enough to rent an entire store. Oh well, we did go to Steve and Barry's, that store is pretty cheap.

After walking around we decided to go downtown and eat some good local food and visit the shops. Well apparently we picked a bad week because all the shops and restaurants were closed. We sat down at some pub type place and all ordered waters but left after 10 minutes of waiting. We eventually found a good place. At night we just played games in the hotel dining room area.

Thursday morning, Ellen and I went to the Biltmore Mansion, America's largest home. It was gigantic. We took the self guided audio tour, you basically get an mp3 player and you push different tracks as you walk through. Very interesting. It has over 250 rooms all incredibly huge and well appointed. The walking tour took about 3 hours and when we finished we were tired, and bit jealous. The house can hold 175 of ours, it has 4 acres of interior space! 1500 poinsettias, 4 miles of real garland, and 53 Christmas trees inside. After the tour and gift shop, we walked around the grounds for a while. When Vanderbilt first bought the land, he bought 200 square miles, thats a big yard.

After Biltmore, we went to "The Worlds Nicest MacDonalds". Now normally I wouldnt go to McD's but it is the worlds nicest and I had several recommendations. It was a very nice fast food place. Copper ceilings, grand piano and a fireplace, they even had a bidet in the bathroom! We got shakes and took some pictures and then went back to the hotel. Just kidding on the bidet.

For our Thanksgiving feast we had reservations at The Grove Park Inn, one of Asheville's nicest resorts. I booked the reservation in June and they were already running low. We all got dressed up and went and took pictures on the grounds as we waited for our time. We got to our table and then quickly went to the buffet, yes it was buffet. It was very very nice and for the most part very delicious. It was neat to try foods that I wouldnt have normally had on Thanksgiving. They even had mini cheeseburgers for kids, and they were good too. After binging for a while, we went out side on the deck and watched the sunset.

At night we played games again, we bought a new uno game that lights up when its your turn, it is very fast paced and fairly fun. It was different to be on the road for Thanksgiving, it was good and bad. Its nice to see new places and try new things. I missed being in the home with good smells and snack food all over the place.

Yesterday

2008-11-23T23:16:00.003-05:00

Saturday we did a lot of running around. The kind of running around I dont like. We went all over the place, Michaels in North Charleston, Oil change place for Ellen, dog groomer, Dunkin Doughnuts, Ann's house, church, and back to the oil place and then lunch all before 12. I dont like driving all over, each place we had to drive to we stayed for less than 10 minutes and then left. It was tiring. Finally we got home, the groomer calls, come get your dog. Nope, sorry moose, you can stay and play with the other dogs.

We did go get her later.

We bought this cool cake pan, its a gigantic cupcake. We decided Ellen's bday would be a good time to try it out. We baked the cake and then took it to Ann's where we would frost it and eat it during her little party.

At night we went and had a little pizza party with some dang good local pizza. Ellen got some great gifts and we all had a fun time frosting and eating the cake. The cupcake turned out well for its maiden voyage, we will do it better next time.

2008-11-21T23:33:00.006-05:00

It has been quite some time since my last post. I have been putting it off and putting it off and now its gone on too long. A few weeks ago I had a club trip to a BMW factory tour. It was nice, I took the day off and drove up. The factory is like 3 hours away and we rented a 15 passenger van. Unfortunately when we reserved the van we had about 12 students coming. By the night before the trip we were down to 5. When I went to the rental place I asked for a smaller vehicle, no dice, we reserved a club wagon and that's what we get. So it was a very spacious ride up, the drive was nice and scenic, all the leaves were changing and looked very nice. The tour was awesome. All BMW X5,X6 and next year X3's (all of their SUV's) are made here, for the whole world. The coolest thing is they are all done on the same line, all at the same time, I was impressed by all the planning and staging that needed to be done to accomplish this. BMW used to make these small little cars, they had a few in the museum.

Oh yeah, I also forgot about the election, McCain was destroyed, Barack didnt carry SC but he didnt need it, he did carry my county however. I am glad for the change, I am not anti Bush nor do I think he is an idiot or unintelligent like so many others. That being said, I am glad to see change, give others with different ideas the chance to make something work.

We kept the kids again, they are a lot of fun and seem to enjoy our company so its all good. We had our first home teacher ever come, it was nice and we hope he/they come frequently. School has been getting real busy for me. Its crunch time, all my teachers realize they didnt go fast enough the first 3 months so they go double time the last 3 weeks. :(

Today was Ellen's bday. 23 years old. She seems so young to me sometimes even though she is only 2 years behind me. I thought I would be ahead of the curve and get her presents in October, so I ordered them and sent them to Ann's house to keep the secret. Last night I went and picked them up. PROBLEM! The rain jacket I ordered her was the wrong size. I ordered a small, which is her size but I failed to consider that girls small was not the same as women's small. The jacket is like a dog jacket, so small! With no time to reorder I decided to give her the jacket as a symbol and I would get another one later.

This morning I took flowers to Ellens work and got ogled by all the ladies in her office. Something about a guy with flowers apparently, I dont know. A week ago I gave Ellen a list of 7 restaurants, a good representation of the popular cuisines. Her assignment was to eliminate one restaurants leaving one for today, and that would be our dinner for tonight. It went well but was hard for her because she would remove one restaurant one day but the next day have remorse and want it back. So tonight she wanted Chinese food (not on the list) so we ordered take out and it was so good, excellent choice MaryEllen.

The highlight of the night was Twilight (enough rhymes?) I havent read the series but Ellen loves them and has been waiting for this movie for a while. We saw the movie at cine barre, a new theatre that has tables and serves real food to you while your watching the movie. It was an interesting concept and we plan on returning.

The movie was really good, I was surprised. I was surprised at all the people who came out to see the movie. One thing I was not surprised about was all the ladies ( and some guys) swooning over Edward. I was impressed with the story and even told Ellen I will consider listening to the books on my ipod. We are celebrating more tomorrow, I will try and post more about that soon.

Longest Post Ever!

2008-11-05T22:44:00.006-05:00

A lot has happened lately. Ellen went and came back from Cleavland, that was an interesting weekend, I just stayed home like a hermit and watched TV with moose. I did run a 5k, it was a pajama run, people dressed up in PJ's and ran. Pretty funny to see everyone wearing some pretty awesome PJs, even lingerie, didnt look to practical for running. Oh yeah, one highlight of the weekend, I got a new pillow! A little too excited for a pillow you say? Nope, its a memory foam type number and it wasnt too cheap, but worth it. It even has a perfectly placed grove for me to place my melon head into, a perfect fit.

Ellen came home from Ohio and had a good time telling me all about it and I had a good time receiving the souvenirs. She went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and some other pretty cool places.

Tuesday, I left for Hartsville to make my way Idaho. That night, I had a good time hanging out with Karl and Onna, but then I had to crack the whip on Karl to make sure he was packed and ready to go. We went to bed around 1 and woke up at 3:30, not recommended. Again with the whip cracking, we finally got out of the house and to the Florence airport. This airport is tiny, smallest airport I've ever seen. Not quite as small as the one from Wings, but still.

A funny story at the airport, I had to use the bathroom so I left Karl with my bag and went into the bathroom real quick. Well upon entering I noticed a lack of urinals, they had none. I thought, wow, that's weird, oh well. So I used the bathroom and went for the sink and noticed another oddity, a tampon dispenser. I began to think, why in the world is there a tampon machine in here?!? Right as I opened the door, my brain finally reasoned internally, "did I even look to see which bathroom I was going into?" Nope. I went into the Ladies room, luckily nobody was at the airport that early and nobody else noticed, but wow.

Karl and I traveled to Idaho, we met up with Jen, Scott and Grace in Phoenix and flew onto Boise. That night our family was together, minus spouses. My grandma's viewing was in Emmett, so before the viewing we drove around and toured and remembered all the summers we spent up there, good times. At the viewing, I saw a lot of cousins and aunts/uncles that I hadnt seen for a while, everyone was the same as I remembered but we just had more mature conversations than I recall having before. After the viewing we went to Roe Ann, the precursor to Sonic, a great little place with great greasy take out.

Thursday morning was the funeral at grandmas church. This church is crazy, I think they have remodeled it at least 34 times. It is so random and awesome, not your typical cookie cutter building. It had random dead end hallways, upstairs, and odds and ends all over. The funeral was nice, all the grandkids sang a song, and the grandsons were pallbearers. After the funeral we took Amy and Tiff to the airport and then we drove 5 hours to Rexburg. We stopped in Twin Falls for dinner and to see the new Twin Falls temple, very nice and huge, I wish we could have stayed longer. We got to Rexburg late and ate some more food and went to bed.

Friday was the burial service. Outside our hotel window was a nice view of the new Rexburg temple. It was so cool seeing the sunrise behind it. I couldnt hold off, I grabbed the keys and dad and hauled off to see the temple. The temple looked incredible in front of the sun. We only had a few minutes of greatness but we both took plenty of shots during that time.

The burial was nice, right by grandpa and right under a nice big tree. The rain held off long enough for us to do all we needed to do there. After the burial we had another dinner in another equally unique church building. The primary room had pews- mini, wooden pews! After all the Rexburg fun we made the 5 hour drive once again and made it back to Boise. In Boise, we ate and went to the temple there too. Not as good looking as the other two but still nice.

Saturday morning, Dad, Karl and I flew back home, my dad pulled strings and got us bumped to first class, not a bad deal. We took the long way home- Boise-Phoenix-Kansas City-Charlotte-Florence, then I had to drive 2 more hours home!

This week I have been busy getting back to work and school. Tomorrow I am going on a field trip. Yes, in college, my club is going to Greenville, like 3 hours away to tour the BMW factory. It should be a fun trip. The weather is getting nicer and cooler everyday. I hate daylight savings time, it gets dark at like 5:30!

Sorry this post is so long and choppy, I have had so much going on and I wanted to put it into one posting. Good grief. Oh yeah, Karl Snores!

Mi abuelita

2008-10-25T16:33:00.003-04:00

I got some sad news this morning via text, my grandma died last night (mom's mom), Marvilla Wynn. Last night Amy called me and told me grandma had a bad infection that was really taxing her body. I started to think of my grandma and what I would do if she passed away. I assumed I wouldnt go out to Idaho for the funeral because school and work. This morning my dad was texting me back and forth and suddenly slipped in the bad news text, it really took me off guard.

This is the only picture I could find of my grandma even though she lived with us 2 months every year. The picture is from the open house right before I went on my mission. She would always tell me about her mission (southern states), she even gave me her discussions, which I still have and will cherish more.

Things I remember about my grandma:

$2 dollar bills. She always would send a card and a $2 dollar bill for all our birthdays, it wasnt a lot of money but it was cool to get the bill.

She was a hard worker. Whenever she came to live with us, we all loved it because that meant we didnt have to do our chores anymore. She emptied the dishwasher, took out the trash, swept the floor, everything and even had time to keep the cookie jar stocked. Keep in mind this was after she was over 80!

She always had her shoes on. Ha. I loved her shoes too, typical, old grandma shoes. I saw them off her feet maybe 3 times. She even napped with them on.

Stuffing food in my pockets. When we would go to Emmett, she would make us eat our dinner before we got dessert. If I didnt like the meal, I would stick it in my pocket and clean my plate off.

Walking to Albertsons every day while in Emmett, also walking her newspaper across the street, she shared her paper with her neighbor, everyday after she read it she would pass it on to her neighbor.

Grandma wiping her face with the napkin Amy had her retainers in!

There is just so much to say, her old Impala, DDT in her garage to kill bugs, her BB gun to shoot cats, Roann's for ice cream, The Laurence Welk show, raisin bread with a hamburger, orange and brown shag carpet, just too too much to write it all. I love her and will miss her, but am glad she is done with her time here on earth because I know she lived a great life.

Un Raton

2008-10-20T13:14:00.003-04:00

This past week was great, I had Fall Break so school was out for a few days. I mostly worked and stayed busy. On Tuesday, I decided the weather was feeling great and that I wanted to ride my bike. When I got off work I went home to clean off the deck and get my bicycle ready to go. We have a small deck that mostly serves as an junk overflow. We have a big bin out there with potting soil, plant pots and other tools to maintain our once fruitful garden. Well I started to clean that out, removing the potting soil and pots, YIKES!! Un Raton, A RAT! In one swift motion I back handspringed into the house and slammed the door. Probably not true on the back handspring but it probably would have been more manly than what I really did.

Once I was safely inside I looked through the window and realized it was a mouse not a rat. I came just about as close as possible to a heart attack when moose brushed up on my leg. The mouse then jumped onto the rim of the bin and jumped out and casually walked around my deck. I pounded on the door and it ran off the deck and onto a roof. Anyways I got the broom handle and knocked over the bin to see if anything else would come out. I saw one more mouse and he didnt seem to care I just toppled his home. So our deck is now on lock down, not sure what we will do next. We are at the Hale's babysitting so we haven't been home to think what to do. Not sure if I want to trap the mice and release them or get a killer mouse trap. Not a big fan of mice or this situation.

Moving on, Friday night we went to a haunted house, not really a fan of these either. We did the hay ride, which was fun. Saturday morning it rained so much, I had planned on doing a 5k but it was just too wet. It turns out the race was ran, the runners just got soaked. We just relaxed all day and had fun with the twins. Not much really happend noteworthy.

Today we are going to dinner with my parents and grandma. They are coming down to embark on a cruise. We are excited for them, and also a bit jealous. This coming week is full of events, more babysitting, home teaching, school, mutual, Ellen going to Ohio, youth temple trip, a 5k, picking up the cruisers...Man looking at my calender I cannot believe how busy we are until after Christmas. It is sad that we are having to plan activities with our friends that far out!

2008-10-12T23:48:00.006-04:00

This week was fun. I decided to get back into the Global Logistics program and add 6 more months of school. I decided I wanted to specialize more and 6 more months really wasn't too much time. So now I am excited again because I get to go to Holland for spring break next year. Ellen is sad but trying not to be selfish, this means I wont be able to go on a cruise. She threatens that she will go without me and sometimes I think she is serious. This semester is now half over and I am starting October break. I had mid terms last week, nothing too tricky.

Ellen's birthday is just over one month out and Christmas is just over two. This year I want to shop early for all my gifts so I can get it out of the way and I can spread my money out more. All this thinking of presents has gotten me really excited for Christmas!

Saturday I ran another 5k, I improved my time by 5 minutes. The race was so small only 50 people, as opposed to one this Saturday, 5000. It rained so much this weekend, so Ellen, Moose and I stayed inside and stayed bored. One ray of sunshine for us (not moose) was a youth road show thing. It was a 24 hour road show, all the youth in the stake received topics Friday night in their units and had until the next night to rehearse and plan. It was fun to see and we were glad to get out of the house for a few hours.

With summer over, we are babysitting again more. Thursday and Saturday night we kept Mikey and this Thursday we move into the twins house again for a week or so, fun times.

2008-10-06T23:48:00.007-04:00

This past week was fun. The weather is starting to be excellent and fallesque, my favorite part is keeping the windows open and turning off the AC. (I pay the electric bill). I really like the fall and winter and being comfy, I even bought a pair of sweat pants.

To enjoy the weather, we went on a picnic. The park is great, its right on the water and huge. Plus dogs dont have to be on leashes. The park has a big reception hall, that night a bunch of older citizens were having a party and a big group came out to watch play fetch and run after the other dogs. She was the highlight of the party. I was content eating my calzone.

On Friday, we went home for the weekend. Karl just bought a wii so we played around with that and tried beating all his records. My mom had so much good food for us this weekend it was hard to resist the pumpkin bars.

Saturday morning my mom and I went jogging around the neighbor hood, she did very good. After running it was time for more delicious food, on of my favorites, biscuits and gravy. Hartsville was having its first ever farmers market so we all went to support that. We were all disappointed in the lack of fresh produce but they did have some good stuff including fresh cheese. This past weekend was General Conference so we geared up for that. Ellen and I watched it on my laptop and had a good time listening to some good talks. We went to a new Italian place in Hartsville, the food was decent and cheap, they never charged us the right amount, even after my dad told them our bill was too cheap. For priesthood session Karl and I dressed alike, dark blue suits and similar ties. Karl had ties from his mission still AKA polyester ties. We tied the hugest knots known to man. Our tie length only went down about 5 inches but with our jackets on nobody could tell, it was hilarious.

We played cards at night. I haven't played uno attack since my mission, its a pretty fun game. I think mom won. Just about the worst feeling of all card games is pushing that button and just waiting for the dosing of cards. Its like Russian Roulette, only worse.

Sunday we watched more conference and ate more delicious food. I found this old APEX jacket in the closet and wanted to take a picture so Tiffany could see it. Its an old jacket of my dad's it is dirty and has seen better days but it has to be at least 25 years old and she used to wear it in high school.

No title

2008-09-29T20:47:00.004-04:00

This past week did not really have anything that stuck out as notable. This past week I had tests in my classes, nothing too crazy yet. For some reason one of my teachers taught us binary. I am 11001 years old. This weekend our friends Mindee and Geoff came to town. Mindee called me on Wednesday to say they were going to surprise Ellen and come. So it was going to be a nice secret until about 3 hours later Mindee cracked and told Ellen, way to go Mindee, you lasted a while three hours. Saturday morning we took Moose to the best park in the area. It has a lake with a beach and tons of dogs, I love to see moose's personality as she runs and plays with all the big dogs and pretends not to notice dogs of her size and stature. After the park, Ellen went and played with Mindee and I watched football with Geoff all day. By the end of the day I was somewhat over football.

We had a few people come watch the Georgia game and we made a bunch of snack food and porked out.

Ellen and I have been feeling somewhat retro lately. We have been looking for a Jeep Grand Wagoneer. They stopped making them in 1989, so they are becoming more and more rare, especially the decent drivable ones. We have seen a few on ebay and craigslist and even a few in our area. I really want one, a slight downside is the incredible size of the Jeep. I think they get about 10 MPG, eeek...but what a pretty ride.

Ellen had her hair cut and colored this weekend. She went dark and it looks great. The pictures are of her getting her wii fit on.

Beach Week

2008-09-22T00:06:00.002-04:00

MaryEllen's family came down for a vacation this week. Her parents, aunt and uncle, another aunt, a cousin, and a random couple from Utah all went in together and rented a beach house. There was a few good things about them being here. We didn't have to prepare a meal all week. After work we just went to the beach house and had dinner waiting for us. Another good thing was being so close to the beach, we just walked one block and we were there. One more good thing was that our house is only 3 miles away, translation: when we get tired of hanging out we can leave. So we got all the benefits of a family get together and the luxury of being able to leave when things got annoying. One bad thing about the beach house was the enormous amounts of junk food. Cookies, M&M's, chips, chocolate, baked sweets, cobblers, etc. This is bad because I am trying to win BL with my family. I must admit I haven't really done anything to get my BL going. My bad. Maybe later.

I ran my first race of the season on Saturday. It was a fun run. 2 miles. One of Ellen's coworkers ran with me. All week we had been talking up our running game and boasting of our upcoming victory. I sent a pack of cookies to her office and made a label for them, I called them "Pre-race Energy Rounds". How can anyone resist cookies? She responded back with a bottle of "vitamin water" with the instructions to drink the night before. It was only on close inspection that I discovered the label had been taped on. The bottle really was a super laxative that is designed to clean your body out. (Thats my secret weapon for winning BL). Anyways I was so nervous that I would lose the race, I couldn't sleep the night before. I dont know why, I was so nervous, it was only 2 miles.

The weather was cold and windy and it was dang early. I ran my race and she ran hers, mine was faster. I am glad I ran and now plan for other races, I cant believe how many 5K's are here, one almost every weekend, benefiting some cause or another.

Well everyone has gone home now and Ellen and I are getting back into normal life. Our house is a mess from not cleaning it for a week, the pile of clothes next to me on the couch has a life of its own at this point.

Ellen accepted a new calling, YW first counselor, she is excited to stay working with the girls.

Parking

2008-09-13T16:32:00.002-04:00

School and work have been going okay. I must say my classes are rather boring, a couple of them I just have to sit there and have a pulse to get a good grade. Its good but because the classes are so easy I just sit there like a vegetable. We have been still really enjoying the wii fit, and getting better everyday. My favorite games are ski jumping and snowboarding.

This week hurricane ike went through the gulf, we feel a lot of pain from the hurricane despite the fact it is hundreds of miles away. On Thursday rumors went around town and offices all over the place. In my office it went something like this- lady picks up her phone "hello?" "oh my gosh! gas prices are at $4.50 and lines are into the streets!" I couldnt believe the pandemonium that ensued. This must have been like the panic of Black Tuesday in 1929. My coworkers were running frantically, panicking, some were nearly in tears realizing they had to stay an extra hour at work. Well, not me, it was four and time for me to leave. I needed gas anyways, so I filled up, for $3.69, no lines, no panic. I didn't see any lines as I drove home, but Ellen had a similar call to her work, and when she filled up at 5:30, the gas station had lines in the street and the station employee on the phone frantically demanding a gas truck deliver more gas quick!

It turns out, the run on all the gas was a rumor started who knows where...unfortunately the run on gas caused the supply to decrease and prices go up! This is no fun because now its going up even more because of Ike.

More bad news...my school is downtown, translation- you are on your own for parking. Recently I have been parking a few blocks away from campus on a side street, the kind that requires the parkee to pay a meter. Well this street is always so baron, no parking enforcer ever came down it, not worth their time. Friday, I parked my car at 9:40 and headed to class, around 10 my friend text me and said he thought he saw a ticket on my car. I didn't believe him. Well my last class got out at 12:50 and I walked to my car. My friend was wrong, I didn't have one ticket, I had TWO! One was issued at 9:50 (10 minutes after I left), and the other was issued at 12:45 (10 minutes before I got back!). Two tickets! Luckily, the fine for each is $8. I still consider my little scheme successful because if I had been paying the meter for the past two weeks I would have paid more than $16. Am I stealing parking?

Yesterday, Ellen went and visited Mindee in Myrtle Beach and left me all alone. I would have gone but I had a Leadership Summit at school. So I made the best of it and went to see a movie she wouldn't have seen with me, The Traitor. It was a good movie, it was fun to have a night alone but it was also lonely! Moose kept me company and filled Ellen's side of the bed but it just wasn't quite the same.

2008-09-07T15:40:00.004-04:00

Long time no blog. Last weekend we went to Hartsville for a good time. We spent a good deal of time at my mom and dads which is not typical. Usually we are at Ellen's parents but her mom was fairly sick so we tried to steer clear. We played this game called Uno Stacko, similar to jenga but you have to pull specific tiles, so its more tricky. It was fun and I couldn't believe how high we got the tower. Ellen ended up winning as she was the last to go before my mom made it topple, there was no real way for it to stay up.

The next day we went to the store with my parents and helped them grocery shop. They came up with a fun game, similar to Super Market Sweep, they gave me clues and a time limit and if I found the item in time, I could get an item of my choice ( a grocery item). Most of the time I succeeded, sometimes I did not. I think mom and dad planned this little game intentionally during the busiest shopping hour on the busiest shopping day. Sometimes I just wanted to plow into some shoppers, "Get out of my way!" Clearly they didn't see the urgency in my shopping.

After the game they gave us a free for all, three minute shopping spree. Unfortunately I got stuck with the cart, I was so slow pushing and navigating that thing through a veritable obstacle course of nonchalant shoppers and their wayward carts. After all the frustration we both came out very well. Thanks parents.

Also I finally got a new cell phone. No more dropped calls! I spent a while on Saturday playing with my new toy. We also watched a great movie, La Luna Misma, a Spanish movie about a boy on his own trying to find his mom in Los Angeles. On Sunday the ward had a Seventy, Elder Posey come and talk, even better we had a linger longer afterwards. This weekend was like food overload, we ate a ton.

Monday was Labor Day, I still had school though, bummer. Tuesday began the worry of Hurricane Hanna. South Carolina doesn't usually get many tropical storms so this became a huge deal. As the storm got closer and closer the evening news became more and more mundane. It became very annoying, nothing else was reported all week unless it had something to do with Hanna. I do appreciate caution and awareness of the danger but come on. As the week ended it became more and more obvious the storm would go north of us. Finally no more reporting, right? Nope. It was sad to see the weather people on the beach trying to make the weather look fierce. The grocery stores were packed, no ice, no batteries, no water anywhere. We were ready for the worse but saw really nothing more than a good rain. I was kinda let down, so much commotion for really nothing.

A highlight of the week- we finally bought a wii fit. We love it. It might be sad to admit but I am sore from using this thing.

I love her face, sheer terror.

Another classic face.

Kite Runner

2008-08-27T23:17:00.006-04:00

Lately the evenings have been dragging. I think we are suffering from Olympic DT's. Tuesday night we decided we needed to get out of the house. Ellen wanted to go to the beach, and I wanted to fly a kite. The compromise- fly a kite at the beach. This proved to be especially handy, for anyone who is lazy but still enjoys flying a kite-go to the beach, its simple. I remember the days of old when I would ran frantically pulling a 4 dollar piece of plastic on string to no avail. At the beach, no running was required, just open it up and let it go, it will find the sky on its own, beautiful.

Quickly the 250 feet of string was let out as the kite soared high above the beach. Luckily the string was tied on. Somehow the kite came crashing down, all 200 ft (Pythagorean guesstimation). As a testament to this kites destiny to fly, it took off again, from the ground, back to the sky, we were like 100 ft away winding up the string, sweet. It was fun to fly the kite but after awhile it got boring.

Tear

2008-08-25T23:22:00.002-04:00

Shed a tear as tonight is my last night of freedom. Tomorrow morning I start my fall semester, early! My schedule got jumbled about and I got thrown into a 8am class. This means a wake up call around 6:30, is it still dark then? I couldn't tell you, but I will find out tomorrow, In just 7 hours. This semester should not be too hard, its all the electives I wanted to save my next and final semester. I am taking Music Appreciation, Calculus, Motor Development (whatever that is) and computer fluency. So as you can see- nothing sounding too tricky.

We took moose to a new dog park this past weekend, it is humongous and has a lake adjoining it as well. Moose loved to run and jump into the water and run with her pack of large breed dogs. I am amazed at this dog, definitely not your typical lap dog, she is fearless, sometimes to her detriment. She slept for 2 days straight.

I have enjoyed reading books this summer, and as of tonight I have finished 15 books over the summer. Now that I think of it, if I had read 15 calculus books I probably wouldn't be in this situation this semester. Oh well. I have enjoyed reading so many books. Ellen has also picked up reading this summer. Now that the Olympics are over I can go to bed at a reasonable hour.

Oh yeah, I also got a new calling at church. After enjoying 3 months off, I was finally noticed and called to be the assistant advisor of the teachers quorum, or is that assistant TO the advisor of the teachers quorum?

Bummer

2008-08-17T01:19:00.004-04:00

This week started off nice, at the start of summer I planted a small garden on the back porch. I had the best intentions of harvesting my plants and having a nice, green garden. Well after a little while I got bored with it and soon neglected it all together. I never go out on the porch but every once in a while I would peak out and watch my garden die. My dreams of a garden were gone. But alas! One little tomato decided his fate wasn't to die like all the rest, but to be eaten, by me. And one day soon I will complete the destiny of that little warrior tomato.

Just look at all the adversity this tomato battled through!

Bad news from school, I didn't get a good enough grade to meet my prerequisite requirement. So now its decision time. Choice one is to drop my minor and graduate in May on time or choice two keep the minor and graduate in Fall 2009, 6 months later. A few other details are involved but that's the core decision. Still up in the air for me.

Hello, my name is Kyle and I am an olympiholic. I cant turn away from even the slowest events, shooting, trampoline, and tonight I even watched a whole marathon, two and a half hours. I am losing sleep too, right now it is 1:40 and ladies beach volleyball is on, put on the coffee. When this event ends I need to just turn off the TV before another event catches my eye.

Today Ellen painted all day, no not at home, but at a friends house. While she was out I rented a Rug Doctor and cleaned the carpets. Don't you just love pouring out the dirty water? Seeing how gross the floors are/were? I did the floors twice, the second time the water was much cleaner.

Savaner (Savannah)

2008-08-10T00:00:00.009-04:00

Click the collage to see more photos.

This weekend we went to Savannah. What a great city, known as "The Hostess City of the South" it lives up to its name. Friday I went into work early and left at 2 on our way. We checked in the hotel and just chilled, not much was planned for Friday evening and plus it was kinda rainy. We went to Vinnie Van Go Go's, a awesome pizza place that looks terrible from the outside, actually from the inside too. The pizza there is so good it is worth it. After dinner we went and walked around the river and shopped all over the place. We decided to return to the hotel so we could watch the Olympic opening ceremonies. We walked in late and were surprised how long it was going, and going and going. So many athletes, and those poor Chinese cheerleaders, clapping and dancing for like 4 straight hours.

In the morning we woke up bright and early to go stand in line. The restaurant we wanted to go to is called "Lady and Sons" owned by Paula Dean of Food Network fame. We have tried to go the previous times we've been in Savannah but we had no strategy. This time I had a master plan, go early and get a time for lunch. Well, we went an hour early and so did about 100 others. This picture doesn't do justice, it goes so far. However long the line, we were determined, or at least I was, Ellen would have been fine with anything. We prevailed and got our reservation.

We then went to the Tybee Light house and toured around there. We went into the light house keepers house, now a display, and were like kids in a toy shop. We were touching everything and playing with antiques, all before we saw the sign requesting guests to not touch items. Oops. We climbed the lighthouse, all 178 steps of it. The view and the breeze made it worth it, we could see for miles.

We went to an old civil war fort, showing all of its age, it could use a bit of sprucing. After all of our walking we had sufficiently worked up our appetites and headed for lunch. More lines, more waiting. After about 20 more minutes we got our table. The restaurant is known for its southern cooking. We both chose the buffet and went to work. After a total wait time of 85 minutes it was sad when we realized we were done eating after 20 minutes. It was tasty but the waiting to eating ratio was a bit askew. We waddled to a museum to see some more history, during the brief movie, Ellen passed out and enjoyed the movie much more asleep than she would have otherwise. In the museum we saw the Forrest Gump bench, after taking pictures with it we learned we were not allowed to do so.

It was getting late in the day and so we hurried over to Bonnaventure Cemetery, a creepy, old cemetery I read about in "The Garden of Good and Evil". The place is so awesome to drive around and see all the old markers and some very interesting statues. I liked walking around but was grateful for the sunshine, I wouldn't go near the place if it was even close to nightfall.

After being locked in the cemetery (it closed with us in it, scary!) and then set free, we drove home to get some much needed rest. It was a fun trip and I am glad Ellen surprised me with it. Click on the collage to see more pictures of our trip.

Birth week

2008-08-07T21:55:00.005-04:00

This week has seen a ton of birthday cake for me. I have had my fourth cake today. Normal cake Sunday and Monday and dirt cake all week and today we had fruit pizza. This week I finished my math class, finally! Now I can just relax (even more) and wait for the real semester to start. Also I am running a 5k in December so I have been training and getting my butt off the couch preparing for my first 5k.

Tonight I had my final celebration of the birth week. We all went to Robert and Stephanie's house and had my favorite- shrimp and grits. I love it so much. Stephanie also made fruit pizza, so very delicious. All in all a very good night, I got a new Sigg.

Tomorrow, Ellen and I are going to Savannah. She surprised me on Wednesday night and told me she planned an overnight trip. I must admit I was taken back, I like to plan my trips so that not a lot of time is wasted, so a thousand things were going through my mind, to Ellen this seemed like a lack of gratitude. After a while I gathered my thoughts and I was excited to go. I am glad she surprised me and I love my birthdays because Ellen is so thoughtful with her gifts.