Fall 2009 update...

Dear Blog,

It's been how long since I last posted (not including Saturday's announcement)??? 118 days actually (that's 3 months and 27 days, or 2,832 hours). Oh really? Goodness I'm sorry. How come I haven't posted? What have I been up to? Well, let me tell you...

College football started at the beginning of September. More than past years, and much to Shirley's dismay, I was very into it this season. I even started a sports blog, where I enjoyed writing about college football. Seriously though... I'm a huge fan of college football. Actually I like pretty much all football, I just don't watch a whole lot of the NFL games simply because they're on Sunday and I don't really watch tv on Sundays. But I could talk college football all day long.

Apart from writing about sports, I've also been playing a lot of sports lately. About the time college football season started, me and a bunch of guys started playing football on Saturday mornings. I even went and bought some flags, my own football, and even some gloves to up the competitiveness a little.

I think it was September when I got called to be the Elders' Quorum Secretary at church. I like the guys in the presidency. They're fun to work with. But every Thursday night we go out and make visits to people... and then we have a meeting every Sunday either before or after church, so that's been keeping me busy.

Halloween was good fun. Have I mentioned before that I'm a lousy picture taker? So yeah... there're no pictures of us in our Halloween costumes. But we did get pictures of our pumpkin carving!

For Thanksgiving Shirley and I decided to take the long trip to Idaho to spend the holiday with Shirley's Aunt Debbie and her family. They live in the small town of Jerome Idaho, and I loved visiting there! The scenery and landscapes reminded me so much of Montana, where I served as a missionary. We were less than 2 hours away from Boise, and the Broncos (Boise State University) were playing a big conference game at home that weekend. I wanted to go so bad, but it didn't work out.

The week after Thanksgiving, we got our first Christmas tree! We think we got the perfect sized tree for our little apartment. It was great. On a side note, I love basketball and like to watch as many NBA games as possible. So here's a shot of our sweet tree, and me eating a chili dog while watching a Suns game on tv and watching another game on my computer. I was a happy camper that night.

Funnily enough, about the time the college football season started winding down, so did our enthusiasm for playing football, and the focus kinda turned more towards basketball. Shirley's brothers were all in town for the holidays, and I got to play a lot of ball with them. And since then, I've been playing once or twice a week with friends. Shirley even got me some new basketball shoes (my previous ones were 5 years old!) and a new basketball for Christmas! I'm pretty much a baller.

There was of course school, which is always hanging over my shoulder and sometimes taking over completely, but everything turned out alright there. And besides that, it was just a lot of having fun being married and loving my beautiful wife. Dec. 30th was our 1 year anniversary! I hear stuff like "the first year was tough" and such, but for us... it was great! And we're very happy.

Anyways, that ought to be good enough for now. I'll try to keep 'em comin more often, and probably shorter, though I'm gonna be taking 19 credits this semester, so we'll see if I actually have any free time. Enjoy.

The Return

I'm gonna start blogging again
Tomorrow... or maybe monday.

College Football

Like College football? Then tune in to collegefootballwatch.blogspot for all the goings on in the world of college football.

I live for college football (and my wife too still) during the fall. And ever since this season started I've wanted to start writing about it. So I did. on collegefootballwatch.blogspot. Seriously, I could spend my days reading, writing, and watching college football and I'd be happy. The tough part is that there're things like school and work and money that get in the way. I mean, if I didn't have school or work I could just watch last week's highlights and read all the stats from last week's games. If I had loads of money I could buy a huge-screen tv and get all the sports packages and what-not from local cable companies so that I'd never miss a game - not even the ones on the other side of the country.

Anyways, that's all I've got. If you like college football check it out.

San Diego!

Labor Day weekend, how I love thee. Let me count the ways...

1) The San Diego Temple.

It was amazing! We went to San Diego to be there for the Sealing of Jared Ray and his then fiance Tamara. After the Sealing we stuck around with Jordan & Christine and Kevin & Julia to do some sealings ourselves. The San Diego temple is absolutely beautiful. I love it - everything about it had me in awe, especially the Grand Staircase going up to the sealing rooms on the fourth floor. It was marvelous.

2) Luigi's at the Beach

This place had the biggest slices of pizza ever. They make 30" pizzas. That's 30" in diameter, which means each slice is 15" long. In case you were wondering, that's 707 square inches. They serve it by the slice, which is an eighth of the pizza (80 square inches). Here's a picture of some random girl because it's the only picture I could find on the web, and we of course don't believe in taking our own pictures (really, this whole weekend we only took 3 pictures). Notice, the pizza slice is the length of her arm.
Also, Luigi's at the beach is freakin amazing. Not only was the food good, but the football was even better. Let me explain: We showed up there at 1:00 in the afternoon last saturday, which also happened to be the first saturday of college football. Well, Luigi's had about 10 big screen flat panel tv's hanging on their walls, showing 6 or 7 different college football games. It was amazing. They won my heart for forever.

3) Mission Beach

I love the beach. And i especially enjoyed my time at the beach this particular day. Was it crowded? Heck yes, it was Labor Day weekend. But it was stil a lot of fun. Last time Shirley and I went to the beach it was cloudy and cold, but last weekend it was sunny and warm. We stayed at the beach for, like, 5 hours. We played in the waves and had a grand ole time. I even tried body surfing and got pummeled several times. But it was a blast. After we got tired of sucking down salt water, we took a break from the water and built a mighty edifice to me. Well, it was a sand fortress. Do we have pictures? Of course we don't. But it looked something like this:

Perhaps it didn't actually resemble this particular building... but it was something like this.

4) Balboa Park

On Sunday we went to Balboa Park and had a picnic with Julia & Kevin and Kevin's parents. Following the food, we wandered the many sights of the park, and then settled down at the Organ Pavilion for the free Sunday afternoon concert. Organ Pavilion is home to the Spreckles Organ Society and the Largest Outdoor Organ in the world. Each Sunday at 2:00 (since January 1915) there is a free organ performance for all to enjoy.This picture is obviously not from a sunday afternoon performance, but this is the Organ Pavilion Outdoor Organ in all it's glory.

I kinda wish we had had more time to explore more of what Balboa Park had to offer, as I understand that there was much, much more to see than what we were able to. I think I should like to go back and see more of the park one day. But as it is, that pretty much sums up our vacation from last weekend.

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In conclusion, I've realized that I only have 4 ways that I love Labor Day weekend. Is 4 enough to say that I love it? Is that like saying "I love you" after only the fourth date? Even if it was four great dates? Maybe I just 'like' Labor Day weekend. Or 'I have a really good time with it.' Or maybe it's just a crush, I don't really know yet. It's too early to know I think.