I went up to Preston, Idaho this evening to do a little training with the National Weather Service and to register to be a local weather spotter with the SKYWARN program. If I explained it, I would tell all sorts of lies that made me sound much cooler than I am, so here is an exact quote from the SKYWARN website:

"Although SKYWARN® spotters provide essential information for all types of weather hazards, the main responsibility of a SKYWARN® spotter is to identify and describe severe local storms."

 We can send reports during or after weather events that help the National Weather Service with various things, such as understanding certain weather events better or help get information out quick about weather events. They make reports on things that they use for all sorts of other things, so, ambiguously speaking, we help the NWS do important things. We can report via phone, internet, or on a HAM radio. Already on our list of things to do this summer is to become HAM radio licensed, so, we hope to watch some serious weather at some point and be able to report it.

On a side note on radios...we also want to get CB radios rigged in our vehicle...but don't worry, our finances have their priorities...

Oh, and if you want to become a weather spotter for your area, you can read up on it here: SKYWARN
(there would be more to spot and report back east)

That is the most exciting thing I've done this week. We have been doing some work on the exterior of our house to beautify it and keep the bug population down. They fixed some pipes when we moved in, digging up part of the front lawn. There have been 2 big mounds of dirt since, so, rather than wait a year or so for the clay to finally settle down, we shoveled it into Myles' truck and hauled it off. If it finally sinks this year, we'll find someone getting rid of dirt and fill 'er in again and re-seed it. But, our yard looks WAY better without the big eyesore mounds that even the neighbors wanted removed. We have a bit more dirt to move, then I'm going to spray down the siding of the house, cleaning it and removing lots of spider webs and such. The shrubbery is growing a lot too, so that'll be trimmed back a bit eventually. It ain't much, but there's enough work to keep me satisfied.

Pretty standard week. Scatterball Thursday again. Hoping to do our first campfire up the canyon this Saturday. Yep. Livin' the life.

Song of the Day is a fun one I really like and the name is quite a mouthful. It is "Notturna la musica delle strade di Madrid no. 6" by: Luigi Boccherini. If you have seen the awesome movie Master and Commander, then you might recognize it. I love that movie and I love hearing this song in it. Enjoy!

What a ridiculously fantastic week it has been. I cannot remember a week where I did more (aside from when I was home vacationing). The week was such a whirlwind of awesome I am not sure I could even recount everything. I will do my best to point out the highlights.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Monday we had a great night at FHE and then at Sonic. Now, I feel the need to point out that part of why I am so confused about all that went on this week is because from Monday on, I literally thought every day was Friday. That threw me off so much that when Friday finally came around, I thought it was Saturday. I can tell you that due to this re-occurring discombobulation, I had several disappointing moments during the week, as I realized it was only Tuesday, then Wednesday, Thursday, and even Friday.

I am stalling as I try to remember the days I did things...though it just occurred to me that this is a blog and I do not need to stall...so, let's just forget the days and focus on the activities.

We went shooting this week. I got off work around 7 pm one day and we drove into the mountains, found a good secluded area with a good hill, and proceeded to shoot cans and targets. It was a nice, cool evening and though there was cloud cover, we had enough light to continue shooting through 9 pm. We are already trying to plan another shooting excursion.

We also went to Wyoming this week. As is customary with me, we drove to the border to stock up on fireworks for the coming holidays. As is also customary with me, we got ridiculously good deals. I deemed this the best week to go because there were 3 great coupons for the week. One got us a nice $200 mortar kit for $80. Another got us a $40 200-gram repeater for $10. The other got us $140 of free, bonus 500-gram repeater and reloadables for spending at least $159. We also used a year-round coupon where we get a $60 item for driving at least a certain distance to the showroom and purchasing at least $25 in gas to get there. I spent $50 on gas and got a $60 item, which makes me happy. All in all, we left with nearly $830 of merchandise for a grand total of $268.71. A very successful trip!!!

Scatterball at the church Thursday was also a blast. There are lots of rules, but essentially, it is an every man for himself version of dodgeball. I managed to win one round, and in dramatic fashion too, so it was a good night for me.

I am so glad it is almost summer time. The past week has kind of kick started our summer fun. We (we being my roommates and I) went and fed the ducks, went hiking, got callings at church, I made dinner for someone ;) , and tonight at FHE we had dutch oven food, played a couple hours of ultimate frisbee, and then went over to sonic with a few people we met. All in all, it has been a great week.

The coming weeks have lots of fun planned as well. Thursday we're going to play scatter ball (some form of dodge ball I guess), Memorial Day we're having a pig roast, we're going to Wyoming to stock up on fireworks, heading down south to pick up a canoe and visit the resort, and we have lots of hiking and other things to plan as well...It's going to be a great summer.

With all that's going on, I'll do my best to keep up on here. There are always great stories to tell from all these adventures, like seeing or meeting funny people, or embarrassing moments, so I'll be sure to make note of those.

Well...I'm tired, so it is sleepy time for me.

Song of the day...it's gotta be Mungo Jerry with his wicked sideburns singing "In the Summertime."

My family knows what I did after Gettysburg during my week at home, but the rest of you don't, so I better recap it all for you.

Wednesday morning we just moseyed around at home until the afternoon, when my sisters Angela and Annie, brother Mike, and mama 'Lizbeth and I (and the dog) went to the Great Falls of the Potomac. We enjoyed the views and had a nice walk along a trail, as well as a fun time scurrying around on the rocks down by the river.

This is Great Falls

This is Angela and I being weird...

Thursday was a longer day. Mike and I went into DC on the Metro and saw some sights. Originally, we were going to see the bathrooms of the Library of Congress (laugh all you want, but they are very, very, very nice and last time they were closed so I did not see them), then we were going to spend the day at the Smithsonian and other museums. That did not happen. We saw the House of Reps getting out so we watched them leave, then saw the bathrooms and the actual Library of Congress, then took a tour of the Capitol, then walked down and got some grub from a street vendor on our way to the White House, stopping to see various buildings like the FBI Building. We saw both sides of the White House, then noticed that the president's motorcade was getting ready to leave, so we waited to watch. That ended up taking an hour, but was still neat. By then we were almost out of time. We walked around the Washington Monument, which is still closed from the earthquake. Speaking of the quake, I have a great story. As we were walking around the base of the Washington Monument, we were reading a little informational marker about the earthquake. As we read, some ladies came over and one exclaimed to the other, "Oh, that's why it's closed! The Great Washington-New York Earthquake of 2011." My brother and I walked away trying not to laugh out loud...the Great Washington-New York Earthquake of 2011...oh man. Here's my favorite reminder of that quake:





Everyone does these kind of shots, so I thought, what the heck...here's me holding up the Washington Monument...





Mike at the Supreme Court...





Me at the Supreme Court...














Me at the White House...




I was trying to keep the cold off of me before I finally went under...




This is a mole crab we dug up...he just wanted to go back in his hole...




First time at the Atlantic Ocean! Now I've been to all of them here... Pacific, Atlantic, and the Gulf...










Horse just chillin' on the side of the road...

As I'm sure most of you are aware, I snuck over to Virginia in the dead of night Saturday and surprised my family with a week-long visit. Here's what has happened since then.

Saturday at 11:59 pm I took off from Salt Lake International. Four hours later, at 6 am (time change), I landed in Charlotte, North Carolina. I ate a cinnamon roll and boarded my flight to Baltimore. In Baltimore, I was stranded for an hour at the rental car place due to a little drama involving fees I was not informed of and limited money. Finally, Avis Rental saved me and I made my way from Baltimore to my hometown of Nokesville, Virginia. The family was about to head to church, so I waited in the next town over while having lunch at Cracker Barrel. Fully fed, I rolled up to the farm to the less than thrilled welcome of our female beagle, Shilo. She never remembers me and it sometimes takes her a day or two to warm up to me again. She and I walked around the farm as she followed the scents of rabbits, groundhogs and other animals we have here. Then we sprawled out for naps on the living room floor, before it finally came about time for the family to arrive home from church. I had gone through at least 20 different scenarios for surprising them ranging from hitchhiking on our street to Skyping from the front lawn. The humidity was murderous Sunday, so I opted for a simple plan. Sit out on the lawn and wait to see their confused looks. Here is a picture of what I did, though the umbrella was in the middle behind me when they drove up...and the dog is not going potty as it may appear.



So when the family did drive up, the dog was running around in front of them. They saw her first and wondered why and how the dog was out. Then they see me to the side and had the classic: "Wait...what?" look. According to sources in the car, my mother wondered aloud if I had maybe lost my job. Angela did exactly as I predicted, jumping from the moving vehicle to run and hug me. Camilla also did as I expected, saying things such as "What the? You didn't even tell us!?" Mike knew so he just laughed. Annie was not home but when I tagged her in my reveal on Facebook she called from where she was babysitting and asked what I was doing here.

Monday, I returned my rental to an Avis Rental close to home, had Chick-Fil-A, played through my old songbooks and sheet music on piano, and awaited the arrival of Amelia and brother-in-law Max, who I only ever saw once before briefly at the wedding. They came down for dinner and family night to see me since they live up by Baltimore and won't have much time later this week. We all had a joyous time Monday night.

This morning, Tuesday, mom, Mike, Camilla, and I drove 2 hours up to Gettysburg and took an audio tour of the battleground. It was really cool driving along the actual lines of battle, standing where soldiers stood, seeing how the entire battle played out from all angles. I uploaded all the pictures to Facebook, but here is one anyway.


The rest of the week is yet to be fully planned, but, I will go into DC to see the Smithsonians at some point, see the Avengers in Imax 3D, do some shopping, go to the beach, and see as much as I can before I have to head back to reality, where next week, a heavy load of work awaits.

Song of the day is an easy choice. It's "Back Home Again" by John Denver.