Here I am at the end of yet another summer week. A small handful of weeks more and this summer will be over. I can't say I'm really sad about that though. In a college town when you have a summer job, there really aren't many things to do. Most of the people you know are on vacation and while there are lots of fun holidays and such, in my case I worked through them all. I'm not complaining or anything, but, as the summer ends I realize how much my body and mind really need a reboot. I'm hoping that happens in Wyoming on the 27th and 29th. I'm not sure how Wyoming is going to go, but I am going to do all I can to make it a really fun time.

I commuted to work on my bike for the first time today. It was a good experience. I have a little more flexibility now because I do not have to run on the buses schedule. That really makes me happy. It takes me between 10 and 15 minutes to ride to seven peaks, depending on my rate of speed and traffic lights. If I want to go leisurely, I leave a little early. If I'm late, I can just peddle faster and be there in under 10. It is also good exercise for me. I haven't been going to the gym as often as I should and I've really felt that in my physical health. Before I would be tired at the end of the week, but it would be a good tired where a day off Sunday would re-energize me and I would get back to it. Now, by mid-week I'm flat out exhausted and there's little that can re-energize me. I'll try going to the gym more. Even if I don't lift weights and bulk up, I need to at least go and get my blood flowing, get my body working.

More important news than the above, I am now more than halfway through the Book of Mormon. Today I read the story of Ammon and Lamoni, which is probably one of the best stories. Lots of people falling to the ground. It really is amazing.

Tomorrow is my real meeting with my bishop about a mission. It works out that the meeting was postponed last week because this week is Fast Sunday, so I think that will help me. I honestly have no idea what's going to happen and where our discussion will go, but I'm ready for it.

That's the news for today. If he reads this, it'll be on his birthday, so Happy Birthday Michael! The good thing about your birthday on Fast Sunday is you get a bigger dinner you'll enjoy more!

Happy Friday! Work was insanely busy today for some reason. The park wasn't very busy, but lots of people wanted food and they all came to my stand today. It was a shaky start because some employees were at the wrong stands and 2 were home sick, but in the end we made it through. I do have to say that some of my employees really make my job worth it. There are lots of hot days where I'm exhausted or stressed or something outside of work is on my mind and those days just suck, but there's always some employee who either really works hard and makes my job so much easier that day or an employee that's funny that helps me break through that stress barrier. I'm very grateful for my employees. They've made my summer more enjoyable.

Well, after a good long search that had me on the very brink of buying a brand new mountain bike (which I still really want), I finally found a good quality used bike for $125. It was sold to me by a guy who runs a bike repair business. I took it on a test ride and saw no real reason to pass on the deal. I am now the proud owner of an aqua marine Scott Mountain Bike. I chose a mountain bike over a road bike (the ones with skinny wheels) because I am in Utah and I'm literally only seconds away from lots of good bike trails. Since I'm not commuting 20 miles to work (which apparently is a popular thing to do with road bikes), a mountain bike works great for getting to work and back. Now I just need to find some people who also have bikes who can go try out some trails with me!

I went and looked at the bikes I'm looking into and after talking to the bike shop manager decided on the one that would be best. I'm still deciding whether or not I should get it. I've spent the last month looking for a good used bike, but half the postings never return emails and the other half are either too expensive, are girl bikes, or are would require replacement parts and tune ups. Since the bike I'm looking at would last for years, I may just invest in it now and keep it for as long as it works.

That's about all that was worth mentioning today. Work was slow and monotonous. Looking forward to Wyoming next month.

This week is really flying by. At work today I was thinking it was only Tuesday when someone said it was Wednesday and I just thought, wow, time goes by so quickly.

Today I worked a 12 hour shift to cover for a supervisor who had something to be at tonight. I don't really mind the extra work. Every hour I work is a dollar more on my end of year bonus. Next week I'm scheduled for tons of work. I believe I will have close to 50 hours of work. My next two paychecks will be very nice.

The big news today is that I took a huge step towards being completely debt free. With all of the money from my last paycheck being cleared into my US Bank account today, and with almost 100 hours scheduled over the next two weeks, I went ahead and paid off the remaining $361.19 debt I owed to them. That was 2/3rds of the debt I have left to pay. All that remains is $80 to Annie for when she helped me pay rent awhile back, $110 to the parents for my spring term tuition and then $10 to Mary for one thing and then possibly a little more to her for something else. As far as I know, and that should be accurate because I kept a written record. that's all that remains.

I should be getting a bike very, very soon here. I have a couple models I'm definitely interested in. I'm going to confer with some bike experts and the parentals and if it all feels good, I'll make a purchase hopefully in the next week.

That's all there is today. Nothing social going on for me aside from work, work parties and some ward stuff.

Wow. I wish you all could have been there to see the firework show I put on tonight. It was pretty awesome. Nay, it was really awesome. In case you forgot or didn't read the previous post about it, we have food employee parties once a month. This month we chose to do fireworks. We get $5 per employee and we have 69 employees. So I had $345 to get fireworks and food with. I hand selected the best fountains my firework stand had to offer and then got an assortment pack with 17 fountains to fill in the gaps between the better fountains. Then I got lots of little things. Some tanks, a parachute battalion that shoots 35 parachutes off real quick, crackling balls, jumping jacks (a firework like strip that shoot off and jump around like ground flowers) and some ya-never-know-what-they'll-do happiness fountains. In all, I had around about 40 good fountains to light plus around 50 of the little stuff and then a handful of (possibly illegal) rockets, repeaters and mortars. Total of proabably 90-100 pieces to light. The fountains impressed big time. The majority of the larger ones lasted between 1:30 and 2:30 and then some of the smaller ones from the assortment went 30 seconds to a minute each. I lit them with a blow torch because we had one and it's just easier than anything else. Funny story though. One of them the wick lit but fell off or something so I lit it inside with the blowtorch and got back. 3 seconds later the entire thing just went KABOOM out of the side. It was pretty ridiculously awesome. It smoldered 5 feet from where it blew up for about 10 minutes. We had one or two more that also exploded. One was a Happiness Fountain and we expected it to possibly explode because ask anyone who has seen one...that's just what they do. Another was an assortment small fountain and the blowtorch may have lit more than the wick...who cares. Anyway...over the course of an hour we lit off all the fountains and novelty small stuff and then got to the finale. We did four 6 ounce rockets that shoot up high and then have a little report with cool effects and then one double ring rocket, which goes up high and explodes in two cool colorful rings that go out wide. Then we did a repeater that had 7 shots that went high and had multi-effects too. Imagine the smaller fireworks you see at big shows...a real small version of those is what these do. Then to finish it off we did mortars. Those are a super small version of pro fireworks. The pro shows have 10-24+ inch shells that shoot off high and then make BIG effects. Mortars are like 2 inches in diameter and do a large burst in the sky. The final mortar actually malfunctioned somehow and just blew up in the tube. It turned out really cool because the tube is made to withstand the force and just pushed the burst up, so it shot like a fan up a good 50 feet. Looked neat. This show only made me love fireworks even more and look forward to my Wyoming trip next month when I can put on another good show for people. I'm sorry you all missed out. I was hoping to get someone to tape this show, but they didn't have their camcorder ready. Oh well.

That was really all that happened today. I read 30 pages in Alma, wrote a letter to a friend, did some laundry and took a nap. Yay for days off. I volunteered myself to work all next week without a day off so another supervisor could do something with family, so I'm going to have another long two weeks without a break. It's ok though, I don't have much else going on right now anyway.

Alrighty then, let's hope some exciting things happen this week.

Today was a super easy day. This morning I returned the bookcase to Wal-Mart and picked up the drinks and food for tomorrow's employee party. Then it was off to work.

Work was a breeze. Soon as I got there we had a supervisor meeting. After that, the food manager went and bought us some chinese food. So I checked on my stands and then took a break and had chinese. By the time I finished, storm clouds were brewing. Not long later lightning was sighted and the park had to shut down all water attractions. The rule is we can't re-open them until 30 minutes after the last lightning strike is seen. We had strong winds, rain and lightning for a good hour or more. During that time, the food stands had a good little bit of business. Once the storm kept going, half the people in the park left. Finally the lightning moved on and we reopened. With one of our stands closed early during the storm and our staff reduced to minimum, the other supervisors and then the food manager all left. I, having the 1-9 as usual on Mondays, stayed to close. I had 6 employees in 3 stands (main grill stand, dippin dots and snow cone shack). It didn't take long for more people to leave with the evening being full of clouds, occasional light rain and cooler temperatures. By 8 when we closed, there were only a handful of people left and closing went quick. We were all out of there early and I was able to go to the bank ATM to deposit the paycheck I picked up today.

With tomorrow off, I can relax tonight and get some stuff done tomorrow until the food employee party at 9 pm.

After a long time of anticipation, tonight I made shrimp scampi with white wine. It turned out pretty good, but I'd like more practice at it. It wasn't as good as I remember it, but everyone liked it. It being my birthday dinner, we bought a strawberry swirl cheesecake to go with it. It had a cinnamon crust that made it a little different. I liked it.

So, my bishop decided to go out of town this week and didn't tell anyone. I showed up for my interview and instead practiced piano for a half hour before church. I rescheduled for next week. Good news though, I finished Mosiah and am now in Alma, effectively accomplishing my goal of going from 2nd Nephi to Alma in 3 days!

Church was really good today. Lessons were good, talks were good. We got out early too! This week should be a good one. I have the food employee firework show Tuesday. I work only one late shift, so work will be more enjoyable.

Not really much to say today. I look forward to the rest of summer.

After several 14+ hour days this month, including a 14 hour day followed by an 18 hour day this weekend, the firework stand is finished for 2010. All that remains is depositing the last of our money and waiting for the check. By our calculations, I will definitely get $1000. According to our final tally, our commission should get me $1090, give or take a few bucks. We'll see how accurate that is soon.

In other news, I almost got through Mosiah today. I'm about 20 pages short of starting Alma now and I should get there right on schedule with my goal tomorrow. I'm also meeting with the bishop at noon to discuss a mission. Hopefully I will stay awake for that. It's in 9 hours and I've worked 32 hours separated by only 7 hours of sleep! With that said, I think I'm off to bed.

It's unlikely I'll be able to update this tomorrow since I'll be selling fireworks until midnight and then doing final inventory until around 1 am, so, HAPPY PIONEER DAY! For those of you outside of Utah, this probably means a ward activity including relay races, stick pulls, ice cream and such. For those in Utah, it means fireworks.

Today we fell about $11 short of our goal of $1000 in sales. Since our commission on that $11 is $1.65, for all intents and purposes, we hit our goal. $302 of that was my order for my foods employees party. I had a fun time picking out some good fountains and novelties and then I threw a large assortment in with 16 fountains. All together there are 100+ pieces to light which should give us a solid hour or more Tuesday night. I'm pretty excited. Tomorrow sales should be much better than today and we hope to do $2000 minimum. It's a sure bet that I'll get a nice, fat paycheck in a month for at least $1000. HALLELUJAH! Speaking of paychecks, I have one waiting at Seven Peaks for somewhere around $500 with 2 day passes. Sweet!

Well, I better get to sleep. Gotta be up in 7 hours for one last day of selling. Wish me luck!

PS- I'm about 10 pages into Mosiah, which puts me easily in reach of being in Alma by the end of Sunday.

Wow, this week has kind of blown by. All of a sudden it's almost Friday and I'm preparing to re-open the firework stand tomorrow.

Today was pretty good. It was a really low-key day at work and I did some awesome stuff. I sampled some tri-tip sandwich meat, which was delicious! Then I sampled some new smoothie mixes. They have green tea in them so they have a little bit of a tea-ish taste to them. Not bad, but, not my favorite either. Then I planned a food employee party. You know how you always wish you had hundreds of dollars to spend on fireworks and wonder what you would get? Well, I have that chance! We decided that since we can legally light fireworks off until next Tuesday, that we would use the $345 we get for a department party to do a firework show. The food manager just gave me the money and said get what you want. AWESOME! I'll use about $300 for fireworks and the rest for drinks, marshmallows and maybe some other snack. I already have a good idea of some of the good stuff that will hopefully impress the always hard to impress citizens of Utah. To them, a fountain is a fountain no matter what different effects it has, so I'll get the most unique stuff we have for them. According to some employees who's father is a cop, they police don't really do anything about illegal fireworks unless they are the commercial show kind without a permit or if people complain, so I got my manager to approve bringing a couple bigger fireworks for a finale. I selected a few that we have multiples of from our trip to use. The rest are being saved for our return trip to Wyoming August 27th. Anyway, I planned out the party, made fliers and now I just wait and try to build anticipation to boost morale in the department until Tuesday.

After work, I finally did what everyone has been waiting for me to do. I went down to the State Liquor Store and picked up a bottle of Chardonnay (a white wine) for cooking. I promise I won't drink it, it'll be kept out of sight and only used for special occasions like my late birthday dinner this Sunday. Technically I'm breaking BYU off-campus policy having it, but I only got a $10 bottle so if someone rats me out someday I won't be too upset handing it over. I don't know what you all think, but I don't really think it's bad to cook with wine.

The last bit of exciting news today is that my storage shelf from wal-mart arrived. I couldn't help but laugh my head off when it took me less than 3 minutes to put it together and it was 100 times better than that gay bookcase that broke. I was especially pleased that it came so quick. I ordered it late Monday and 3 days later, here it is. The shipping was only $5 too, so that was a real bargain! My kitchen is now much more organized and I'm one happy fella.

All in all, today was a really great day! Lots of exciting things happening everywhere I went. I can only hope more days are like this!

Whewee! I'm exhausted right now. There is only one thing to really talk about today. Tonight was the Seven Peaks employee innertube water polo tournament! They had a record setting 12 teams sign up this year. It was a single elimination format with a lower, easier bracket and an upper advanced bracket with one extra game to play to get to the final. I was originally on one team, but when we were slaughtered by a life guard team with some bad attitude (and I mean bad...I'll tell more later), I was recruited to a second team. One other member of my losing team joined and with two more dropping out from my new team, we picked up two of the older, stronger lifeguards. With this team we defeated our opposition in the first round game and then went on to win by one against the bad attitude lifeguards in the semifinals. They wouldn't go without a fight though. And I mean a fist fight. They were making open threats to our team because they didn't agree with the official score and wanted a shootout or extra time. Finally, I took it to the the official score keeper, who was a lifeguard supervisor and also the head of the tournament, the foods manager and it was determined that our team had in fact won fair and square. I quickly pulled my team away from the scene so they could relax before competing in the final. We knew we had very little chance in the final. We were up against basically the dream team of Seven Peaks water polo. Their team had several people who had played real or innertube water polo in leagues. The rest of the team that wasn't super experienced were the top lifeguards. The final score was something like 15-3. I am very proud to say though, that I scored 2 of our 3 points. It was an amazingly fun time and everyone had fun except for the sore loser lifeguards, who were still being obnoxiously rude at the end of the night. They'll hate me especially because I was goalie during that game and stopped many of their shots.

So, that's the excitement of today. Tomorrow is my last day this week at Seven Peaks. Friday and Saturday I'll be selling fireworks again. For our foods employee party next week we may buy $300 worth of fireworks and have a big show. We'll poll the employees tomorrow and see if they want to do that. It'd be pretty fun I think to do that. I'll do my best to convince them.

One last thing, for those of you interested, I haven't read tons, but today I finished 2nd Nephi and my goal is to hopefully be in Alma by the end of the week. I just gotta make that time to read!

Today I have some really exciting stuff to talk about. I'll just get right to it. Around 2:00 at work, everyone started pointing towards Y Mountain. I looked over and there was a big plume of smoke coming off the mountain about 2 miles away (close enough to see the smoke moving fast). A little closer to the Y trail another small fire appeared as well, sending just a small bit of smoke up. I watched for a while as the small fire disappeared and the large one got smaller and smaller. I went out front to watch as a helicopter arrived to the scene and circled around. A few minutes later and the smoke was pretty much gone. But, as I turned to go back inside, I saw new smoke just beginning to rise...RIGHT AT THE END OF THE STREET! Barely a block and a half down the road from where I stood, someone had just started a fire. (By this time we had discerned it was definitely arson and not any controlled burns.) The helicopter immediately saw and came our way. I looked for any arsonist, but didn't see anyone. I watched as a bunch of cops came on the scene with 3 or 4 special brush fire trucks and fire chief trucks as well. The helicopter landed in a parking lot at an abandoned building next door. The flames burned a good 75-100 square foot area before it was put out. It was pretty cool to see the firefighters spraying it all down and making sure it was out. A police officer came to seven peaks to talk to our head of security and on his way inside someone asked what was happening. He said it was an intentional fire. After they put it all out, the helicopter took off and flew up and down the whole mountain range, which probably scared off the arsonists. In the end, there were actually 5 fires in a 45 minute span. The Seven Peaks fire was the last one. According to the news so far, fireworks were found at at least one of the fires. Here's a couple links if you want to read more and see some pictures:

Salt Lake Trib
Provo Daily Herald

Aside from that, work wasn't really too exciting. During the fires, lots of people stopped to watch. Especially when the mountain was on fire 100 yards away. The only other news really I guess is that I got in contact with the Chef that I worked with at Zion Ponderosa and he told me what kind of wine I need for my recipes! Now I can go out with a bit more confidence and get a good wine for cooking.

Today was a good Monday. Slept in a little bit, did a little laundry, relaxed before work. At work, nothing really happened. It was a pretty chillaxed day. Annie and Mike went swimming and Seven Peaks today.

This evening after work Annie and I went to pick up ingredients for my birthday dinner. I was going to make clam chowder from the resort but instead I decided to go with the Shrimp Scampi I made at the resort. It's an absolutely delicious dish served over angel hair pasta. Here's a quick run down of it. You throw some olive oil and butter in a pan (equal parts). When they start poppin', you sautee some garlic and after a second, put the pre-cooked shrimp in. After the appropriate amount of time, turn the shrimp. Toss in diced fresh roma tomatoes. Next comes the good part. Deglaze the pan with a nice white wine. (Deglazing is when you pour a liquid into the pan and it gets all the delicious flavor stuck to the bottom off. So when you cook and brown stuff collects at the bottom, you deglaze it to mix that flavor back in.) The wine will cause the pan to flame nice and big for a moment. The majority of the alcohol is burned off in this process. Let the food sit just a moment longer before pulling it off and pouring it over hot, lightly oiled angel hair. For decoration, top it with a couple tall rosemary sprigs. And that, ladies and gentleman, is the best shrimp scampi you'll ever have! I'll post pictures when I make it this Sunday.

When we were out getting ingredients, I picked up a $25 bookcase from Wal-Mart to alleviate the severe shortage of kitchen storage space we have. I got the same one my old roommate used to have because I knew it was a good one. When I got home, I spent an hour putting it together. Unfortunately, it was made out of pretty cheep wood and when I started screwing some parts together, the wood began to split. I wasn't screwing anything in too tight as you might suspect. The wood began to split at the beginning of screwing it in, so it was a manufacturing error. I hoped it wouldn't compromise the structural integrity of the whole bookcase, so I put the rest together to see. It definitely compromised the structure. It wobbled to and fro from the split connections and I know if I was to put weight on it or even just try to move it the whole middle part where the bottom and top parts connect would buckle. So, after an hour of assembly, I spent a half hour disassembling it. I did a little research though and quickly ordered a better shelf. Here is the one I'm getting:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Plano-5-Shelf-Storage-Unit-Light-Taupe/8251817

It's much sturdier and the reviews all say it's very durable. The bad reviews were negative because parts arrived broken for them or assembly wasn't as easy as they hoped. Everyone agreed it was super sturdy and could support lots of weight well. I went ahead and put down $5 to ship it straight here in half the time it would take to do the free site to store shipping. I'll get the lame bookcase returned soon and get my new shelves between this Friday and next Wednesday. These shelves are definitely something that is needed in my apartment and I feel like it's a very good investment. If I leave on a mission, they can easily be transferred to someone else.

After ordering I started writing my blog and that brings me to the very moment I'm typing these words. I hope you all enjoy my blog. If you have suggestions, please comment on my posts and let me know. Anyone can comment!

I do have a brief update on my white strips. After 4 uses, my teeth do seem more vibrant and lighter. I have high hopes that every day my teeth will look better and I'll smile to show them off to everyone. Not sure how white they will get, but I'm satisfied so far with how things are going.

That's all for today. Until tomorrow, take it easy.

Today was a good day. I'll tell it all briefly since it is late and I need sleep. Church went great today. I feel like I've really progressed a lot in the past few weeks. I set up an appointment for next Sunday to talk to my bishop about a mission. We'll discuss my health, how my body and mind are currently functioning and hopefully we can start some mission papers as soon as possible. There are two things I've learned to accept. One is that given my medical history and the current mental affects that remain, I may not serve a 2 year proselyting mission, but rather some sort of service mission. The second is that whatever I've come to accept isn't really up to me, so I should stop thinking about it and just let everything pan out according to what the big man wants for me. Until then, I'll continue reading the Book of Mormon and praying and home teaching and fulfilling my 3 callings.

I would also like to let everyone know the official status of my relationship with Mary. Mary is my absolute best friend. At the present, she will remain as my best friend only. Whatever the future may hold for me and for her, she will always be my best friend. God willing and the creek don't rise and that blasted BYU bug doesn't bite, maybe some day our relationship will go further, but for now, just know that we are only close friends. (You are all welcome to encourage her to serve a mission though...just kidding Mary.)

Wow was it hot today! I didn't work until 1, so I worked through the heat of the day. This morning I just rested and watched a Japanese game show called Unbeatable Banzuke. Basically they have ridiculously crazy events like a unicycle obstacle course that people try to complete to become champions. It's hilarious. The closing shift went super slow as usual. Time ticked by ever so slowly. No big excitements from work itself today. After work was an employee party that I attended. This time they had a comedian hypnotist come. I'm not sure if I buy into stage hypnotism, but whether the people were hypnotized or acting, it was hilarious. I would actually like to be hypnotized by a doctor to see what he can accomplish health-wise. Too bad I'm not insured for something like that. Anyway, once again I didn't win any prize drawings at the party. Oh well.

Tomorrow is my only day off from working for about a week and a half. I'll work Seven Peaks every day until Friday, when I finish the firework stand off Friday and Saturday. Hopefully sales will be high enough to get me another couple hundred. Just about a hundred more and I hit $1000 and successfully achieve my payday goal.

I can't really think of much else that's going on. I'm excited to be 21 and feel like I'm really making changes so you guys will really believe I'm 21 next time you see me. I do my best to act mature but some people have a high standard of what mature is. Oh, I suppose I do have some exciting news. This week I will talk to my bishop about a mission and get things started with that. I'm almost positive it will require extensive medical testing to assure I have no diagnosable problems, but we'll see what needs to be done and do it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! Today I turned 21. But, first, let me recap Thursday...


Thursday July 15th- Happy Birthday to my dad. He turned...well, we'll just say he got older today. In honor of his birthday, I sent him a nice poem honoring the occasion. He enjoyed it a lot. Today I also decided to buy myself a birthday present. So, I don't have pearly white teeth, but I don't have yellowed teeth either. I just have teeth basically. As I discussed before, I thought it would be nice to whiten my teeth and see how much it might boost my confidence and give me reason to smile for no reason. Thus, I went on Amazon and purchased the ones I had researched (I did a good bit of research before buying). I got lucky too, because I was going to get free 3-5 day shipping. Then I realized I actually could get free 2 day shipping. So I ordered with the 2 day option. After that I went to work for a long shift. I worked about 9 and a half hours because a group had rented the park out for 2 extra hours after we usually close.

Friday July 16th- YAY! My birthday! I stayed up late Thursday so I could celebrate the first moments of being 21. I listened to Frank Sinatra singing Happy Birthday online and then I talked with Mary for a bit which was really nice. Before I went to bed, I got a great birthday surprise. The package from Amazon was shipped to me next day air. So I went to bed. Would you believe my luck. When I got up for work the next morning at 9, the package was already on my door! I was more than impressed. It took less than 24 hours to order and get it delivered and the shipping was FREE! Totally awesome. I went to work and was greeted with many gifts at work. I got an angel food cake topped with delicious frosting and strawberries, I got another carrot cake and then another employee brought me a pound of strawberries. A few employees are making me things for tomorrow. Another two made me something but it didn't turn out so they didn't bring it. It's ok though, I felt very appreciated by my employees at work today. After a super busy day at work I came home and went to a BYU men's soccer game for free. The ref absolutely robbed us, making horrible calls throughout and then awarding the other team a penalty kick 15 seconds before regular time expired. It's all good though, I enjoyed the game and especially enjoyed heckling the ref. Oh, in the mail today I got 3 birthday cards. One from the family, one from big sister Amelia and on from my grandparents. I also received many birthday greetings on facebook and a couple via text or phone call. All in all, it was an enjoyable 21st birthday. I still have lots more celebrating to do with dinner next week and all these cakes to eat.

Today was a great day. Work was slow so I just kicked back and listened to music and talked with employees. One employee fulfilled her promise to make me carrot cake cupcakes and she brought them today since she is leaving town before my birthday. They were topped with delicious, homemade cream cheese frosting. I got off work an hour early and headed home. A few hours later at home Annie showed up with a two-tiered carrot cake she and Mike bought. Annie has to work late on my birthday, so we celebrated it tonight. We had cake and kool-aid and then went bowling. As usual, my first game was a severe flop. I barely hit 70 points. Then, as expected, I dominated in the second game. I bowled somewhere around a 140 (don't remember the actual score), which beat my opponents by 38 and 48 points. The last game was close and I squeaked a win over Annie by 8 points. I ended on a huge flop, knocking down only 1 pin in the final 2 tries. Thank goodness I went last or Annie would have won. Mike is still trying to perfect his different technique, so many of his throws went straight to the gutter. After that we illegally set off a couple rockets. For my actual birthday Friday, I'm not sure what we'll do. The student fan club, Cougar United, sent all of us members free tickets to a men's soccer game Friday, so I may do that. I'll also likely go pick up a good bottle of wine for some recipes I plan on making really soon here. I'm especially looking forward to the best clam chowder in the world!

That was the gist of my day, tomorrow is Dad's birthday, he'll be 50! Happy Birthday Dad!

Days off have been a bit more common than usual lately. Saturdays rotate off and this past one was my Saturday off. My day off last week ended up being Thursday and this week it was today, combine always having Sundays off and I only worked 2 days since last Wednesday. Not too bad, but I've been pretty exhausted so it's been nice to have time to rest.

Today, I almost finished off overhauling my wicked dirty apartment. I spent 2 and a half hours scrubbing the bathroom. While I scrubbed it good and it looks very, very clean now, I didn't get it 100% clean. To most people it's 100% clean, but to me it's about 85% clean. Our bathroom has mildew problems and so I scrubbed most of the walls to get rid of what could be removed. I submitted a maintenance request to try and get them to remove the old paint and mildew and get some mildew resistant paint in there. The mildew started slowly and I've been scrubbing it monthly, but over the months it's grown and gone out of control. Too often roommates will leave the door closed after a shower or something, not to mention the stupid fan doesn't really do much to get rid of humidity quick. Anyway, the bathroom looks super clean and I'm sure our health will be better with less mildew.

A friend on Facebook posted an interesting article about Latter-Day Saints that I found to be an enjoyable read. Check it out yourself. it takes between 5 and 10 minutes or so to read, but I think it's worth it.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE
 
That's about all I have for today. I'll be 21 in a couple days!

Today was everything I've come to expect on a Monday. It was hot and I was tired.

Nothing superb happened at work today. My employees did pretty good. One supervisor went home sick so I covered for him. There was a guest at the park that hit their head hard and they had to call an ambulance and take him/her to the hospital. Sounds like it could be a head and spine injury. Unfortunately things like that happen more frequently than you'd believe. Word to the wise, always follow the rules completely at a water park. Can't tell you how many injuries can be prevented by doing things the right way. Things still happen, but it's less likely when you're not trying to rock your tube or something.


Tomorrow I'm off and I'll hopefully get some cleaning done. I also have some groceries to get and some other stuff on my to do list I think. It'll be a long week after my day off. I have a couple more 1-9pm shifts and those pass the slowest. But hey: turning 21 in a few days!

I am excited to announce some changes to my blog. As you may have noticed, I have added some gadgets around. I attached a music playlist you can listen to that showcases my musical taste. On the left side, I added a little fish aquarium for fun. You can click it and it will feed the fish and they will swim towards and fight for food. On the right, I put a little profile of me section that highlights some of the most commented things about me. Below that is a poll to guilt you all into visiting my blog more! One thing you will not see but that makes a big difference for you all is that I changed commenting settings. Anyone who visits my profile can now comment on any post. Hopefully, you will all leave comments here and there and give your opinion, support, etc, etc... The final change made today was an extension of how many posts visible at one time. I set it to 100 so you can scroll down to any date for the next few months.

I hope you all (all 2 or 3 I think) continue to read my blog and tell others who know me to read it. I'll continue to update it almost daily and let you guys know what's new! If you have a blog you want me to follow, let me know and I'll gladly read.

Well, I didn't get quite as much done as I wanted today. I was pretty pooped. I did get my haircut and that was good. I tried a new place today that recently moved just down the street from me. It wasn't horrible, but I've had better haircuts. The equipment was really cheap and when the guy did my neck it pulled the hairs out more than it razored them. Quite painful. I was nervous it wouldn't look good but in the end it came out well. Doubtful I'll become a regular though.

I didn't clean the bathroom today or organize my room. I decided to just rest today and take care of that stuff on my next day off on Tuesday. I napped a bit today, watched Germany take 3rd in the World Cup and then went and watched BYU Men's Soccer almost pull out a home win.

Although I didn't do the cleaning I planned, I did do a little unplanned cleaning tonight. For the past week an odor has appeared and increased daily in the fridge. Today it got unbearable so I went looking for the cause. It turns out, someone bought some milk back in May and never even opened it. A month and a half later, it started leaking out of the bottom and dripping into the veggie drawers. By the time I found it, half a gallon was stinking up the fridge in the two drawers. It was a bit raunchy to clean, but since it was caught in the drawers and not the bottom of the fridge, it was easy to empty. Just a little dump and rinse with soapy water and all was well. Hopefully the fridge will smell better now.

That about sums up my Saturday. A day o' rest tomorrow and it's back to it Monday.

Almost 21.

Today wasn't much of a Friday. I worked 9-5 then came home. That was really about it. I watched some shows on tv. I found a good bike but the seller wanted to be fair and do first come, first served and I was second. Just as my luck always goes, the first person was interested and will make the purchase tomorrow. I would have thrown $25 more in to beat out the other guy, but no...

Anyway, tomorrow's off from work. I'll use it to get a haircut, clean my room and the bathroom and do some reading.

Today was a good day off from work. I got a ton done in my apartment. For about 4-5 hours I overhauled my trashy apartment. It hasn't been cleaned and only barely even been tidied in almost a month. I've been busy working so I haven't gotten around to it and none of my roommates did anything besides dishes once or twice. So, today, I cleaned house. Let me tell you, it looks awesome right now. You wouldn't know you're in the same place if you saw it before and after. I'm pretty happy about that. It was relaxing to just put on some music and clean the living room, dining room and kitchen. Hopefully things will stay clean. I have Saturday off too this week so I'll finish my cleaning with my room, the bathroom and the vanity (sinks and counters).

After cleaning was done, Mike and I headed to DI to look for some shelves to store all of our food and kitchen stuff on. Currently, half of the kitchen floor is covered in boxes, bags and loose cans of food. It would be nice to get a nice, tall shelf to be able to have more room. We didn't find anything so we'll keep looking. Later on we went over to Deseret Book and I bought a replica copy of the Book of Mormon. It'll be easier to read all the way through for me. I still have some things to take care of Saturday, most importantly, I need a haircut.

The rest of the evening I just kicked back a bit and relaxed. I took a brief nap somewhere in there. Tomorrow it's back to Seven Peaks from 9-5. Then Saturday and Sunday off, Monday work and Tuesday off again. Not a bad schedule.

PS- I'm almost 21

Tomorrow is another day off for me. I'm looking forward to it since I haven't had a single day off (not even Sunday) for a week and a half due to the 130+ hours put in at the fireworks stand and seven peaks. I plan on getting a haircut for sure, doing laundry, cleaning my apartment and trying to get rid of some of the junk cluttering my apartment. I may hop over to Deseret Book and pick up a replica version of the Book of Mormon. Every time I try reading the Book of Mormon all the way through, the layout of books and chapters somehow throws me all off and I can't finish. So, after lots of thought, I decided it was worth $23 to get the version that reads like a book. That way, this time around I can focus on understanding the flow of it all. Then, once I've read it all the way through, I can go back to the new version and I can study with cross references and chapters and verses and all that jazz.

One area I think I lack in life right now is confidence. My supervisor job helps a bit and I do have confidence in many things I do, but, I've been trying to boost my confidence in myself since my lack of it has been holding me back for some time. I'm doing a little better about asserting myself, but it's difficult. I'm looking into some different ways to do that. I hear smiling really helps, but as you all know I'm not much of a smiler. To help with that, I'm thinking about maybe getting some of those crest white strips to give me a reason to smile. It sounds dumb, but I think it could really help me. We'll see. Gaining weight and getting a little more muscular will help me too. Being small and being timid go hand in hand 90% of the time I swear. I'm small so why assert myself right? Well, hopefully with 2 packs of steak in the freezer, 5 dozen eggs, yogurt, oatmeal and the protein powder and my workout I can fulfill that goal. I bet I could crack 140 before the end of summer.

I'm enjoying my summer, but it is a little depressing how many people are vacationing. Nearly all of my employees are taking vacations, most of them this month. The food manager and each of the other supervisors are taking weekends or even full weeks off to vacation, visit family, etc. Mary's chillaxin at the beach this week. As usual, I'm trucking away, working hard to balance my present and secure my future. The way things look now, I'll hopefully have at least $2000 just sitting in my bank account by summer's end. That would be nice. Normally I would take that money and just run off to europe, but, alas, I cannot.

Anyway, there's not much new going on. Just working, trying to have fun. My birthday is next week. Yay.

After close to 100 hours of work packed into one week, the 4th of July portion of the firework tent has ended. Out of $22,000 of beginning inventory, we sold somewhere between $14,000 and $15,000 of fireworks. Last year, with our old location, we sold about $12,000 for the 4th and Pioneer Day (The 24th), and we worked almost two weeks for the 4th last year. So, we are doing great and it looks like I will get the paycheck I needed. Where we stand now, I'll get between $800 and $900 plus a couple hundred more for Pioneer Day. I'll easily get over $1,000 total for myself and that's my goal. While the paycheck will be great, I am totally and completely physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. Luckily, I have Thursday and Saturday off this week, so I'll have some good rest time...though a lot of that will be spent getting rid of all the junk in my apartment and cleaning house (nothing has been cleaned for two weeks besides dishes).

Next Friday is my birthday. As requested, I'll be working 10-6pm. I know if I didn't work I would just sit around til the evening and then do something, so, why not just work and then party? Plus I have some employees at seven peaks who want to make me a cake.

The next step in summer for me is to get some reading done and gain weight. I dropped $50 on a big ol' tub of protein powder. Combine that with all the eggs and steak and other protein foods and my workout and I will hopefully gain some weight here.

That's the news for now I suppose. I'll keep on updating and hopefully someone will keep on reading.

July, the month of my birth, began today. That is exciting both because it means my birthday is soon and also because sales will soar now that it is legal to light off fireworks.

The tent went pretty well today. It was a little windy through the day but never enough to cause us problems. Tomorrow may be much, much windier and the gusts may get up to 30+ mph, which would be not good for business. Still, we hope to do at the bare minimum $5000 in sales tomorrow. Ideally we'd get more, so we will see what happens. The wind will die off tomorrow evening and Saturday will be a perfect day with a high of only 80 and no wind or rain. That means that with Saturday being the de facto Fourth around here, we can expect to sell tons that day. Our goal is to get around $10,000 on Saturday. We'll see what goes down.

I was wrong about the hot air balloons. I thought they started today, but they actually start tomorrow morning. I'll see them for sure as I will be woken up indubitably by the thousands of people behind my apartment and the music that will be playing. Not to mention, hot air balloons aren't exactly quiet when they fill up. We're making an early start at work so we'll get to watch them a bit in the field and then in the sky from our tent. It should be pretty exciting.

I'll keep updating things on here daily. There's not really anything going on besides work since I'm there literally all day. Soon though there will be more to tell.

Monday came late this week and arrived on Tuesday. Some low lives stole a $70 assortment from our tent while I had to work at seven peaks. We called the regional manager and they said that because we weren't properly watching our tent (aka they don't want to deal with it), we are liable for it, and just like that, we had to eat $70. Ask any of my employees at seven peaks, I was not happy for a couple hours. Anyway, because of that, another supervisor agreed to take my shift for Wednesday so I would be off the rest of the week (I already had Thurs.-Sat. off). I do have a hilarious story to tell. On the bus on the way to the firework tent after seven peaks there was this freshman girl and guy talking. They were quite awkward and would talk, then laugh, then chuckle a bit, then stop laughing and have awkward silence as they looked out their windows, then one would ask something and they would go through that and then awkward silence. Anyway, the funny thing is at one point, they were talking about the girl's friend's class. The teacher never showed up that day so her friend got to go home early. She was like "I didn't know teachers could do that" and then the guy asked what class it was. She said it was sign language and I had to try hard to keep from laughing and saying out loud: "I guess the teacher didn't hear the alarm clock." HAHAHAHAHAHA. Man, I thought it was hilarious.

After the firework tent we went on a grocery spree and used the remaining $130 on my food stamps. As of 39 minutes ago, I am completely self reliant and no longer receive government aid. WOOT WOOT!

Today, Wednesday, went good. We slept in a bit since we both worked 2 jobs Tuesday and were completely dead when we got home at about midnight. We went to the tent around 9:30 am and got it all open by around 11. We did a good amount of sales today and helped a lot of people decide what they want to buy when they come back in the next few days to actually purchase stuff. Our goal is to sell as much over $15,000 as we can. Tomorrow is the first day fireworks can be shot of legally, so sales will soar. I believe the hot air balloons also start tomorrow, so that will be cool to see again.

PS-the picture I put on was caught by the google-mobile as it took street view images...