Goodbye 10... Welcome 2011....

I believe that Mac's rundown of the past few seasons has been an accurate account of those months. It has been some time since we have written on this post, especially yours truly.

Life has had its ups and downs in 2011 but all together it was a productive and worthwhile time in my life and I assume everyones as well. Don't worry Mac, I do think you live a great life... I am excited for that time to come when ever it does, but until that day comes bring on the experiences!!!

As Mac said, I have been coaching wrestling at Skyline. Those little rascals took 2nd place at the Titan Duels at Olympus. I was extremely proud of them. We had some JV step up and prove themselves. It really has been the highlight of the past few months. I love working with the kids. With that being said, I may not be at Skyline next year. I may have the opportunity to be a coach and teacher at Copper Hills High School. I should be a frontrunner for the position as long as my background check goes through. Ironically enough, my background check shows the trespassing citation that i received that good ole summer of 04'. They have to clear that to approve me to work at the school. I would teach Social studies (American History and World History), Wrestling, Weight Lifting, and Social Dance. Lets hope and pray that everything comes back cleared because the Principle really likes me.

Just incase you don't know, I was accepted to USC! Im officially a Trojan! Fight on! I am perusing a Masters in Teaching. I did a 180 and decided that working in the marketing and advertising field isn't what i wanted. Crazy to think that i am trying to get a masters degree.

As for the women, they come and go. Haven't found one that i want to spend eternity with yet. Maybe that will change in 11'. 2011 could be a great year. Hopefully I'll have a career teaching at Copper Hills and maybe find a great gal.

I agree with Mac, Chase needs to be more social. We still love you buddy and we are here for you when you want to come home :) As for Mac, congrats on air traffic control school. I'll be visiting you in Alaska, hopefully a few times.

Hank's great year has been 2010 and hopefully 2011 gets even better, Kids :) You have to do it Hank, the rest of us want to be uncles for you and your the one in the best position to do it. So keep practicing and pop one in in 2011

The Dawn of a New Year, It's On the Horizon Yo

Well, here we are: Rattlesnake Rapids...That pretty much sums up the Great Summer of Ought 10.

Jaime and I purchased Lagoon season passes along with Hank and Kellee and we all rocked that place.

I was reading over some of our old posts, we've had some good times. But for some reason we stopped writing on this blog of blogs. So I will give a quick re-cap of the last six months that we've missed.

Chase: Still married (a modern day miracle, what with all the hair he has on his feet), still at BYU, and still not ever calling me on the phone just to chat. He did, however, achieve one of our society's markers of becoming a man: he shot his first deer! Booya. I shall be joining him, one day......
Lets see, what else....he took the shell off his truck for a brief while and I thought it looked great. More rugged, more truck-ish. But all that manliness was trumped by the fact that he still has butterfly and dragonfly seat covers from when aunt Jill used to drive that little guy. Haha, that still cracks me up just thinking about that.
There are probably loads of other things I should have mentioned, but those were the highlights.

Hank: That little cuss got married (it must be the Half Year of miracle for us). His lovely wife Kellee is a fireball from the Dirty South, and she is as sweet as sweet tea. I already mentioned the Lagoon passes so we'll move on from that. I don't think Hank got into any fender benders in his car yet, so that's a great step in the right direction.

Jeff: I feel like I'm watching TMZ every time I look at Jeff's Facebook page. Man that guy lives a rock and roll lifestyle. I'm not jealous, I love going to bed at 9 and watching tv on the weekends with Jaime playing Uno. Anyway, back to Jefe. I almost don't want to write anything about this guy cause he's done so much in the last six months that it wouldn't do his life justice, but I'll mention a few things. He is a wrestling coach at Skyline High School (traitor) and I hear his little fighters are kicking butt. He's working on a Masters in Education from USC, and for some reason, he still lives in some lame part of the Salt Lake Valley that I can't remember. He isn't dating anyone as of this publication, but who knows, the day isn't over yet (cross your fingers). Oh yeah, I almost forgot the most important thing, like Chase, Jeff has accomplished something that all American young adult men dream of, buying a motorcycle. Yes, it's a beauty. Ok, that does it for ole' Jefe.

Me: Well, to be honest, after writing about the highlights of my boys, I realized that I haven't done very much. But there are a few things worth mentioning. I'm still at the U, I'll graduate in about 6 months, and I can't wait. Air Traffic Control is waiting for me at the end of August in Anchorage and Jaime and I will be moving up there to take one more step to a career. It'll be wicked scary, but awesome at the same time. I think every married couple should move out of Utah for a little while, to get a taste of life outside the bubble, then come back and raise their kids. That's our plan at least. I finally convinced Jaime to let me buy a truck and I bought a real nice Chevy Avalanche that I named Night Fury, because of his devastating awesome-ness. Thats pretty much it.

I know this was a long post, but I'm glad you made it. You're such a good reader.

Happily Ever After...

Well I wish that I had the eloquence of Mac when writing.

One month of marriage under my belt, I am feeling pretty confident that I have it all worked out.  In fact I would say that it is easy breezy, smooth sailing from here on out! (as I say this you two are probably thinking HA!!!)  Marriage is going very well for me, we have been plugging away at situating ourselves in this new life and it is working out very good so far.  Funny thing happened to us oh about 3 weeks ago from today.  So for the first 3 weeks of our marriage we have not had a box spring, because whole box spring cannot fit into our apartment so and it would cost over $100 to get two small ones.  As a result of having no box we had our mattress on the floor, oh man I did not like that.  Anyway 3 weeks ago we bought from IKEA wood slats to hold up the mattress, the kicker is that they come in two  30'' parts that make up the full width.  All we had was a metal frame so we needed a middle support, luckily my dad gave us some 2x6 pieces of wood.  I was thinking to myself great this will be perfect.  It was Saturday night and we had no middle floor support but I was thinking 2 days really what could happen...
Saturday night was just perfect, the bed was off the floor and it was well supported.  Sunday night however, Jennifer was on the bed and I sat down and did a little hop scoot-ch over to her and CRACK the bed was folded in the middle.  The "what could happen" was scrolling though my head as we got off the bed to investigate.  The metal eyelet had broken in the middle and now it was like 11:00 pm Sunday and I was trying to think of what we could put under the bed to prop it up for the night.  Jennifer suggested that we get our old text books and other books, which we did and it worked, luckily.  The next day we bought a 4x6 piece of wood and now our bed is perfect.

Anyway Mac, that's a good name, I like it.
I am excited to hear that your motorcycle is working, that is great!  I will give you a call to see how it is.  Maybe we can go camping and you can just throw your gear in the truck and take that up.  We'll talk about it.

Mechanic is My Middle Name

So here's the dealio, I officially rocked the socks off my motorcycle this last week.

As many of you know, I traded my 1970 Volkswagen Bug for a 1976 Honda XL 350 motorbike. The motorcycle is basically a 34 year old brand new machine. It hardly has any miles on it, no real damage to the frame, the engine is pristine, and the list goes on. There was, however, one small hiccup in this almost perfect storm. The bike mysteriously stopped running after I drove it over to my dad's house.

Boom.

It shouldn't have come as a surprise though, because I have a long, and I mean long, and distinguished career of buying or inheriting vehicles that "mysteriously stop running after driving them to my dads house." This bike it seemed, was just another notch in my belt.

Alas.

My problems were about to be solved as mysteriously as they arrived. I was determined to reverse the curse as it were, and re-establish myself in the world of running vehicles. So I set to work on the motorcycle.

It soon became apparent that this obstacle was not going to be as formidable as I thought. It turned out that everything I learned from fixing up the bug could be applied to this bike. It was tantamount to a biblical miracle.

After an extensive diagnostic, I determined the culprit to be a lack of spark. I had fuel, I had air, but no spark. My combustion tetrahedron was incomplete. Having very little to draw on the ways of motorcycle mechanics, I did what I knew how. I removed, and cleaned the carburetor and put it back. Next, I dove into the electrical component of creating that life giving spark and spent a lot of time on line looking at wiring diagrams and reading threads on web sites. Eventually I came to the conclusion that my coil was bad, so I pulled one off a bike at the Motorcycle Boneyard and installed it.

No sparky.

With frustrations running through me, I asked Bill, the owner of the Boneyard what the problem could be. He said it was probably my points. If the gap was too large, the electrical current wouldn't generate enough voltage to ignite the fuel. Bill was right. My gap was twice what it should have been, so I spent several hours trying to solve that little dilemma. Eventually, I ran out of time, and energy and gave up. I had done the best I could, and exhausted all of my resources. It was time for professional help. I knew I was close. But in the world of points and condensers, close still means no spark.

I brought the bike home, parked it in dad's garage, and waited for payday to come so I could dish out the dough to some dude who would fix what I had messed up. Chances were high that the mechanic would be able to fix the bike in like point 5 seconds and laugh at me for being a moron. Needless to say, I was not thrilled.

Booya.

I guess all the bike needed was a little time, and a generous spray of starter fluid. Last night, my mom told me that Uncle Kim had not only started my bike, but drove it around for awhile and said how proud he was of the work I had done! I don't know how it happened, in fact, I'm pretty sure some house elves came in after I left and fixed my bike. But whether or not Dobby had anything to do with it, I'm grateful that the thing is up and running. Now I just have to think of a name for it......

Lightning Has Struck My Brain

What up hommies?

Here's the dealio, we're not longboarders. Let's face it, we just aren't. Yes it's true we HAVE longboards, and we RIDE them occasionally, but we're not REAL longboarders.

BUT, (and in my case, its a big butt) we could become longboarders. We just need to ride more, and be all around cooler.

Another way we could work it would be to create longboards. "But Mac, you're not thinking clearly, we tried that already and you broke the instant you stood on it."

I know, but that was before we had a name for our boards. But those days are over. I have a great idea for a name for out bidniss.

Lost Boys Longboards

Thats it, thats my idea for greatness.

Uno Montho

Well guys, it is down to one month. I am ready for the semester to end and for things to calm down a bit. We have got most everything planned, just a few last touches. I am excited, it will be nice to be done with it all. Anyway it's late, you guys should soon receive our invitations, they will be coming in the next week or two.

Homework

So Saturday, I sat down to do my math homework (remembering that I hardly understood a single thing on Friday's lecture) but as I read the first problem my resolve began to waver a bit. Just as I was about to write things down, I received a text from a guy in my class asking about our study group we are trying to start. He asked me if I had completed the assignment, I was so happy this guy was going to help me get through this assignment lickety split and then I could do other homework. So I said I was just starting it and that we should do it together. Well it was just after 3 pm when we met on campus and started this 6 problem assignment. Unfortunately he was just as lost as I was on this assignment, but we had two minds we should still get it done in a reasonable amount of time. WRONG! around 3 and a half hours later we "finish" the assignment, I say "finish" because we still didn't answer 3 parts of some of the problems. I couldn't believe that I had just spent 3 and a half hours on 6 stupid problems, and that was with 2 brains, if it had just been myself, tap on another hour or two. Homework isn't what it was for me, hopefully though it will get better and not take me so long, I can't imagine spending 3 hours a night on homework, I would have zero time for everything else. Anyway that is my rant. I'll write again soon.

Old Men Play Dominoes, Real Men Play Mexican Train

The other day I was down at Jeff's house in the ghetto of Salt Lake County. For reals, to get there, you have to drive by a huge wrecked car lot, a few used car lots, and three or four bail bond businesses. It was sketchy to say the least. But thats besides the point.

When I arrived, we played some X Box for a few minutes then decided to play dominoes. I guess Jeff had been playing recently and wanted to impress me by destroying me every match. Which happened, for approximately two games. After those two learning rounds by me, I wiped the table with him for the next eight straight rounds, after which he won one, and I won a couple more. The night ended in destruction all right, Jeff's! Ha!

When will he ever learn that old dudes play dominoes, and real men play Mexican Train? Ole!!

P.S. I cut my finger on his gay stool/chair thingy and it still hurts.

2K10

Ok, so I have to agree with Jeffers, this year is going to be epic.

Today is the first day of the first full week of 2010, and it started with a bang. I just got home from an 11 hour day at work, and it was great. I love being covered in jet fuel and military grade Windex. Anyway, I really am excited for this year.

I start my private pilot licensing in the next couple of weeks, and am really stoked for that. I've only been up once, but it was enough to addict me. I won't feed you any fake beans though, it was pretty scary at first. Flying a plane is unlike anything I've ever been exposed to. It's totally 3 dimensional, you can go up, down, sideways, and all over the place. But the fear was soon over taken by pure exhilaration when my instructor showed me how to perform a zero-gravity maneuver. Talk about awesomeness.

Lets see, school is going to be good this year too. I'm finally getting done with those classes full of 18 year olds, man I don't like 18 year olds. I know for a fact I was not like that when I was their age, but who knows? I'm loving my interpersonal communications major and am excited to take one more step toward graduation. Class of 2011 baby!!

After this semester, I may get deployed to the Middle East or maybe Turkey ( I don't think Turkey is in the Middle East). I say "may" because I don't know yet. It's a volunteer thing and I just don't know if I'm going to do it. Part of me really wants to go, to really do something for this country that has done so much for me. Also, I hear Afganistan is a great place, if you don't mind the extremists shooting at you and planting IED's on the side of the road hoping for your demise!
Hua! ( thats the same thing as Hooah for the Army, and Hurrah for the Marine Corp)

If all goes according to plan, I will submit my first application to become a fighter pilot for the Air Force. I'm applying for an A-10 pilot slot at the Idaho Air National Guard base in Boise. And hopefully they take pity on me and give me a chance. It usually takes a couple of years to get the job, so I'm really hoping to just learn more about the selection process for becomeing a pilot. It should prove to be a worthwhile endevor.

All right, I've bored you enough, suffice it to say that I'm ready and willing to face the challenges that lie ahead in this up and coming year.