I thought today would go pretty smooth. I'd get through work, write most of my issue paper, maybe get far enough along to go to Salt Lake to see the lights for ward FHE and have a good Monday. None of that happened. Something in my brain would not turn on today and I had the absolute worst day I've had in months. I couldn't (and still can't) think clearly, my speech is dyslexic and slurred, I'm physically and mentally drained and I feel horribly...I can't even think of the word to describe it.

I left work early so I could afford a nap to reboot myself because I was so tired and unproductive this morning. The nap did nothing. I spent the entire afternoon at my computer trying to get the paper started. I did everything I could to get myself to write. I listened to music, I ate, I made an invitation for my Christmas party, I ate again, I napped, I prayed, I tried and I tried and I'm still trying, but to no avail. My eyes are bloodshot and my left eye has a nice fat red vein showing very prominently that also stings...which is a big, big sign that my body is, for some reason, very tired.

All I can hope for now is that in the next couple hours before sleep I can get something written and then tomorrow I can build on it and get something turned in. I've decided that the worst thing to do would be to try to stay up late to get it done. I would like to turn this in on time though so I hope I get good sleep tonight so I can be energized tomorrow.

Today was a wasted day.

The song of the day basically sums up how I've felt since I woke up: "Can't Seem to Get it Right Today" by: Joe Purdy

Well, the mourning day for BYU has passed, but now we begin mourning the return of school and work....BOO! I'm really looking forward to going out in the sub-freezing temperatures and 6 inches of snow for 4 hours at work. That was sarcasm. I'm not really looking forward to that at all. I'd almost rather be poor than go out in this weather...oh wait, I am POOR!! and I still get to go out in this weather...BOO! I also don't think I'll be riding my bike since the roads are still snowpacked and icy. BOO!

Today I also get to start on my 4-5 page rough draft for my issue paper that is due tomorrow evening...BOO!

On a happier note, my apartment is decorated and it looks super awesome! I'll try to get pictures of it soon. We're having a little Christmas dinner party in a couple weeks.

Not much else going on right now. Christmas music time, so the song of the day will reflect that.

Today we observe one full day of mourning for our beloved BYU Cougars, who fell to the team up north yesterday. Out of respect for our team, I only put up my white lights yesterday. My red string will have to wait a day. I will say nothing about the game except for this: that ball was not fumbled, Brandon Bradley was clearly, and irrefutably down long before they took the ball from him. We should have kicked a field goal on 4th an 1, not run a stupid play action pass. Our team deserved to win and I put most of the blame on our coaching, especially towards the end of the game. Down with the Utes!

In other news, the big blizzard was a dud for Provo and other areas, but another storm rolled in overnight and in the last 5 hours (and I know because I was up at 2:30 am) it has dumped 3-4 inches of snow with more expected throughout the day and night.

Making turkey tetrazzini tonight and having some folks over for The Princess and the Frog. Planning on a little Christmas Party probably on the 12th. Busy weeks ahead in school!

Two songs of the day, "Taps" and "Hymn to the Fallen"

Go Cougars!

Christmas decorating went quick today. What used to take a couple hours took two shakes and a wink today (That's approximately 30 minutes, by the way). We started around 10:30 and by 11:15 I was making lunch while they got the Christmas crafts ready. Lunch was great...good ol' grilled cheese with Tillamook Cheese. The craft was the same as last year, those window glass things.

After everyone had gone it was sports time. We listened into the BYU Basketball game, which ended with Noah Hartsock hitting a buzzer beater in double overtime to finally seal the victory over South Florida. We also watched a bit of college football and then the Jazz vs. Lakers game, which we REALLY wanted to get tickets to but opted not to...which was the WORST DECISION EVER because we WON!! IT was a great game...Utah rallied back from 19 points down (again). During the game they did a poll for the biggest rivalry in Utah. The results were: 1st place- BYU vs. Utah (duh!), 2nd place- Jazz vs. Lakers, 3rd place-and this is no joke- Jello vs. Fry Sauce, and last place was Bingham High School vs. Alta HS....interesting poll.


IT'S HOLY WAR TIME! I'm way psyched for this game and we are going to have a riot at my apartment. We still want to buy tickets, so it's best to get further from the venue so we don't wander over and go to it. This game should be intense. If we can keep our cool, we have not just a legitimate chance of winning, but I would bet on it. Emotion will decide what team we are, so it will be awesome to see what really happens!! MY prediction- BYU 24, Utah 20

GO COUGARS!

There can be only one song for today: RAH, RAH, RAH RAH RAH, RAH, RAH, RAH RAH RAH, RAH, RAH, RAH RAH RAH, GOOOOOOO COUGARS!!!

AMELIA!

Thanksgiving is over, which means all sorts of the things today. Amelia turns 25, people are trampling each other for good deals, you can play Christmas music non-stop without it being as annoying, and I'll spend the day decorating Grandma's.

There are also TONS of big games tonight. The Jazz host the Lakers (could have gotten tickets but, again, just can't afford it!), BYU Basketball is in Texas playing South Florida, and the entire BCS is holding it's breath with some crucial games tonight that will determine a lot of who plays where in bowls and championships.

No matter who you are or where you are, there seems to be a lot going on today!


My Thanksgiving was nice and quiet. It was the smallest I can ever remember. Just me, Mike, grandma and grandpa. Grandma said it was the most peaceful it's been in 50 years. Delicious meal though. Loved the cranberry jello salad this year...but I love it every year.

Anyway, I gotta run get ready for Christmas decorating. People are arriving in a half hour and if I'm not ready, I'll never hear the end of it!

Song of the Day is for Amelia: Happy Birthday!

First, although I'm writing this late Wednesday night... HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Now for a quick Wednesday recap. I woke up this morning with an extremely painful and slightly debilitating headache. I felt queasy and weak and I couldn't move without pain, so I went back to sleep for a bit. I got back up at 9:30 and it was a little better, but still very painful. I knew I had a lot to do today, so I just sucked it up and went to it. Mike and I shoveled 4-5 inches of snow from both Grandma's and the neighbors sidewalks and driveways. After that and some lunch we got out the old hand grinder and ground up fruit for the jello fruit salad.

This afternoon at 3:50 we went to the IMAX and saw Harry Potter!! It was awesome! I love big screens!! It'll be hard going back to my measly little 6 foot screen at home. One day, Jon...one day!

My headache is a bit better now. Any kind of light jerking motion hurts. I'm trying to keep my head pretty still and move it smoothly. I'm also trying not to raise my voice at all, laugh too much, sneeze or any other similar thing that makes your head jerk lightly. Seriously though, this morning I thought I'd be in bed all day without moving an inch. I'm glad that didn't happen.

So a big pipe broke at BYU today. Tons of water spilled out, some into Heritage Halls On-Campus Housing. Here's a picture that gives you an idea of how much flooded. By the way...the high today was around 20, tonight it will get down to 1 in Provo and tomorrow it won't even make it much higher than 15, so there will be a whole lot of ice where this happened. A WHOLE LOT.

This is a good quarter to half mile from the actual leak. There's a whole lane plus the sidewalk flooded there.

All the students are gone too...they have no idea!

So, those are the big stories today. The blizzard is gone and bitter cold remains. It will warm up a bit for the big game Saturday, then more winter comes in Sunday.

I posted this to my Facebook, but here's a little poem I wrote for Thanksgiving:


Every year around this time,
we pause on a fall day,
and sit down to a kingly feast;
our "thankfuls" we do say.

Some are thankful for their meal,
and others for their clothes,
some are thankful just to have
ten fingers and ten toes.

I would like to pause right now,
and say a word or more,
and hopefully inspire you,
to share what you're thankful for.

I'm thankful for my family,
the closeness that we share,
with them I've had many laughs,
and I know they really care.

I'm thankful for the friendships,
that have blessed my life.
They inspired me to smile,
when my days were full of strife.

I'm thankful for the talents,
with which I've been endowed,
I love to cook up a big meal,
for a special crowd.

I'm thankful for the smiles,
that people give to me
It may seem like something small,
but they make me real happy.

These things that I have shared today
just represent a few
of all that I am thankful for,
now go make a list for you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh...and for the Song of the Day, there can only be one for Thanksgiving...just turn the radio on and I guarantee you'll hear this one: "Alice's Restaurant"...you can listen to all 18 minutes if ya want!

"you can get anything you want, in Alice's restaurant..."

Whoops, sorry I didn't update my blog last night. I got preoccupied with laundry and alligator gar on tv...

Yesterday the blizzard of the century rolled into Utah. A lot of hype came ahead of the storm, with campuses and government offices state-wide closing down in the early afternoon. Even BYU closed campus at 3 pm. Provo was expected to get 3-6 inches or so of snow and Salt Lake expected 4-8 inches. The north part of the state got blasted. Some areas received 6+ inches in the valleys, but it seems that the storm weakened as it came south. Here at Grandmas in Murray we got about 4 inches, but Provo barely got an inch. Still though, the snow fell hard and blew hard in the wind, so it was good that people were encouraged to stay home. Today it's cold out, with highs around 20 and lows in the single digits and in the negatives in northern areas. The blizzard was a fail, but the approach was impressive. We didn't see as good a view as this, but we watched the black clouds blow in and it looked very intimidating.



In a few minutes here I'm finally going to the imax to see Harry Potter. I'm pretty excited! Saturday is the big game and while we were VERY tempted to get $20 tickets and go, it's better if we just head down to my apartment and watch it on the projector with friends. If I was working full-time, I could afford it, but when I make barely enough to pay rent and groceries and such, I can't really afford going to something I can view from home for free. CURSE PART-TIME WORK!

I have a massive headache today. When I woke up it was way worse, so I slept in for an extra hour and a half. I got out of bed at 9:30, which is the latest I've been in bed for in a long time. After some more sleep and a bit of food, I felt a little better, but there is still massive pain in my head. Despite the pain, life goes on. I shoveled snow at grandma's and the next door neighbors and also helped grind up fruit for the delicious thanksgiving jello fruit salad. I'm just hoping the big screen and loud noise of the movie isn't too bad.

So I'm in reform mode this week. Someone told me I call things "retarded" a lot. In just a few hours I said retarded about 5 or 6 times. Though retarded is just a small thing, I noticed that I have kind of digressed a bit and have found myself being much more crass than I should be, so, I'm taking note of my less-than-perfect speaking habits and working to reform my vocabulary this week. Mike says it's stupid, but he uses more potty language than me, so he has no room to judge. It doesn't help that I'm at grandma's where bible language is standard, but, I'm doing pretty good at catching myself, so we'll see how I do. I'm pretty optimistic.


That's all that's going down here. I'll post some thanksgiving stuff tomorrow. Good day all!

Song of the day: Peaceful Easy Feeling

Tonight was a pretty awesome night. We combined FHE groups with my friend's group and played volleyball over at Mike's complex. He joined us too. That was really fun and went very well. After that there was a movie night going on. We watched Hot Rod, which is a hilariously odd movie, though I can't recommend it due to some language and a crude scene.

The weather service issued a blizzard warning for Utah effective Tuesday at 5 pm. I'm actually really excited because I don't remember us being under a blizzard warning in the past few years. Provo is expected to get 4-6 inches tomorrow night and Salt Lake, which has already been hammered, will get 4-8 inches more. It should be a huge storm and I expect it'll be crazy. We're trying to get up to grandma's as early as possible to prevent death. We were going to go see Harry Potter, but that's going to have to wait until after the storms since the showing would be right during the blizzard.

I'm pretty stoked for the Utah game this year. I'm getting up at 6 am to go to some sort of a story a local news station is doing tomorrow. They invited fans to come out and the student organization is feeding us and giving out t-shirts. I guess I'll get on tv again. It should be exciting.

I got my $15 gift card to Amazon.com today. I took a long survey the other day for Stanford's Behavioral Lab. I'm pretty excited about that! Now I have a $10 mall gift card and a $15 Amazon.com gift card!

I better keep this short so I can get sleep. I have to wake up for the rivalry thing in 5 and a half hours!

Song of the day: Piano Man

Today was a pretty doggone fantastic day. After church I got my apartment all cleaned up and ready for guests. At 3 I started coring, peeling and slicing apples. With the assistance of a good friend, from 4-7 I put together an apple pie from scratch and 2 Double Layer Pumpkin Pies also from scratch. At 7:30, we threw water, cream soda concentrate, lots of sugar and dry ice in a water cooler and made cream soda. At 8, people started showing up. In all, there were 16 people at my apartment for Pie Night. It was a major success.

I was very pleased with the outcome of my apple pie. As far as I can remember, I have never made a pie with crust before. I made a flaky butter crust that turned out great. It was very flaky and my lattice design on the top, complete with an apple cut from crust scraps looked pretty good. The Apple Pie received major thumbs up.

The Double Layer Pumpkin was really good. The cheesecake was super delicious and the pumpkin was surprisingly marvelous as well. Put together on top of each other and it was a hit. We went through 2 of the 3 pies, with just a small piece of the apple left and one whole Double Layer Pumpkin left. There is also 3 and a half gallons of cream soda remaining. I'm super exhausted from all the work today, so I'll be turning in a little earlier tonight.

I did learn something about myself today. I had at least two, if not three people tell me I'm very domestic. I was told that by a friend as I vacuumed today and then I was told that again during pie night when they heard all the pies and cream soda were homemade. While I am not super keen on being called domestic, I suppose there is some truth to it. I am pretty devoted to what I do in my apartment.

Today's song of the day: "Fly Me to the Moon" from the always great Frank Sinatra

The energy of yesterday definitely carried into today. I woke up super energized and ready for the super excitement going down. I had to kill a bit of time so I went and picked up the ingredients for the pies I'm making for Pie Night!

First on the schedule today was shotgun shooting. I had a great time. The wind was gusting at least 50 mph and we were standing on a steep hill, but despite the stinging wind and cold, it was awesome. I did pretty well. I shot a good few times and each time I hit around 2 clay pigeons. I shot a few different 12 gauges and they were all really fun to shoot. I want to bring my 30-30 out here and go shooting that. I miss it!


Right after the awesome shooting we went to the football game. Another great game and another great victory. BYU is now bowl eligible and the way the Utes are looking- a 2 game losing streak and they are down 10 as I type this- we may just beat them!

After the football victory we...and we means me, Mike and my roommate...went to the womens volleyball senior night match, which was also against New Mexico. We beat them handily.

The snow is falling now and by the time the storms pass Wednesday, we may have quite a bit of snow on the ground. We may get our first sledding runs in if we can find a sled!

The new work shoes from wal mart are working out well. I wore them all day to break them in. So far I like them.

PIE NIGHT AT 8 PM (SUNDAY)!! I'm way excited. We're making cream soda, having egg nog, Double Layer Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie, regular Pumpkin Pie and we'll probably play some Farkle! It'll be loads of fun!

Enjoy the Sunday Song.

In my sleep Thursday night I had some pretty awesome dreams that got me really excited for life and the weekend. I woke up at 6 am and sort of slept a bit more before finally just getting out of bed around 7. Let me tell you what, I have never woken up in such a good mood. I was just really feeling alive! I made breakfast, got ready for work, turned on some music and just enjoyed the morning.

There was nothing to do at work except adjusting tire pressure. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but our tire pressure gauge was off by 10 psi. We found this out when a couple cars that we thought had the right pressure blew out a tire. We've spent the week checking and adjusting the pressure so all the vehicles have the right pressure. With only 2 vehicles to prep (as opposed to the 20-30 we usually have) yesterday, we worked on tire pressure and then went through the vehicles one by one, inspecting them for damage and misplaced bench seats (they get taken out for various things). That was a piece of cake.

After work I tootled over to DI to get myself a sheet for a projector. Mike needed his back. I found a prefect white one the same size as the one I had been using. Only $2. It looks great stretched across my wall. I also picked up a few ingredients for pies because Sunday I am having a Pie Night! It was kind of funny at the store because somehow I ended up with 2 of every item I got except for milk and butter. I didn't need 2 of all of them, but the pricing was such that 2 was perfect for a lot of it. I didn't notice I had 2 of everything until I got to the register and it was funny to put everything up and see 2 of everything. 2 cream of chicken soups. 2 one quart cartons of egg nog (on sale for about $1.19). 2 cream cheeses. 4 puddings but they were stacked in 2. 2 pie crusts. There was more but I don't remember it all. Pie Night will be awesome. I actually expect more than the usual 3 people this time, and a few of them will bring pies to go along with the 2 Double Layer Pumpkin Pies and the apple pie I'm making. It'll be fun and delicious.

I went to Wal Mart and found a perfect cheap, but fairly decent looking shoes to use for work. They were $9 and will be perfect for wearing to work and outdoor activities that I wouldn't want to ruin nicer shoes with this winter. I'm planning on getting nicer, longer lasting shoes sometime around Black Friday when I can maybe get better deals.

Today is Sports Day in Provo. There are 4 different fairly big events going on. Womens Basketball at 1. Football senior day at 4. Mens Basketball at 8. Women's Volleyball senior night at 7:30. Traffic will suck for people who drive. I'm excited to go shotgun shooting in a few hours. I hope the weather cooperates!

I was watching the Today Show and saw this video. It contributed to making yesterday so great. YOU HAVE TO WATCH IT:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/40220223#40220223

I'll make that song the song of the day too.

Last week I got a $10 gift card to the Provo Towne Center Mall. Today I took a survey that I should get a $15 gift card to Amazon.com for. I also took a survey or two recently that entered me into a drawing for other Amazon.com gift cards. Not too bad, eh?

As of 5:47 this evening, I am finished with classes until 8:00 am on the 30th. Though, unfortunately, I'm far from free. I opted to keep working until Tuesday and I have a 4-5 rough draft due on the 30th. I'm hoping to kind of knock that rough draft out Monday and Tuesday so I can be free during the actual break.

This weekend will be doggone exciting as I mentioned before. Bonfire, shotgun shooting, football and volleyball. Cold weather and possible snow moving in. Hopefully it goes away before everyone has to drive for Thanksgiving. I'm always concerned someone I know will get hit by a reckless driver. You know what's kind of ironic?...reckless drivers usually aren't wreck-less.

Anyway, things are going well. My head is fine, my teeth are fine, my projector didn't fall and I'm finally getting some new shoes in the next few days! I'd like to take care of the shoes before I go to Grandmas, for OBVIOUS reasons the family all understands.

Harry Potter is officially out now and I'll be seeing that soon. Christmas music will be legally allowed by me next Friday and Christmas lights will start to shine all over. I even have some lights to put up in my own window....and I plan on finding some mistletoe to hang above my love sac...mwuahahaha!

I've got a delicious recipe courtesy of Kraft for double layer pumpkin pie (cheesecake). I'll try it out and if it's good I'll share the recipe. I'm altering the recipe because it calls for pre-whipped cream from a tub and that's just not acceptable. I only use self-whipped whooping cream!

Everyone have an amazing Friday!

Song of the day is one I just heard today for the first, second, third, fourth and maybe a fifth time too...I really liked it so I'll share it with you...hehe, that wasn't supposed to rhyme, but it did! The song is "Gravity" by Sara Bareilles

OH...I got a haircut today...I think it looks pretty good...Here's some pictures:

Well, today was an absolutely fantastic day. I woke up, ate, went and set up a chair in line at the Marriott Center. At 10 I went to work, at 2 I went home. At 2:30 I went to the dentist and found out my teeth are in excellent shape. I was too shocked by the lack of work needed that I forgot to ask about my wisdom teeth. It's ok though, because the dentist did recommend that I get one old filling replaced and then my crown also may need replacing soon, so I'll probably make an appointment to do that and then talk to him about my wisdom teeth. The dentist wasn't the most social person. After the hygienist x-rayed and cleaned my teeth, he just came in, looked at the x-rays, spent 5 minutes looking at my teeth, made note of the filling and crown needing replacing in the next little while and said my teeth were great. I was surprised so when he asked if I had any questions, I didn't even think to ask about anything. Anyway, right after the dentist I went back to the line at the Marriott Center, got amazing 9th row seats and cheered my heart out in a really intense victory over Utah State. It was phenomenal!

All I have left before I'm done with school until the 30th is tap dance in the morning and then writing tomorrow evening. I'll keep working my job through Tuesday though. Gotta have money. I'll also probably work on my issue paper since a 4-5 page draft is due the day I get back from the break.

I'm pretty excited for the weekend. Friday is a ward bonfire. Saturday those in the ward who are interested are going shotgun shooting. Right after shooting is the football game. Right after the senior day football game is senior night for women's volleyball. It'll be one busy, busy weekend!

Song of the day is a fun one: Day-o

I don't think I've mentioned it, but vacuuming and washing cars can be very hazardous. In the past couple months, I've sliced my cuticle open, scraped a couple layers of skin off my leg, had multiple nicks and bruises, almost gave myself a black eye when the automatic window went into auto close mode when my face was sticking out the window, and then today I slammed the back of my head into a solid metal van door frame. I've hit my head on the frame before a couple times, but this time I really slammed it good. Luckily, it was right at the end of work, so I only had to endure the pain for a few minutes before I went home. At home, the pain was causing me to feel a little queasy so I laid down and watched some episodes of a tv show. I fell asleep for a while and when I woke up the pain had subsided a bit. It still hurts when I move my head certain ways, like jostling it when I laugh. There is a little sensitivity to loud noise and occasionally I get a nice little shot of pain through my whole head, but as far as I can tell, it's just your average head injury. No concussion. No unconsciousness. No blacking out. I went to my class this evening to see how my brain would react. I did have a little trouble concentrating, but I'll be fine in a few days.

Mother nature must have been smoking some pot today because the weather was crazy. This morning it was very nice out. It was in the upper 40s with sunshine. I knew a storm might move through but it wasn't supposed to get too cold. The storm was weird. It started drizzling, then the wind started blowing hard as the rain became more steady. It sleeted for a bit and then after a few minutes the rain stopped and the wind picked up more. All of a sudden it felt like it was 20 degrees outside, even though the sun was shining again. The wind kept blowing and blowing. When I left work, the wind was blowing very strongly perpendicular to the direction most of my ride home is. I had a fun time trying to not be blown away. After a while, the wind subsided and now it's just a little breezy and cold out.

My head hurts so I won't babble on about anything else.

Song of the day today is from Taylor Swift. "The Best Day"

I have 4 more class periods until I'm done with school for the Thanksgiving break. Tap and writing tomorrow and then tap and writing on Thursday. I'll still work until next Tuesday, but no school from the 18th-30th for me! If you look at it one way, that's great. No school, probably just a bit of homework. If you look at it another way, you realize that while it's nice to not have school, it's not so nice to be so far behind where you wish you were. Since looking at it that way just depresses me, I'll take it for what it is: a nice long break that will give me opportunities to help other people.

I've noticed something interesting about my eating. I'll make a big meal that's delicious and filling and my entire body and soul will be content, but then the next day, all I eat is a bit of a breakfast, a lacking lunch and a dismal dinner, if even that much. I would absolutely love to be well enough off that I could afford to make better meals more often. Though it is harder to make delicious meals when it's just one person you're cooking for. Half the joy for me is cooking, the other half is sharing it with someone...so that does kind of damper things.

I go to my death...I mean dentist...Wednesday! I'm not nervous about this visit at all, but I'm not looking forward to getting any work done after this visit, which I know is going to happen. I know I have one cavity that needs filling, plus I need another filling fixed. I take care of my teeth well now, but when I had fatigue and depression problems, there was a period where I didn't brush as often as I should have and now I get to face the consequences of that. Boooo!!

Song of the day: "Out of My League" by Stephen Speaks

Today I ate like a king. After church and home teaching, Philip made apricot chicken with rice. I had a nice big lunch out of that and then headed home for a little Sunday nap. I zonked right out and awoke at 4:15 to make my own dinner. I invited some guests in anticipation of the new sauce I've been wanting to make with my chicken cordon bleu. Mike came over because I always invite him for dinners. I also invited a friend from my freshman ward who went to culinary school. If you recall I went over there for lasagna and a fireside on Fast Sunday. I also invited a girl from my ward named Hilary. She is the one who I made cowboy cookies for this week and her apartment voted them the best cookies they've ever had. So, after my nap I totally got into the zone. I whipped up the chicken part of the cordon bleu in a jiffy. The sauce took a little longer, but that's just the nature of it. When it was all done it baked for a bit and then we ate. The new sauce was amazing. Much better than the old one, and I didn't put wine in it like I planned to. I don't think it needs it. As you may remember, I was supposed to have pot roast a week ago, but that dinner was canceled. Well, this week, Evan, Philip's roommate, finally got around to making it. Since I already had a dinner planned, we traded a plate of our meals. I got a heaping plate of pot roast, mashed taters, rolls, and corn. I wrapped it up for later. After our cordon bleu, we made cowboy cookies again. I only had semi-sweet chocolate chips, so I put them in. Last time I used milk chocolate chips. Let me just say that cowboy cookies are 1000Xs better with milk chocolate chips. I've never been a big semi-sweet fan, though everyone here seems to be. For my recipe book, I'm permanently adding milk chocolate chips as the only acceptable chocolate chip for cowboy cookies. We ate some of those and talked and watched some video clips and then everyone eventually left. I went over to talk to Evan and his dinner group was having eclair cake, so I had a piece of that. It was pretty good. Had almond in it which made it less like an eclair, but it was still great. After a movie I have now pulled out the pot roast and am having a final dinner. With it I have pumpkin pie mike bought at maceys. So, once I'm finished, I'll have had 3 big dinners and 3 different desserts, all in the space of 8 hours. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Because I ate so well, all I can think of is food. So, it's fitting that I have a song of the day relating to food. Enjoy two classics: Be Our Guest and, if you remember that good old 1972 movie Charlotte's Web, here is an excerpt from the best song I always think of when I eat a lot: Smorgasbord....

Today I woke up at 8:30 and quickly ate and showered. I went and printed off an email for a promotion, then loaded all my coins into a tootsie roll coin bank and into my pocket and headed off on my bike for the Provo Towne Center Mall. There I used my email and an ID to redeem a $10 gift card to any store (that accepts American Express) in any mall owned by the company that owns this mall. For my purposes, that means I got a $10 gift card to the Provo Towne Center Mall. With my gift card, I went price shopping for shoes (thank goodness I went price shopping alone too). I found a really nice pair for $40 that I'll go back and look into on my next paycheck if I can afford them. After browsing the mall for a bit, I biked to Smith's and deposited all my coins in the coin counter. I had a few cents more than $20, netting me just under $19 after the small fee was taken. From the bank I headed home to get ready for the football game. Football was great, with us crushing Colorado State and the Utes getting crushed by Notre Dame. After the game I borrowed a car and picked up a drill to mount my projector. As usual, what seemed like a VERY simple task turned into a 4 hour event. The screws could not screw into the joists in the ceiling. For those of you who don't know, a joist is basically a stud (the kind you find in walls) in the roof. Anyway, the wood was too hard for these dinky screws to work. Both of them broke from our efforts to get them to screw in. I convinced Mike to scooter on over to Home Depot to get better screws. He told the Home Depot people what we were doing and the problem we already had, so they recommended a screw for us. Well, the nice brass wood screw they recommended did not work and also broke off in the ceiling, so I sent a text message to my Uncle Rory asking for help. As luck would have it, he installs projectors with his work, so he told me what kind of screw to get. As luck would also have it, my Elder's Quorum President owed me a favor from a couple weeks ago and so he happily took me to Home Depot. Even better, he is quite knowledgeable with construction and screws and with his help and my uncle's advice, we found the best screw for my purpose. The correct kind of screw easily bore itself into the joist and a few mount tightenings later, my projector was successfully mounted. It took drilling about 10 holes, 2 trips to home depot, advice from parents, uncles and friends, but it all worked out. I then spent a couple hours cleaning the front half of my apartment so I can entertain guests tomorrow and then I rearranged furniture to make for better viewing from the mounted projector. I think today was a great success. I got about 5 miles of biking in, good football, hard work and a mounted projector. Tomorrow, I'm making Chicken Cordon Bleu with a brand new sauce. The weekend is going good!

Today's Sunday-appropriate song of the day captures my feelings once the projector was mounted and the apartment all cleaned.

I had a fabulous day today. I don't know why it was so fantastic, but I was just real excited all day. Work flew by and then I went and stood in line for the basketball game. We were on the 10th row and had a great time at the game. After that I came home and watched some movies with Philip (friend and home teaching companion from New Zealand...in case you forgot). We watched Cinderella...the one with "Impossible...." and "The prince is giving a ball, the prince is giving a ball!" That movie is always fun.

In the morning I have to print out an email to redeem for my free $10 gift card to the Provo mall I get every year. I'm excited. Hopefully I'll be able to wake up and bike over there to get that done. I do love gift cards and this one should help me get some shoes that I desperately need. Football game on the projector at noon, then Korean tacos for dinner. Brand new cordon bleu recipe debuting Sunday! I'm way excited.

Song of the day is in honor of my dad, who always sings this song and hilariously overemphasizes the beginning part.

I had a pretty good Veterans Day. I wore my American flag shirt that says USA 1776 on it. I changed both my profile picture on Facebook and my blog picture to thank veterans. I emailed a greeting card to grandma and grandpa meier. I feel pretty good. I also felt really good when I walked by the 24 hour guard at the flagpole just after dusk. There is just something about the serenity of watching 2 ROTC soldiers standing in solemn silence, guarding the flag on campus. Many people rushed past, some disrespectfully walking behind the soldiers, between them and the flag and the memorial wreath. But I made sure to slow down and take in the moment. Despite the frigid air filling my lungs and urging me to hurry on, the overwhelming feeling of love for country warmed my heart and allowed me to stop for a moment to memorialize in my mind the sacrifices that have been made to protect the freedoms I enjoy each day. My day was improved enormously by that opportunity.

I had an annotated bibliography due today at 5:10 and at 2:45 I was just sitting down to start it.  I needed 10 sources and while I had a couple saved, I still had to find about 6 more and write them all up. By 5:00 I had 8 and I called that good. I printed it off quick and headed to class. It was a bittersweet moment when she told us that since only a few of us finished, we would hold off on turning them in until Tuesday. I did get bonus points for doing it on time and now I get extra time to write up 2 more sources.

Work is cold and dreary, but ultimately not too bad since it's practically stress-free. Tomorrow will be the warmest day this week with the high peaking at 41! I may have to shed a layer for the occasion. In the morning though, at about dawn, I'm heading over to hold a spot in line for the basketball game. I'll leave my post for work and then return to make sure we get good seats and a free shirt (first 3000 students get free shirts tomorrow). Should be a good day tomorrow. It's Friday so it better be!

For the song of the day, since I replaced it this morning with patriotic music, I will put Toussant McCall back on. He deserves some more blog time.

And here's the conversation of the day/year:

My Boss: "Yeah, I have to do a graveside service in Delta. It's usually about 15 degrees warmer down there so we're going to try the golf course while we're there."

Other guy: "Man, I wish someone I knew would die in St. George so I could go golfing down there..."

That, ladies and gentleman, is how they do it out here in Utah.

Oh...and if you didn't notice, I put a paypal donation button in the upper right of my blog...just in case anyone is feeling generous and wants to help me out...

I totally spaced that today is Veterans Day when I posted last night. My blog is weird because I tell about the previous day but allude to the next day and I get confused on holidays because I know people will read it the next day, which is the holiday...anyway...point is, I would like to honor Veterans Day. Thus, I have changed the song of the day to songS of the day and put up an awesome picture.

The new Psych episode was AMAZING! Thoroughly enjoyed it and I look forward to the rest of the season!! I don't want to give anything away to anyone who has not seen it, so all I will say is WATCH IT ASAP!


The bulk of the wet weather missed us. It snow flurried for a lot of the morning and afternoon, but it was just that, snow flurries. No wet ground, no accumulation. The perfect kind of snow you could say. The kind where it snows and excites everyone, but it doesn't reduce visibility, it doesn't get everything wet and it causes no problems whatsoever. I kept quite warm at work, with long sleeve under armor (wal mart brand) on, a shirt over that, a hoodie over that and my nice jacket over that. Topped that off with a beanie and gloves and I was perfectly warm for the weather.

More cold through the week, but a wee bit warmer. Another storm moves in Sunday.


The Jazz made an unbelievable comeback AGAIN tonight at Orlando. We went on a ridiculous run, scoring 22 points to the Magic's 2, completely erasing the 18 point deficit we were in. The Magic caught fire for a minute and started to beat us back, but we continued our second half smack down, scoring 69 points in the second half and winning by 10 points. I've never seen us do so well on a back to back road trip. Eat that LeBron and your Heat. Eat that Dwight Howard and your Magic. One annoyance that I really hope gets toned down is the amount of technical fouls being called for "overreacting" to foul calls. Tonight I don't know of anyone who didn't get one. One guy didn't even say anything to the refs and got a technical just for muttering to calm himself down. He wasn't muttering anything bad, just kind of saying to himself "man that was dumb of me".  If the refs are going to be that technical foul happy, it's going to be a long season...especially for Kobe Bryant, who argues EVERYTHING. I think it's a matter of money. They upped the fine for technical fouls, and at the same time the refs shoved 20 foot poles up their rears to do a Nazi crack down on player complaints after a foul. No coincidence the fine increase and the Nazi refs are coming at the same time. They just want to make more cash. Despicable.

Well, I have tons to do tomorrow and it's late. I gotta get my sleep!

Basketball home opener in two days. Checking out the camping line tomorrow to see when we need to hold a place in line.

Song of the day courtesy of Toussant McCall. Heard this one on the original Hairspray and I loved it. Hope you enjoy it too.

I realized today that with all the free-ish time I have, I really don't do much. I really enjoy not doing much, but I might enjoy doing more. I do fairly well with getting homework done in a timely manner. My last paper for Music 201 I submitted to the online submitter with a whole 40 minutes to spare. When I was done I felt quite accomplished, but also quite befuddled as to what I was supposed to do for the remaining 40 minutes. I did what I usually do...I opened the bookmark saved permanently to my tabs called Netflix and proceeded to watch Psych. (NEW PSYCH STARTS TOMORROW, BY THE WAY)

Anyway, I'm looking around at my options to find something to occupy my time other than Netflix. Whether it be recording that talk show I talked about or reading, I need to do more.

Today, it would be a stretch to say that I worked at work. I spent a lot of the time removing seats from vans and trying to locate a missing seat that we need for tomorrow. It was freezing cold out, which made it more fun. Thankfully there weren't tons of vehicles to prep, so not getting lots of them done wasn't a problem. I also got locked out, which ate up a bit of time. Apparently, I don't have access to the little building, so when they locked it all up for devotional, they were locking me out. I sat around waiting for the other guy to come, and, of course, he was 20 minutes late today. It's ok though, because I sat in a car and listened to the radio, keeping quite warm.

Chance of snow tomorrow. I know for a fact that work will be busy, so I know for a fact I will freeze. No pneumonia yet, which is good. So far, not even a slight cold. I'll be upping my vitamin C intake in preparation for working outdoors in sub-freezing temperatures every day.

No life altering stories this week...yet. Dentist next week, which could be life altering. I'm not too nervous about the exam, but I am nervous about what they will find during the exam. As far as I know, they still can't numb my mouth without pricking me with the object-that-must-not-be-named, so I have nothing to look forward to but pain. 

Life is good.

Today my song of the day is inspired by my preparation for the storm tomorrow. On a deeper (more boring to Angela) note, it is a song I like to listen to when things get a little rough. "Tomorrow's another day, and I am not afraid, so bring on the rain." I like to take that attitude a lot. Tomorrow's another day. I am not afraid...and things always turn out pretty well.

Here's to a good day to you all.

A storm moved through last night, bringing with it cold and rain...and cold rain. It made for a fun day at work. I spent the first hour cleaning out two vans that didn't really need cleaning. The next hour and a half I spent inside double checking all the rental orders we have for the next 6 months. Then came the really fun part. I spent the last hour and a half very slowly setting all the clocks in the vehicles back an hour. To make that take time, we would get in a vehicle, listen to a song on the radio, change the clock and then move to the next one. I changed the clock in about 25-30 vehicles and managed to make it take just about an hour and a half. Then I rode my bike home in a steady, stinging rain.

After that I did what I always do after work on Monday...LAUNDRY! I was glad to do it too since riding my bike kicked up lots of dirt and bitter cold water on my boo-hiney. Now all my clothes are clean and I can get them dirty again this week.

FHE was pretty fun. We made pizza...well, a few of us made the pizza...the rest watched Muppet Treasure Island, which is always a great movie. "I've got cabin fever...yeah." or "HE SAID GO FASTER!" or even "I 'sink I smell somesing burning!" I could go on forever...so many great quotes.

Anyway, I hope Angela had a great birthday. I'm sorry I wasn't there, but I'll try to call tomorrow to see how it went!

Today's song of the day is for anyone stressed out over anything...I tell this to people when I'm leaving their apartment too...take it easy.

Let me first just say that the first week after daylight savings ends I am always confused. The sun goes down and I'm having a good time and I'm always like, gee, I need to go to bed now. Then I look at the clock and it's only 7 or 8! It takes me time to adjust to the sun being down so dang early.

Having said that:

I had lots to smile about today. Our football team really came through and played a great game, pummeling UNLV 55-7...and that 7 did not come until the last minute of the game. My belief is that if our defense continues to be so dang good, the University of Utah had better watch out. We held TCU to less points AT TCU than Utah did AT HOME. Combine our stellar defense with the offense we saw today, with receivers making plays every down, and you can expect a real rivalry game this year. The Utes had better not underestimate us and get too cocky or they will suffer the consequences. Bronco will make sure of that. BYU has really improved and has 2 weeks to improve even more before the showdown.

Our women's soccer team dominated at the conference tournament and came away with a 1-0 victory in the championship game today. That gives us an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament and would earn us the right to host the MWC tourney next year...if we weren't leaving the league! I expect our team will make it pretty far into the NCAA tournament this year. 

Our women's volleyball match did not go so well. We totally owned the first two sets, but then when we made what would have been the winning play in the 3rd set, the refs called a terrible and wrong call on us. Then we thought we won it again, but, of course, the refs called something else on us that we again did not do. For a third time we thought we put it away, when for an unprecedented 3rd time, the refs called something retarded. I try to be fair to refs, but these calls were absolutely blatantly wrong. It raises my suspicions quite a bit since there were NO other calls made the ENTIRE GAME, except right then, when the game was on the line for the other team. I completely disagree with the calls. At most, one of them was legitimately a fault by us. No way in heck all 3 were. We ended up losing off of another wayward call, then completely lost our focus and lost in the 5th set. The crowd was terrible and the refs even more so. But, such is life.

Tomorrow I am going to two different dinners. Pot roast (with rolls provided by me) at 2, then lasagna (with garlic bread from me) at 5, followed by the CES Fireside and dessert. Not too bad if I may say so.

The song of the day is, of course, a Sunday appropriate one.

I was very surprised by how well my Friday went. I expected to struggle to write the paper I had to turn in by 5 pm. I got home from work at 2 and ate a little and then got started. I wrote about Pierre-Auguste Renoire, comparing how he was viewed in his time to how he is viewed today. I chose him because the other night when I re-watched The Train, a movie about Nazis stealing art from France in WWII, I kept seeing his name on the crates of art. Watching that movie turned out to be great for me because I included a paragraph in my paper about the actual incident during WWII that was made into a movie, which boosted my word count up to where it needed to be. Without that movie, I would have had a hard time finishing. Hooray for Netflix!

The rest of the evening was pretty standard for how boring I have been lately. Mike came over and we watched another WWII movie, Battleground. It was a fairly boring movie, with parts played by the actual soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division. It did have some funny parts that I'll be quoting, but I probably wouldn't watch the movie again. After that I went two doors down and hung out...or is it hanged out...or maybe hunged out...anyway, I watched some tv with my friends Philip, who used to home teach me and is now my home teaching companion, and his roommate Evan, who teaches tap classes in the evenings.

I was disappointed that I could not light off any of my fireworks for Guy Fawkes Day. It looks like I may end up bringing a bunch of fireworks home for New Years.

Today is a sports Saturday. Football at noon, soccer conference championship match, and volleyball later tonight. Should be a fun day. Tomorrow is Fast Sunday and I've been invited to two different dinners, one of which I'm supposed to be helping make...I either have to decide between the two or make the one I'm helping with earlier so I can have both!

Today's song of the day is obvious...GO COUGARS!

Today was a great day. I think I did very well on my tap test this morning. I enjoyed marvelous weather at work. I finished one of the two papers and turned it in. I witnessed an ethereal sunset. I watched the women's soccer team win their semi-final match in the conference tourney and advance to the final. Today I feel good.

Tomorrow I get paid and will pay rent. I'll write a 600 word paper. I may go to either a BYU vs. Utah hockey game, or maybe the BYU vs. BYU-Hawaii basketball exhibition game. Then I'll likely watch a movie. Saturday I'll be up early to prepare for football. I'll go win some swag, watch what should be a victory, rest a bit, then go to a women's volleyball match and possibly paint my hair blue (we bought blue hair spray for the BYU-Utah soccer game but no one wanted to do it, so now I have two cans to use up). Sunday I'll go to church, be edified, maybe have a good meal.

Things are going fairly well. On a scale of sad to elated, I'd call myself happy. That allows me to be grateful for where I am, but also gives me room to improve. I look forward to improving.

The new song of the day is to celebrate happiness. This Friday, I challenge everyone to be happy. Not just I'm smiling happy, but true, deep down happy. If you aren't happy, find out why and fix it. Everyone deserves that much, to be happy.

Today, since I had to watch a movie to write a short paper about last night, I want to talk about movies.

Last night I watched Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest. I found it to be surprisingly good. As I began writing the short paper for it and read more about it, I found it even more intriguing. That movie pretty much started the spy and action genre as we know it today. The James Bond movies were created because of this movie. You can trace all sorts of things back to this movie. If you haven't seen it, I recommend you watch it. Not only is it a very good movie for 1959, but it is entertaining and historical.

Today, for fun, I watched Robots. I saw it ages ago and wanted to re-watch it, so I got it through Netflix. I love going back and watching movies and picking up on new jokes and things. I laughed a lot watching it tonight. If you haven't seen Robots recently, pick it up and watch it again. I'm sure you'll find new jokes to laugh at too.

I want to mention something I think is really cool. As you may know, I'm a HUGE Psych (tv show) fan. I've seen all the episodes twice now and I re-watch them and find new things to laugh about too. So, Psych is currently in the middle of a college tour. Since there are thousands of colleges, they can't visit all of them. Unfortunately they aren't coming to BYU. But, they are doing a thing on their website called Campus Wars. On the USA Network website, they have a thing called Club Psych. On there you can register and play all sorts of games and watch video clips and do other activities that earn you points. Usually you use those points to try to win cool stuff, but they came up with a cool idea. People can register and play for their favorite college/university. Every point they earn goes towards their normal Club Psych points, as well as their colleges points. The college with the most points on December 22nd wins and, pending that school's permission, will get that school's name in a shout out in an episode next season, either spoken or written. When I first saw the competition less than an hour after it started, BYU was in 15th place with 400 points. The leader was somewhere around 5000 points. I registered and thought maybe by some miracle BYU could win. By the time I had contributed 400 points of my own 10 minutes later, BYU was in the lead. That lead has increased and increased and as of right now, BYU leads by 35,510 points. Earlier we led by nearly 50,000, but every so often one of the top schools makes a big surge. I keep contributing points and I've told my friends about it in the hopes that we can win the shout out. It seemed like a long shot at first, but apparently there are lots of Psych fans here and we have a VERY good chance of winning if we keep racking up so many points each day. You don't have to be a student of that school to participate, and some of the games are very fun, so, I encourage all of you to go sign up for Club Psych. Since I get 100 points for inviting you if you join, I'll facebook invite you all. If you do sign up, then join Campus Wars and play for BYU. All you have to do is complete the "challenges", which are things like games and looking at photos and videos and click the Club Psych logo when you complete a challenge to get your points. It's really fun!

Now for a quick update on me. Tap test in the morning. I think I'll do well. One and a half papers to write. One due tomorrow, one due Friday. Made no bakes today. Delicious.

Hope to record something for my radio-esque show soon. Maybe this weekend.

Today's song of the day is in honor of the 60s. This song was #1 on the charts on this very day, November 4th, 50 years ago.

I did my duty as a citizen and voted today. I helped elect a governor, a senator, some school board people, and I voted to retain a bunch of judges. Hopefully they wanted to be retained.

On a national level, the Republicans did well. We picked up several governorships, some senate spots and we took the majority in the House. Marijuana lost across the country, with Californians shooting down the legalization of marijuana and Arizona (results aren't final there yet) and South Dakota defeating medical marijuana. My guess is everyone who really wanted to legalize marijuana were too busy smoking it to vote on it. Several states voted in favor of secret ballots for union elections. Rhode Islanders apparently like the negative history associated with their name...that or they thought the name change they were voting on would mean they wouldn't be Rhode Island anymore...still haven't figured out why they vetoed that one. My favorite today though goes to Tennessee. The hillbillies and hill dwellers voted on an amendment that would establish a formal right to hunt and fish. Here are the results:

Yes-1,284,405  (90%)
No- 147,078   (10%)

Quite the landslide. I did not know that PETA had 146,078 people in Tennessee. Surprisingly, Arizona had a similar amendment they voted on, but they shot it down. Had their amendment said they had the right to hunt illegal aliens, I'm sure it would have won with the same kind of landslide as Tennessee. (South Carolina also voted on hunting and fishing and it passed with similar numbers to Tennessee.)

Finally, a few states voted against Obamacare with propositions that would amend their state's constitution to make it illegal to force citizens of that state to get insured and also make it so they would not be penalized if they aren't insured. Everyone who voted on that one passed it, except for the liberals in Colorado...

That's my simple summary of the elections. There's tons more election stuff you can go look at if you're interested.
Also be ready for lots of "I'm not worried" from the White House. But hey, if you spent the last 2 years not doing anything productive, why would you worry? Also look for Biden to say something that will make the highlight reel for the next week or so.

Enjoy the new song of the day. It's the most relevant one I know of for today.

I started my November off getting a lot of work done. After coming home from my job, I called up a dentist and made my first dental appointment in years. I expect there will be a bit of work to be done after my exam, so hopefully they can get it done ASAP. The appointment is for November 17th at 2:30. After that I called the health center and found out how much it'll cost for a mission exam. $140. I'll get that scheduled tomorrow. I should be able to get in sooner for that one. Usually there is an opening with my doctor, so we'll see. This afternoon I also got all my laundry done, including my bed sheets, pillow case and comforters. FHE was somewhat fun. We did skits. Our new roommate just came from BYU-Hawaii so after FHE we watched Hawaii Five-O because he likes to see where things were filmed. Today's episode had a local news lady playing a part in the movie. It was funny because once he said that, I noticed her voice definitely had a news reporter's tone.

After that I worked on my mission papers. Should have most of everything done besides the medical and dental stuff and my license in the next few days. My goal is to hopefully have the dental work finished by the end of the month and have my papers submitted then.

Starting today, I will have a song of the day playing on my blog when you open it. If you're reading this from the blog main page, then you're hearing it now. I'll put a new song on every day I update my blog.