Mondays and I have a history that goes way back.

I awoke this morning well refreshed at 6:15 am to prepare for work. I got out the door in good spirits and prepared to de-ice my car when I stumbled upon a delightful Monday present...a parking ticket. I've been parking in the same, legal street parking area since I moved here, but, I was not made aware of a law in Logan that prohibits street parking between 1 and 6 am from November 15th-March 1st. Apparently, other people were either unaware, forgot, or just belligerent, because the street has been full of cars every day since the 15th and last night they all got an early Christmas gift as well.

I plan to appeal this ticket politely so I can hopefully save $15. What irks me, however, is that our housing area does not provide adequate parking for the tenants. Each townhouse has a 2 car garage, but for the units that are rented to students, there are 3 cars per household or more. There are a few off-street parking spots, but they also are full. In fact, each night since I have been here, the streets have been full, the few off-street spots have been full, and a dirt overflow lot has been full, so I'm not sure where we are all going to park if the streets are now illegal.

Other than that my Monday has been fairly good. At work I was in an organizing mood and spent 3 hours in the walk-in fridge throwing out old stuff, re-organizing everything and such. It was good timing too because not an hour after I finished the health inspector came in. Our walk-ins looked well-maintained and fresh. It would have been funny though if he had showed up right in the middle of me disposing of several hundred pounds of rotten food.

The remainder of my day will consist of mailing some things off, chillaxing a bit, and then I'll have to spend a couple hours recovering some lost music, a minor inconvenience that has caused me a bit more unnecessary stress than I would like.

Song of the day is the Tom Kubis Big Band featuring Wayne Bergeron on trumpet. If you really want to be impressed, skip ahead two minutes to the 2:16 mark and listen till the 3:00 mark...he goes higher and higher...notably at 2:49, and then, unbelievably even higher at 2:57. My lips hurt just thinking about playing that high.

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone once again and so it is time to report on my break.

I left work around 1 pm Wednesday, packed up and headed down to Murray, Utah. Traffic was smooth and I had no incidence on the sun-filled drive. In Murray at my grandparents house, I greeted my grandparents and sister Camilla before we decided to head down to Provo to pick our brother Mike up. He was going to take a bus and train, but that would have taken 2 hours or so, while picking him up takes half the time. So down we went, grabbed him and got back just in time for supper. Traffic was heavy, but flowed at normal speeds. Wednesday night we didn't do much. We had supper, watched "Up", and chilled.

Thanksgiving Day was delightfully simple. Grandma experimented with buying a pre-made meal from the local grocery store, so she only made a few things on her own. Those things she made were the ones that were good. The turkey was also good, but the mashed taters and stuffing were sub-par. Still though, it was a good meal and I cannot complain too much about eating unless a meal is unbearable, and so far, I cannot think of many times that has happened in my life.

After turkey dinner, we all went back to chilling. Watched some classic BYU football games and read all the Black Friday ads. None of us had any intention of fighting lines for $8 pillows or $5 movies, but, I have done a lot of thinking, researching, and more thinking, and I determined that this was the time for me to replace my laptop if it could be done within a very specific budget. Best Buy had a laptop that fit my needs and was within that budget, so I determined I would go and get one.

Mike and I went to Best Buy at 8 am Friday morning, long after the rush of people had left. They did not have the laptop in stock, so we went to a different Best Buy, who were also out of stock. There were 2 other Best Buys to check, one in Riverdale on the route home, and one in Logan, so I figured I'd check those later.

With no laptop, we headed home for the Christmas decoration tradition. We first set up the outside decorations, then, when the cousins came, we did the inside. We made good time, had a good time, and did a good job. Then, as grandma says, I knew the drill, and headed to the kitchen for the other tradition, grilled cheese sandwiches. We ate some delicious sandwiches with Tillamook cheese and then did our Christmas crafts, which were a choice of the glass beads you melt into stained glass that we made last year, foam ornaments/decorations, or some decorated bells. I made some foam decorations and added a bell to hang in my car.

After that I took a nap, where I was secretly photographed without my consent, then it was getting time for me to head back since I had work at 7 am Saturday. Before leaving though, Mike and I went to the auto shop and changed my air filter and picked up some cleaner to fix Mike's scooter. There also just happened to be a nice Korean market right next door, so we stopped, I got some things, he got some things and we moved on to the DI which also happened to be on that corner. Nothing good there though, so we left.

With all our obligations completed for the day, I packed up and headed back to Logan so I could prepare for work. The drive back was nice and the Best Buy in Riverdale had the laptop I was looking into. I gave it a few more minutes thought to make sure I wanted to go through with it, and then I made my purchase and went home. The laptop, which I am typing on now, is a breath of fresh air from what I've been dealing with. I developed so many habits with my dinosaur Dell just to do simple things like watch YouTube or type something up that it's taking some getting used to. Basically, I'm just not used to being able to actually use a laptop the way it's intended to be used and it's weird.

This morning it was back to work for a bit and now I get to enjoy the rest of my weekend before the Christmas season gets into full swing at work.

The song of the day has a little story to it. Thanksgiving morning I woke up with an email from Amazon giving me a gift of 2 free MP3 downloads. Not really knowing what I would do with 2 free songs, I went to their website. I started perusing and wasn't finding much I wanted, until I saw a new song by Christina Perri. I like her voice and her music a lot, so I downloaded this song. I got about 30 seconds in before I was hooked on it. Now, I'm not sure if the song was written for the movie or if they added it because it fit, but either way, the song is in the new Twilight movie. I'm not a huge Twilight fan, but I enjoy the movies and I really like this song either way. The song is "A Thousand Years" by: Christina Perri.

I've gathered with some family
to share a couple days
of thankfulness for blessings
that come in many ways.

The turkey's in the oven,
the salad's in the bowl,
the gravy's on the stove top,
and soon I will be full.

If you really know me,
you know I celebrate
every single holiday
where food is on my plate.

But this one is a great one
where we can all review
all that we've been given,
which I'll now share with you.

I've been given family
and friends who treat me well;
I've been given work to pay
for a house in which to dwell.

I've been given talents which
I share with all around;
I've been given laughter,
my very favorite sound.

I've been given so much more
than I can share in short,
so I'll stop and wish you all
a day of the best sort.

Update on Logan- it's cold, wet, and cold.

Update on me- I'm cold.

That's really about it. I work very little this week, will head down to Grandma's sometime Wednesday or first thing Thursday.

Today is the anniversary of my namesake's assassination. On this day, November 22nd, 48 years ago, President John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas, supposedly by Lee Harvey Oswald. When I lived in Texas, I visited the site of his assassination and did a lot of research into all the conspiracy theories concerning his death. Everyone believes something different, but, either way, it happened and today I pay tribute to him.

Me at the grave of John F. Kennedy

Song of the day today honors President Kennedy. It is the "Hymn to the Fallen" by: John Williams from the motion picture Saving Private Ryan.

I've done a few tribute posts, but today I want to do a highlight post. I would like to highlight four of the most influential and awesome girls I know: my sisters.

 Growing up in a large family of seven children, I always had someone to do things with. I cannot remember more than only a handful of holidays, birthdays, and other celebrations where most of my sisters were not there. Whether it was marching in 4th of July parades, church activities, dressing up for Halloween and homecoming spirit weeks, or even playing football, they were there having fun with me. Each one of my sisters has very different and distinct qualities that allowed for me to be best friends with each of them. 

Amelia

This is my older sister, Amelia Warnock (yep, she's MARRIED!). Amelia is very artistically talented and has a very, very strong recollection of every ridiculous thing I've ever done or said when she was around. It is for that reason that I am grateful I live 2,000 miles away, where the worst she can do to embarrass me is post quotes on the family Facebook quote wall. Amelia has used her artistic abilities, however, to enrich and influence my life greatly. Her reputation in our high school marching band paved the way for my future successes in the band. I was always known as "Amelia's little brother" and was treated with respect because of it. Though her musical abilities are fantastic, I have always loved her passion for art. I had the privilege of being drawn by her many times, including modeling once for a children's book she illustrated that may someday be published. I have also been graced with requests for free custom artwork over the years, which I have been greatly appreciative of. The most influential aspect of Amelia, though, is not her recollection of my bloopers or her artistic abilities. Amelia is an extremely down to earth spiritual leader. Rebellious though I may be, her guidance has proven to be vital at times in my growth in life, and for that I am forever indebted. Thank you Amelia for being a model older sister.

Annie

This here is Annie, my two year younger, should-be-twin sister. Annie and I, even when living thousands of miles apart, always get really sick at the same time, although usually with different ailments. Annie and I understand life in a very similar way, mostly because we go through so many of the same things. Whether it is dating woes, health issues, or words just coming out wrong, we are very alike. We also enjoy yelling at refs, looking fashionable, and we have very similar taste in tv shows. Annie and I (and my brother Mike) used to hang out and have fun so much, I've been referenced by her friends and co-workers as her boyfriend, husband, lover, and whatever else you can think of besides brother. The one difference I have to point out between us though, is that she is the queen of drama, and I hate drama. But, it is a testament of true brother-sister bonds that we are so close despite the massive difference on the drama scale. My favorite thing about Annie is that we can usually talk about anything and almost always understand each other. Thank you Annie for being a great little sister.

Camilla

The next sibling down is my younger sister Camilla, or Cam as we call her. Camilla is a fiercely outgoing girl with a style all her own. It is hard to believe that just a few short months ago, she began college. Camilla is really close with my older brother, Lance, but we still shared plenty of good times growing up. Cam was a tough cookie and always wrestled with us. I still chuckle when I think of her answering our cry for help while our dad was tickle torturing us. When I could bear the tickling no longer, I would call out "eeh eeh senorita, eeh eeh!", which somehow meant I needed her to come tackle my dad. Every time I called, she came running and joined the fray. Camilla is also very musically inclined. She has a strong singing voice and a passion for music as fierce as her personality. She is training her musicality in college and I look forward to hearing the results of her hard work there. My favorite thing about Cam is her uniqueness. She is completely her own person and boldly stands out without fear of judgement, a quality I admire in her. Thank you Camilla for being so bold and being a stand-out little sister.

Angela, aka Pootie Tang

Finally, we come to the youngest sibling and sister, Angela, aka, Pootie Tang. Angela is everything you would want from your youngest sister: spoiled, dramatic, funny, and playful. Angela is a sports star and I hope someday she becomes a standout in college and an Olympic gold medalist one day. She'll just have to overcome her laziness! I love hanging out with Angela and she loves hanging out with me. Pootie Tang has been a tomboy all her young life, but is growing up and definitely turning into one lovely lady. Since she started wearing dresses, there has been a crowd of guys behind her, desperately seeking her attention. They just better watch out, because the guy who breaks her heart, may wake up with broken legs...hehe, just kidding. Angela and I share many qualities as well, such as saying ridiculously funny things. We say them in seriousness usually, though everyone else finds them hilarious. We also like hunkering down to watch scary movies and while our family all loves being outdoors, when I'm home, Angela and I spend more time outside. My favorite thing about Angela is that I am her favorite brother, a position I solidified when I got her the Jimmer jersey she wanted for her birthday (yeah, yeah, maybe I had my brother help pay for it, but it still gives me a lead in the brother polls). Thank you Angela for always wanting to hang out with me. I will miss hanging out with you this Christmas and New Years.

So, there you have it. Four of the most beautiful, awesome and influential people not just in my life, but in the world. I am very glad I have them as my best friends and although eternity is a heck of a long time, they'll be there with me through it all. And for our song of the day we have four songs, each one dedicated to a particular sister:

Amelia: "You Raise Me Up" Sung by: the Celtic Women

Annie: "Daddy's Girl" by: Red Sovine

Camilla: "12 Days of Christmas" Vocal Point's arrangement (an unheard of, never before, early Christmas song from me because I was so harsh in scolding you about playing Christmas music on your blog before Thanksgiving)

Angela: "Chariots of Fire" by: Vangelis (because you will one day be my Olympian!)

I really cannot believe that it is the middle of November already. This year has just flown by. It seems like just last week I was ringing in the new year, jet skiing for my birthday, and moving to Logan. It is too early to reflect on this year, but when that day comes in a month and a bit, I certainly will have a lot to review.

Things are kind of low key this week. I'm working a good amount of hours and even picked up a few extra on my day off, but it seems kind of slow this week. There is not really a ton going on for me and I really don't have much to write about today, but tonight I just felt the need to put up a post.

There is one thing I thought about recently: my blog. I've been writing on my blog for a while now. When I started writing, I never really expected anyone other than my parents and an occasional random person who happened upon it to read it. Often, I wondered why I even had a blog. I say enough on Facebook and in calls to home for people to know I'm alive and ok. I have been timid to share my thoughts and feelings both in writing and in person, but slowly on my blog I've shared quite a bit of thoughts and feelings. The other night I was talking with a friend about my blog and she said something interesting about it. I don't remember the whole conversation, but it was about me sharing my feelings on the blog and she said that maybe the reason I share my thoughts on my blog is because I know that only the people who really care will seek out my posts and read them. I've thought a lot about why people read my posts. Why would you spend part of your day getting online and reading my blog? My blog certainly isn't any sort of life altering website and many days my posts offer nothing more than random ramblings that really don't matter. Yet, each day, friends and family in various parts of the nation tune in and read and I have developed a small, but consistent following. Here is kind of what I have concluded thus far in my thoughts of people reading my blog. I have not quite figured out why each person reads my blog. Some may want to get to know me on a deeper level, some may just want to know what I'm up to. Maybe some of you just have a strange addiction to reading blogs and since I have one, you read it. Whatever your reason, I am grateful. To see so many people reading a post, whether they tune in daily or just once in a while, gives me a feeling I can't quite describe, but it's a good one. Thank you for reading and I hope you continue to tune in. Not all my posts are weird like this one...

And our song of the day is dedicated to all of you who have ever found your way onto my blog and into my life, it's "Thank You For Being a Friend" by: Andrew Gold.

Well, it was a pretty good weekend despite BYU Basketball losing. The game was fun to attend and I had great seats. Afterwards, we went and had Texas Roadhouse. Then it was a short night since I had work early Saturday.

I worked at 7 am Saturday. It was a busy, busy day as we ran around getting all the football stuff out for a mid-day game. It also snowed a whole lot that morning. The rain switched to snow by around 11:30ish and dumped several inches within an hour and a half. These are definitely still autumn snowstorms as most of the snow melts off in late afternoon sunshine, then falls again at night, melts off, and so on. The fronts moved out today though and we are back around 50 degrees.

Pie Night was great this year. I made my Double Layer Pumpkin Pie, Banana Cream Pie (real banana cream), and Apple Pie. All three were a hit. Unfortunately, a good number of people who were coming up from Provo and down from Rexburg couldn't come, so I have plenty of pie left. Despite those absences, Pie Night this year drew in a solid dozen attendees, which is impressive since I still know very few people around here. The next party is my exclusive by invitation only Christmas Feast. This year I'm going to see if I can make the food at work. I get special pricing, something like the cost of food plus a certain percent if I do the labor on it. I'm going to get it priced out and see how much it would run me. Doing it from work would make it much easier while maintaining the high quality of food I want for this meal.

This morning at work, I spent 4 hours re-organizing our walk-in freezer, which has been a complete disaster lately. It was very cold, strenuous work, but you would not believe how much better it looks. It literally looks like it went from a tornado wreck to a new freezer. I'm proud of my work. I also got to attend a soft opening of a new cafe on campus and had a free lunch there. Free meals are always fun.

After work came an interesting situation. Today I parked in one of the parking terraces right by where I work instead of bussing up from the stadium. As I got to my car after work, I realized I left a clean rag from work in my back pocket. I laughed at my mistake and started backing out of my spot. Suddenly my nose started running. I began doing the instinctive *sniff* *sniff* trying to quell what was a very ferocious runny nose. As I started pulling towards the exit, I put my hand to my nose to find that it was not your standard runny nose. Blood was rushing down my face. As I tried to stop the onslaught of blood from getting everywhere, I stopped my car. Then things became difficult as another car wanting to exit pulled up. Not able to delay my exit any longer, I pulled to the pay machine and with one hand tried to hold my nose, while trying to get my wallet and reach out to swipe my card with the other, all the while trying to hide the fact from the people looking at me as they entered the parking terrace that my nose was unleashing on me. I did not handle the stressful situation well and managed to bleed on my hand, my pants, the edge of my seat, and the inside of the door. It was then that I realized a very handy clean rag sitting in the passenger seat. I quickly said my hallelujah to heaven as I grabbed the rag and stuffed it into my bloody nasal cavity. I held it tightly as I drove home. When I arrived home, the bleeding had subsided and I cleaned my car up, my hands up, and my face up. It was definitely the most inconvenient bloody nose I have ever had.

Tonight I'm doing some volunteer work. A friend who is involved in on-campus housing is in charge of a big casino-themed game night. DISCLAIMER (for mom): I DO NOT SUPPORT THE ACT OF, OR IMPERSONATING THE ACT OF GAMBLING. She needed help, so I'm running BINGO tonight for a few hours. It should be fun.

Well, I just realized I still have blood on my pants, so I better go attend to that before it becomes permanent.

Song of the day today is Garth Brooks singing "When You Come Back to me Again". I have a cover of it done by Vocal Point I really like, but the original is good too.

The middle of the week can be uneventful. My Wednesday was mostly uneventful. I worked, deposited my insurance payment to my ruthless sister's account, then settled in for the GOP Presidential Debate.

The debate was good. Bad news if your name is Rick Perry, who solidified his position as governor of Texas for at least another term with his major gaffe. I'll let you just watch it:


After tonight, it definitely looks as if Mitt Romney will be our nominee. It will be a good election year next year.

The remainder of this week looks as if it too will be uneventful until Friday's ginormous basketball game here in Logan between my BYU Cougars and the school that pays me, USU! It will be epic.

After that, the next big thing is Pie Night on Sunday, which continues to add attendees and is looking like it will be a huge success again this year!

Today our song of the day comes from one of my older playlists. I was listening to the playlist and came across this song, which I like. Song is "I'm Into Something Good" by Herman's Hermits.

Yee haw! What a day off it has been. Possibly one of the best days I've had in Logan so far.

This morning we got up and went fly fishing. It was my first time fly fishing and also my first time fishing in general in a long time. Boy was it a great trip. I borrowed equipment from my roommate's friend and I am so glad he let me borrow it. Up in the canyon, the temperature was still in the 30s. Frost covered the ground where the sun had not hit yet and there was still plenty of snow on the slopes hidden from the sun and under trees. With my waders, the water wasn't too bad. Towards the end my feet were getting cold, but I only brought my water shoes because I could not find my old hiking shoes to wear over the wader bootie sock thing. I actually lost one shoe when my foot got stuck in a hole between some big rocks. I could not retrieve it so I just walked carefully. Though I almost fell a couple times, lost my shoe, and my hands lost most of their mobility (literally), I had a fantastic time. I did not catch a fish, but I came close. A nice trout was on my line but he got off before I could land him. Regardless, as I've always said, just put me out in nature casting that line and I could not be happier. Today was no exception. Near freezing temperatures, frigid water, slipper rocks, no fish and a lost shoe did not damper my spirits at all. I had a fantastic morning.

After fishing I watched more Hogan's Heroes and played some xbox. Then this evening I went to Taco Tuesday with my roommate, then had some good carne asada at home with both my roommates. Then we all played some xbox and chilled in the theater room.

Tomorrow it's back to work and I'll be working a good bit through the end of the week. Next big non-work event for me is Pie Night at my place on Sunday. I'm looking forward to it and it looks like we'll have a full apartment of people again this year. It's gonna be great! Also upcoming is my big Christmas feast. This year I'm doing turkey since one roommate is Muslim and can't eat ham. That feast will be epic just like last years, which was just amazing.

Hope everyone out there has a fantastic week!

Back to work song of the day is Harry Belafonte singing the easily recognizable "Banana Boat Song" which you may know as "Day-O." And, as a special treat, I've included the scene from Beetlejuice that also includes the song. Classic song, classic scene!

Happy Birthday to my favorite little sister Angela, aka Pootie Tang!!! Enjoy your amazing present from your amazing brother! Sorry I can't be there to celebrate and I'll miss you at Christmas too!

It has been a good couple days since my last update. We ended up getting around 3 inches of snow Friday night and Saturday morning, most of which melted off in a solid afternoon of sunshine Saturday. After that, we got a couple snow showers, including Monday morning, when there was a light cover of snow. Now it's all moved on and things will get a teeny bit warmer as the week moves forward.

Monday I did another served lunch at work. This one was cool. I served Craig Jessup, former director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and current dean of the college of the arts at USU. He had a special lunch with some guests. It was him, his wife, the USU president's wife, and then the others we aren't positive on, but one was either Mack Wilberg or Mr. Mac of Mr. Mac's suit stores. Anyway, it was a fun little lunch to serve and I enjoyed eavesdropping as they told stories of traveling with the choir.


I'm off today (Tuesday) and will be heading out fly fishing with my roommate. After that I'll run some errands, do some laundry, get some rest. The rest of the week is plenty busy.

I'll let you all know how fly fishing goes. I'm way excited!

There are two songs of the day. The first is a great birthday song I thought my sister would like. She is very non-sentimental like me, so she should appreciate this non-traditional happy birthday song. The second song is the hymn of nature. It's "All Creatures of Our God and King".

Well, it is official. As of about 11:30 pm Friday, November 5th, Logan has experienced it's first accumulating valley snow of the year. We had a minute of flurries during a cold storm a few weeks back, but not really enough to say it snowed. It is 12:30 am Saturday, the 6th right now and there is a good accumulation of an inch already with more possible through the night and the next day or so. I'll try to remember to get a picture out my window in the morning with my film camera. From what I can see out in the dark now, it looks beautiful. I do love the snow.

Friday also brought excitement at work. Today I did my first solo event. By solo, I mean I was the one who went to the event and plated the food. There are always servers who serve it, but neither of the two chefs I work with came to help plate. Today, I ran the show and it went great! Things in the kitchen could not be better.

That is pretty much the news here in Logan. The first snow of the year always makes me very happy. I absolutely love snow and the weather in general and I look forward to a great winter!

In honor of the snow, enjoy a winter love song. It's "Winter Song" by the delightful Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson.

Today, I did not work.

Today, I did nothing.

Well, that's not entirely true. I woke up around 9:30 this morning and was too cold to get out of bed, so, since I had finished all of my laundry during my half day off (between editing my video and watching Real Salt Lake), I decided I would lay in bed for a while and watch some Hogan's Heroes on my laptop. Unless I am too sick to move, I have a general policy that I have to always do something productive each day, so, this afternoon I managed to get up, have a nice hot shower to thaw out, and I headed out on a drive to clear my mind. I took along my film camera to try to get some cool pictures as well. I first stopped at the mouth of the canyon at the lake/pond and spent some time with the ducks and geese there. A couple of the ducks must have been hungry because they did not shy away like the others. They walked right up to me and I got what I hope will be an awesome picture of one of them that was standing within a foot of me. After that I drove up Logan Canyon a bit, but decided to turn around and head over to the Logan Temple. I got some good pictures there before getting a little cold as the sun hid behind some clouds, so I headed home. I still have about 15 pictures to take on this roll of film before I can develop it, so you will all have to wait a little bit to see these shots. I also am not sure if the film in it is color or black and white. I thought strongly that I had put black and white in, but I can't be sure. I put the film in long ago when the batteries died. This summer I got batteries, but was always working except at night, when it would have been a waste of film to shoot. Either way, the pictures should look nice and I look forward to shooting more and sharing them all.

I hope you all had a chance to view my video and I really hope you share it with all your friends. I uploaded it to youtube so you can share it easier.

Today (Wednesday) I worked only half a day. When I got home, I decided I would get my hair cut. I was growing my hair out for the winter, but when Angela and Annie said it was ugly, I decided I look better, older, smarter, and more mature with shorter hair. I asked Angela how short I should go, so after she told me, I decided to document the difference so she would be completely content with my haircut. I was just trying to get a 360 shot of my hair when I had a marvelous idea. I would make before and after videos, add music and make a complete video of the event. As I made more videos, they got more and more ridiculous. I instantly knew the song I needed for the video. So, I went and got my haircut, then hurried home to finish my video. I took more outrageous video, downloaded the song, and got to work editing. I spent about 15 minutes each shooting before and after video, then about 3 hours editing. I used Microsoft Movie Maker, which had a few problems I had to overcome, but in the end I am completely content with the video. I intended for it to be funny, but I gotta admit, it turned out much funnier than I expected. I can't stop laughing about it. I'm sure most of you reading this have already seen it, but if you have not or just want to watch again, here it is!

Happy November everyone.

Today was a pretty good day. I went to work, I worked, I went home from work, I slept, I watched some of my favorite TV show episodes, and now here I am.

The best part of the day was actually a performance review at work. My boss (who I found out perused my blog yesterday) and I sat down and went over a "performance appraisal" the university uses for following the progression (or digression) of employees. We discussed my responsibilities and how much time is used each day for each one. Then we went over my goals and set some new ones for me, which was the exciting part. We are going to do what I thought I was going to do this summer. I'm going to learn some things. Some of the goals we set include improving my knife skills, particularly learning new types of cuts, cross-training with the catering wait staff, and other things that will essentially give me a better understanding of how our organization works as well as catering in general. I am also going to be spending a couple extra hours each week typing up all of our recipes. None of our recipes are typed and on file anywhere, so this will help us have them all in one place, and me typing them all will help me become more familiar with them, which will enable me to cook more without having to stop to write down recipes all the time. The meeting was very good. They enjoy having me on board and as we implement the things we planned today, things will only get better for the whole organization. I know it may be boring to you all hearing the details of a meeting, but it's way exciting for me!

Logan escaped valley snow again today. It seems the last two storms that may have dropped accumulating snow here have missed and left us just cold and a bit rainy. Another storm hits this weekend and we'll see if that one does anything. I'm as ready for winter as I can be. I want to go snowmobiling this winter if I get a chance. We'll see.

Song of the day today is an interesting choice. This song was the Billboard #1 song on the day I was born in 1989. It's "Toy Soldiers" by Martika.