Yesterday, my blog had one of it's most visited days. I don't pretend to have a huge following; an average day brings about 5 or 6 views from different locations. Yesterday, however, my blog was fortunate enough to have 20 views, and I am grateful to everyone who has read and/or is reading my blog today.

I had a very interesting moment today. I was at work putting some extra chicken away and I needed to write the date on it. I admit I had no idea what day it was, so I asked someone. "It's December 1st", he said. Then, the weirdest thing happened. All of a sudden, this huge smile spread across my face, and my brain just started lighting up. As I walked around the kitchen merrily informing people that "HEY! IT'S DECEMBER!", I thought of the opportunities that are in my near future, all the good things I've experienced this year, and the stability I have here in Logan right now. It was truly an interesting experience for me to randomly have such a great moment in the middle of the day at work, but it was, to borrow a fitting word from a friend, fantastic.

Though many things from this year went through my head today during my mid-day highlight moment, I am still going to hold off on a review of the year for a few weeks.

The next few weeks will be extremely busy, and, in my opinion, exciting at work. Next week alone is jam packed and it only gets busier the closer we get to Christmas. Many would go into such a busy time muttering under their breath that they can't wait until it ends, but I go into it speaking loud and clear that I can't wait to get knee deep in it. I love it!

Well, since it is December, we'll go with a holiday song for the Song of the Day. Today, we have one of my favorites: it's "12 Days of Christmas" BYU Vocal Point style!

For the past few days, I've contemplated something that is, for those of you that know me, unheard of. I thought about trimming my sideburns up. Now, now, calm down...I know, it's crazy to think that I thought that. But, it's true. For the first time since I've had them, I almost shortened them without being required to. Some may say it is a sign of maturity that I'm finally coming to my senses. Some may say I ate a bad burger or drank some tainted water. And some of you may think that the fact that we're even talking about my sideburns is ridiculous and you may stop reading because of it...No matter your reaction, the fact remains that I toyed with the idea, and was within minutes of actually doing it. I was going to go to the barber after work and get a trim and have them shorten the sides up, but I opted out at the last second and went home. I took a shower and then when I shaved, I just cleaned them up and took an inch off. They were all the way down to the bottom of the cheek, so they are still quite long, but I think I look better this way. There is no single reason for my wanting to make such a radical change, but rather many complicated reasons. I needed a change in my life, but between the rearranging of furniture and the bit of shortening I did go through with, I think I'm good and we'll see how it goes.

Anyway...I bet that was the weirdest thing you've ever read. But hey, that's what you get for reading my blog.

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.

This year, I did not do very much for Halloween. In fact, this year, I practically did nothing for Halloween. I attended no parties. I had no costume. I didn't even post "Happy Halloween" on my Facebook status. The one Halloweenish thing I did was went to a haunted corn maze with some friends a couple weeks ago. Honestly, that was all I needed. I did have plans to attend some parties as you may remember, but opted instead to go down to Provo for the weekend for the Real Salt Lake game. I guess I just wasn't in the Halloween mood...though the Halloween episode of Psych was great!

I realized today that I really need a piano, or rather, I need to play a piano. Playing the piano was always a really good release for me and always made me feel good. I haven't played in months and I am noticing it. Maybe this Sunday I'll stick around after church and find a room I can use.

This week I'm setting a goal to try to get out and do more. Whether it's just going out and taking pictures, or doing something more meaningful, lately I've cooped myself up too much and it's taking it's toll. Fatigue sets in quick when I coop up and do not eat right or sleep enough and recently I have not been taking as good care of myself as I need to. I think it is time that I for serious find a couple small hobbies.

And for those of you who do not watch the sing off, I wanted to share a video of my favorite group, Vocal Point, singing some great Elvis. I loved their performance tonight.

I decided to hold off posting until the excitement of the weekend had concluded. I can now give a full report on the events of Friday and Saturday.

I had a feeling I had to be on the lookout for idiot drivers when I left Logan Friday morning. Thank goodness I was alert, because I had to swerve very quickly to avoid an accident in Salt Lake. Traffic was flowing smoothly but at one little section on the far end of the Salt Lake Valley, there was some sort of maintenance vehicle working on the left side, slowing traffic a little. We slowed to about 40 as we went through the short area being maintained. This one guy had been zipping in and out of lanes thinking he and his sleek little car could get through quicker if he did some good maneuvering. As I was directly next to him, he decided he wanted to be where I was. Without checking, he started zipping over into my lane. I saw it in the nick of time and managed to swerve enough out of the way while laying on my horn to avoid both a collision with him and a collision with the next lane over. The idiot got pretty freaked out, because when traffic sped right back up moments later, he moved to the middle lane and went much slower than he had been going earlier. I just shook my head, grateful to have avoided an accident for the second time in the past couple months.

One other traffic story, this one more funny. As Mike and I were leaving his place, we were on the road waiting to turn right. I had my blinker on and people were lined up behind us waiting their turn. Then some idiot, oblivious to all of us, pulled up on my right, also wanting to turn right. I moved in his way, honked my horn, gave him a confused look, then made my turn. He came to his senses, realized what a dumb move he made, and that was the last we saw of him. We laughed the whole way to Evan's place where we were setting up to watch the BYU-TCU football game.

The football game was not a highlight of my weekend. BYU made way too many mistakes and gave the game up in the end. Easily could have taken that game, but just did not play smart.

Saturday we headed to the final home game for the BYU women's soccer team. That also was not a highlight, with a tough 1-0 loss. That game also could have gone our way, but we just struggled to get a goal.

The big highlight of the weekend, apart from hanging out with Mike and some friends all weekend, was going to the Real Salt Lake playoff game vs. Seattle. We had great seats, got free scarves and bags in the pre-game party outside the stadium, and the game was AMAZING! Real Salt Lake dominated throughout, finishing with a shut-out 3-0 victory! RSL will play Seattle again Wednesday and will likely advance in the playoffs. What was really a sight to see Saturday was Mike and I wearing red! The only red we own are soccer jerseys. Mike has his from Korea, I have mine from Germany. We wore our red proudly and cheered RSL to a great victory!

Sunday will be restful. Church in the morning, drive back in the afternoon, take it easy in Logan before working again Monday.

Since you will all be reading this Sunday, our song of the day will be Sunday appropriate.

This week was ideal. After working Monday-Saturday last week, I had Monday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday off this week. My weekend has already begun!

As soon as I got my schedule for the week, I made plans to take a little fun break. I'm spending another sport-filled weekend down in Provo with Mike. Tonight (Friday), I'm setting up the projector at Evan's and we're having a BYU football party. We'll watch the BYU-TCU game on ESPN on the big, big screen. Then, Saturday at 1 pm we're hitting up the last women's soccer game. After that, Mike and I are heading up to Salt Lake to Rio Tinto Stadium to go to our first pro soccer game. Real Salt Lake is taking on Seattle in a playoff match. Sunday, I'll go to church with Mike then head back to Logan to resume work Monday. I'm looking forward to a really fun weekend just chillin' with my friends down south.

I only have one other thing to share today. As I was making a quick stop at Wal-Mart this evening to grab a couple things, I had a chuckle-to-myself moment. I was standing in line and had put my items on the belt. I placed them far enough behind the person in front's stuff so that the cashier could differentiate our things. They have those dividers you can put between your stuff if you want, but I usually see no need to use them. As my stuff moved forward, the couple behind me put their things on the belt. The wife placed their things behind enough to differentiate, but after a moment, the husband looked and grabbed the divider with a bit of gusto and placed it between our stuff. I laughed to myself because it appeared that he was insecure with the idea of nothing physically separating the two groups of items, which were easily a foot and a half apart or more, as if maybe his items would get rung up with mine and nothing could be done to fix it. It just got me thinking about how many things like that there are that we get too used to. I think we can all be a little bit more relaxed and not worry about those little things! I really think that man would have been distraught if that little piece of plastic had not been there to separate my groceries from theirs. Here's to me being a rebel and not using those silly little barriers.

Oh, and how can I forget, I picked up another follower! Welcome to the blog my recently married sister Amelia and her husband Max.

There are 2 Songs of the Day and they are all about how I feel about the upcoming weekend!

I take a bus to work every day. Utah State has a shuttle service that provides transportation to and from campus that service parking areas and other spots where many students would walk from. When it was warmer out, after work I would always drag my tired body on the bus ride back to my car. However, recently, with the onset of cooler fall weather, I have found myself walking the mile to my car each day. The walk down the hill is fantastic. As you go down, a panorama of the north end of the valley comes into view, each little city visible, ending as the gentle hills build back up into the mountains that surround us here. Somewhere in that area, one state ends and another begins, but as you look across, mother nature makes no matter of who is governing what. To her, the land belongs to all.

I have always enjoyed taking time to notice the beauty of the world around me, though in recent years I regret that I was too caught up in life to look. I remember once last year while walking to work at Seven Peaks there was a flowering shrub that I could always smell from the other side of the street as I passed by. One day, I was approaching from the shrub's side of the road and I stopped. Thinking about all the times people have said to stop and smell the roses, I reached out, gently pulled a branch towards me, and lightly drew in the sweet smell.  As I walked down my hill today, orange and yellow leaves crunching beneath me, and crisp, cool air surrounding me, I was grateful to once again enjoy my surroundings. I hope you all take the time to enjoy your surroundings as well.

Since yesterday's post, I gained an unprecedented 3 new followers! Welcome, Thomas Owens from back in Kentucky, lil' sis Camilla up in Rexburg, and a special welcome to my awesome friend Jolene Findlay tuning in from out in Thatcher, Arizona! I hope you all enjoy reading my posts.

I looked and looked and looked for a good song of the day. I chose at least 5 different ones ranging from John Denver to Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. Ultimately, I liked the mood of this song I had never heard before and happened upon by mistake. It is "Autumn Leaves" sung by Eva Cassidy.

I know that my blog has been difficult at times to follow. It started in 2008 and failed, or rather, I failed. Then in 2009 there were 2 posts. Then in 2010 when I turned my life around, I posted frequently. The second half of last year I posted almost every day. Then the posts dropped in number to about every other day. Looking at the history, I realize why my posts have been so scattered. During times of struggle, I do not post much, if anything. During times where I am doing well and life is great on all fronts, I post frequently. It is an interesting thing I do with my emotions. When I am doing well, I am much more social, friendly and optimistic. When I am not doing so well, I become reclusive, antagonistic and a brutal pessimist. As you can tell by my lack of posts during very strenuous times in my life, I do not like talking about my problems. Though, if things are going well, I am more open to talking about my problems. Ultimately, I think this makes me a confusing person. I think my conundrum in dealing with my problems is that same one I have in dealing with others' problems. I simply do not know how to react well to emotions, both emotions conveyed and emotions received. Inside, I am actually pretty sensitive to emotion. I feel much more emotion than I show, and at times I wish I would simply not feel so much emotion so I would not have to struggle in my efforts to respond to it.

Whew...look at me go talking about emotions. I admit that was an interesting train of thought. I was just trying to detail how far my blog has come over the past couple years and ended up doing some soul searching. Normally I would go erase all this talk of emotion, but I think it is fitting that since my blog and blog support have come so far, I would be taking a step back by not sharing this post.

A little on the less exciting side, I added a weather widget. It shows the weather here in Logan, but you can type in your city and it will take you to your weather. Who knows, maybe one day you'll be reading my blog and for whatever reason you'll need to know what the weather will be like where you are. Now it is conveniently located for you right on my blog!

I also picked up another official follower, which is exciting for me. Welcome to the blog Sarah Knowlton.

Hopefully you listened to the cello music yesterday so you will better appreciate today's song of the day. The song today is the vocal arrangement that yesterday's cello video was based on. The cello version was amazing and if you did not listen, you should scroll on down and hear it now!

Greetings and salutations from the land of Logan. It has been quite some time since I last posted. I have been pretty lazy recently. I go to work, then I come home and basically sit around. The past month or so has been very unproductive, so today I began productivity again. I mailed Annie's check today, took some dry cleaning in to the cleaners, got the rock chip fixed in my window and almost finished outfitting my closet for winter. I'm on a tight budget, so I have been looking around for low prices on long sleeves. I found them at Old Navy today. I got 2 long sleeve shirts, one with BYU stuff on it from Old Navy's new collegiate line and a light hoodie. All I really lack is a pair of khakis or corduroy pants. I have my one pair of jeans for the year, but I need more than one pair of pants and this year I am opting for khakis. It's only fitting since almost all of my clothes are blue. This year there has been a new blue offered in lots of clothes and I love it. It's like a charcoal blue, I'd have to show you pictures, but I've bought up a lot in that color. Anyway, khakis would look great with my blue and be good for church, so I gotta find some at the right price. My problem is that pants today are all "loose" and I'm too darn skinny to fill em' out. The one pair that would have worked today in my price range did not come in my waist size. So the search continues. All I need to be set for winter is this one pair of pants and some driving gloves. I sent mine home cuz I knew you all would like them, so I'll likely just get a pair from wal-mart.

I really got on here to share some music with you all today. If you recall, back on September 11th, I had some moving music for the songs of the day. One of those was a great rendition of "Till We Meet Again" by a fellow named Steven Sharp Nelson. After I found that song and put it on for that day, I never looked into him or anything like that. Then, today, I was on YouTube looking for some Vocal Point music and came across this cello player who had recorded an arrangement of "Nearer My God to Thee" that a Vocal Point alumnist had arranged. With that song being one of my favorite hymns and that arrangement being particularly favored by me, I clicked. For the next hour or so, I watched and listened to several amazing performances by this fellow, whose name is Steven Sharp Nelson. The videos were both moving and inspiring and Nelson plays often with Jon Schmidt on piano. But to make a long story short (TOO LATE!), this evening I was playlist.com searching for this Nelson fellow and came across that "Till We Meet Again" song and as I was listening, it hit me that I had heard this guy before! There is a group of guys who make these videos called The Piano Guys and they make great stuff. Anywho, I wanted to share some of the moving and inspiring music I heard today. Hopefully you find the performances as fun to watch and the music as calming to hear as I did.

I like days off, but this week due to some cancellations in catering, I ended up with 2 in a row. At the resort, that would have been a miracle and I would have spent the first day rejoicing and celebrating, but up here, it's different. I have little to do but sleep in, sit in front of the telly and feel like a bum...a bigger bum than I usually am I should say. It made me realize I really need a hobby. A few ideas I have for a hobby include getting some good literature about food to read, doing puzzles, volunteering  (it's been awhile since I last volunteered for anything), and that's really as far as I got. Seriously though, the past two days I realized that I left the resort so I could have a more normal life and right now I'm not quite doing that. I have decided that since I'm still shelling out $25 a month for a gym membership and there happens to be a gold's gym here, I should go a couple times a week and stay healthy.

Last night, which was Tuesday, BYU Women's Volleyball came to town. Naturally, I went, though I wore a plain blue shirt so as not to offend my roommate with my BYU-ness. It was a fun game with many BYU fans in attendance. BYU swept Utah State.

This weekend is the big rivalry game and I am so ready to go crazy on the FRONT ROW!!! I have two cans of blue hair spray that we got on clearance from a Halloween store a while back and I intend to bring them both to the game for anyone else on the front row interested in being true blue.

Well, that's about all I got for today. My mind is a little numb from doing nothing for 2 days. I was just listening to some Taylor Swift, so we'll throw some of that on for the song of the day.

Time continues to fly by here in Logan. Last week was a busy one.

After returning to Logan from my Labor Day in Provo, I worked all day Tuesday. Wednesday I went down to Murray and picked up my sister Camilla from our grandparent's home. We drove to Provo and met up with Mike. We went mini golfing and then went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. I won the mini golf game. After dinner we dropped Mike off at his place and headed back to grandma's. We grabbed Camilla's stuff and chatted with grandma for a bit before taking off for my place in Logan. I had stuff for Camilla so we had to go through Logan anyway, so I figured why not stay the night at my place. After sorting through everything I was giving to Camilla for college (mostly kitchen stuff), we watched a movie on my projector and brand new electric screen that arrived and was mounted on Tuesday night. Thursday morning we packed up MY car and headed north. About 2 and a half hours later, we arrived at our destination: BYU-Idaho. Camilla checked in to her dorm, her roommates helped unload the stuff, I told her good luck, don't party too hard, and other encouraging things like that. She said she all her roommates were grocery shopping together later and she wasn't hungry for lunch or anything, so, there was nothing left for me to do but head back down for work in Logan. And so I drove back, worked a few hours, and that was that. Today, Camilla had her first day of college and from what her Facebook says, she is loving it. I think we all knew she would.

I haven't heard much about Angela and high school back in Virginia. I know she had one day off due to the flooding and she was excited for that. I hope she is working hard to become a super all-star athlete (oh, and get good grades) so she can come play for Mike and I in college.

This past weekend I worked a lot. Friday and Saturday were busy busy in catering. After work Saturday I picked up the BYU-Texas game in the 3rd quarter. From what I saw, our defense is great, but kind of gave up in the second half. So did Brandon Doman. He has a lot to learn, as does Heaps. I was disappointed at the lack of throwing in the second half. We had one big throw and it was just a little off. I think that is due to the fact that he hadn't thrown more than 2 or 3 yards for a while. Anyway, the big rivalry game is this weekend and I have front row seats! I expect a victory.

This week will be pretty slow at work. Not too much going on. Right now I'm watching the tea party debate. It looks like it's pretty much going to be Romney and Rick Perry going at each other. What's really funny is that Ron Paul is still around running for president. Oh I love politics.

Today's song of the day is one I've listened to on the radio a couple times. I decided after a few times that I liked it and today it was on my mind, so, here it is: Demi Lovato's "Skyscraper"