Synopsis of the U2 concert

Here is my synopsis of the U2 concert:

BEST-CONCERT-EVER.

'Nuff said.

I went with an old buddy from High School, Ben Stemmons, whose wife is 8 1/2 months pregnant. He had to leave halfway through. Poor bastard.

U2 Concert...Giddyup!

So I'm going to the U2 concert this weekend up in Salt Lake. I'm way stoked. Big U2 fan, BIG. Actually I've only been to about 5 big time concerts (you know, a big name band in a huge, sold out stadium) and 4 of them have been U2. The other was Paula Abdul when I was about 13, and I'd rather not talk about that...

Get this though, Kanye West is the opening act. The rapper. I want to know who books the opening acts for U2. Are they clueless? Are they purposefully trying to alienate an entire fan-base here? Pop-Mart had Rage Against the Machine. No offense to any Rage fans, but Rage sucks. I mean, who books these bands? I can just picture some clueless executive big-wig sitting down with the tour management team and having this conversation:

Executive Big-wig: Great, everything else is settled, we just need an opening act. Johnson! Who's big these days? Quick, give me someone!

Johnson, searching his mind frantically, then recalling the newspaper article he had read that morning about Kayne West ripping Bush a new one: Uh, how about Kayne West? He was on the front page of the paper today...

Exec: Kayne West? Never heard of him! What's he sing?

Johnson, trembling slightly: Uh, Rap, I think.

Exec: Rap huh? The kids love rap these days...All right, put him in! I'm off to Barbados.

I am a little interested in Kanye West, though, as I've heard some good things about him (he's brought class back into rap, etc.) And who can forget the Hurricane Katrina outburst, which scored him some points in my book (not necessarily for any of the views he expressed, but more for speaking his mind and for the stupefied look on Mike Myers's face), but I don't think we'll go out of our way to make it on time.

Anyways, U2 is the best, I'm way stoked, update when I get back. Peace out.

Doctor's Appointment #1

*Not an actual picture of our doctor.

Just had our first appointment with the Doc. She's great, I think we got a good one. Turns out we're about 10 weeks along, which is about 5 more than I thought. The Due Date is June 30th. I'm hoping it comes earlier and not later than that, as July 1st is our anniversary, July 3rd is Amy's B-day, and July 4th is July 4th.

Love trips to the hospital. First they give you an obnoxiously thick stack of forms to fill out that asks things like: "Have you or anyone in your family had a history of _____ (insert random disease)", "Do you have any food allergies", and "Have you had more than one sexual partner?" After filling this out you are psyched to get in and see the doctor, but instead you sit in a room with the assistant who asks such important questions as: "Have you or anyone in your family had a history of _____ (insert random disease)", "Do you have any food allergies", and "Have you had more than one sexual partner?" She then gives you a stack of literature, pamphlets, and advertisements, and leaves you to wait for the doctor. Finally the doctor comes in and asks such novel questions as: "Have you or anyone in your family had a history of _____ (insert random disease)", "Do you have any food allergies", and of course, "Have you had more than one sexual partner?" No kidding. That's seriously what happened. Apparently they're not allowed to read the form you just spent 20 minutes filling out. Probably a sanitary issue...

It was fun though. I'm way excited to be a dad. Probably more excited than Amy, but that's understandable in that I'm not the one who's uterus is doubling in size.

A Griswold family Christmas...

Check this website out- http://www.uglychristmaslights.com/.

The guy doesn't seem to like absurd amounts of Christmas decorations, but I think they're pretty cool. We're getting ours set up right now, I'll post a pic as soon as they're done. I've got a thing for the blue ones.

Turning the other cheek

Apparently a preacher in Oklahoma was in the middle of a sermon or something and some random guy just decked him. Here's the video:

http://kutv.com/topstories/local_story_327120803.html

The best part is when they show the guy's mugshot. Doesn't this guy look like the type of person who would just randomly assault a complete stranger? Doesn't he? I mean, if I saw that guy in a mall or something I would find a seat (at a safe distance) and watch, because you know it's just a matter of time before the fireworks start. Good for him (not for decking a preacher, but for being spontaneous).

Tree Huntin'

In Cedar we don't go out and buy Christmas trees like the city folk. No sir, we go Tree Huntin'. Tree Huntin' is when you buy a $5 tag from the city, drive out into the cold and treacherous mountains with nothing more than your bold spirit and a rusty saw and cut your own tree down, ala Clark W. Griswold. You then "tag" the tree, take it home and put it on display as though it were a stuffed bear.

Sorry about the bad pic. This is us with our friends the Sidwells after we bagged our wild tree. We got it from a camp ground, which I am pretty sure was illegal. Oh well, teach them to put better directions on that map of theirs.

It's official...

Two lines means baby.

Just got clearance from the committee to release this: We're prego. Well, really we're not, just my wife is, but it's a teamwork sort of thing you see.

I'm really excited. It's been a little tough as she's not always her usual cheerful self and spends considerable amounts of time praying to the porcelain god. As a guy I want to just make everything better. It's hard to be in a situation where you can't.

It's amazing to look at her and think, 'Wow, right now my wife is making a person. Have I done anything productive today?' I made a little snowman a couple days ago, but it's just not the same...

Our due date will probably be late July or early August, although if we follow recent familial trends we can expect it sometime in April.

St. George Triathlon

So I've decided to enter a triathlon. The St. George Triathlon takes place May 13th, 2006 at Sand Hollow State Park. Yessir, 700 meters of vigorous swimming immediately followed by 10 miles of mountain biking, 3.2 miles of running, and, from what I hear, 10 minutes of freestyle puking. Needless to say, I'm very excited and have been training for about a week and a half. This should be interesting for 3 reasons:

1. I despise running as a form of exercise;
2. I pretty much taught myself how to swim and therefore have no technique (my stroke of preference happens to be the "underwater torpedo", which I made up); and
3. Every time I've started training for a relatively large athletic event I inevitably get injured. Sprained ankles, bad knees, debilitating diarrhea, you name it. Well, maybe not diarrhea, but you get the picture.

The training schedule isn't half bad though. I was worried I would have to run 2-3 hours a day and start rinsing my cottage cheese (Sorro should get that reference), but really it's just about half hour a day. I can do that.

So of course I'm excited about it now, but the real test will be to see if I keep it up once the initial excitement wears off. Just like blogging...

Back Home...

Ahhh... It's good to be home again. This week was the end of Regional Meetings. Tuesday I was in Vegas and Wednesday was Phoenix. Here are some pics:

In Phoenix we stayed at the Arizona Golf Resort, a beast of a nice place full of sun, golf, and old people.

Here's the front of my room. A boring pic, I know.

Here's the backyard though, a nice green golf course.

More golf. Don't have any pics of Vegas, the place is no longer a novelty to me and I don't find it picture-worthy. If you're immensely disappointed about this and aching for some candid, high quality pics of Vegas (such as the ones of Phoenix I have displayed here), then you can visit the great state of Nevada's webpage. I'm not even going to bother getting you a link for that.

It's good to be back. I find I appreciate Cedar City a lot more when I leave it every once in a while. I also came home to some pretty big news, though it hasn't been cleared for publication on the blog yet. Here's a hint though: akachan.

I'm in Denver

Apparently La Quinta has had a problem with eggs exploding in the microwave and decapitating hapless customers. "We're warning you, do NOT microwave the egg for more than 10 seconds! You wanna see what happened to the last guy?!"

It's Friday morning. Last day of Regional Meetings (for this week anyway). I'm excited to get back home. I've had loads of fun, but this trip reminds me of the movie Groundhog Day-- go to meeting, give little spill on Employee Management, get on a plane, check into a random hotel, go eat dinner around 9:00PM, watch an NBA game, call my wife, sleep, alarm goes off around 7:00 AM playing festive mexican music that somehow gets incorporated into my dreams, eat semi-good continental breakfast, then start the cycle all over again. Don't get me wrong--this trip has been loads of fun, but I wouldn't want to do this anymore than once every 4 months or so. Consequently, I can't wait to get back home.

Here's a couple quick pics of Denver. As you can see Denver is actually about 200 miles away, which is curious considering our hotel is next to the Denver Airport. As far as I can tell the airport is actually located in Wyoming.

See that distant, white dot? That's the start of Denver. You can't see it very well in this pic, but the entire city is behind it, and the Rocky Mountains are behind that. I was wrong about Wyoming, I think we're actually in Nebraska.

Me in front of the fabulous La Quinta Inn, Denver Airport. Oddly enough our Salt Lake hotel was a La Quinta, and my room is almost identical to the one I had there, which only adds to the eerie Groundhog Day feeling.

It's a pity we're not closer to the city, I'm a big fan of Denver. Went to a U2 concert here with some buddies back in aught-1, one of the best road trips I've ever been on. I also have another brother that lives here, Gid, but I don't think we'll have time to meet up.

That's all. Next update will be from good old Cedar City! Peace Out.

Salt Lake City

Yesterday we were in Salt Lake. Got nothing to say about Salt Lake. Here's some cool pics from the plane though.

Here's the company plane. Not flying commercial is the best: No delays, no demonstration of how to buckle your seatbelt, no waiting 45 minutes in a security line and having to take half your clothes off.

I'm kind of bummed that this one didn't turn out better. This is the Dallas Mavericks private plane, owned by the benefactor Mark Cuban himself. Our plane pulled up and parked right next to it. They were in town to play the Jazz. Jazz won.

Here's the inside of the plane. It seats about 10 people. The woman giving the unsuspecting "oh crap, someone's about to take a picture" face is Joanne, our new HR Director.

I'm in Portland

Yep, that's pretty much what I thought this place would look like.

Last night we flew into Portland. I'm excited to be here, I've always wanted to see the Pacific Northwest (Oregon or Washington) and this has been my first chance. I guess I came to Oregon once when I was a little kid, but that doesn't count because all I probably cared about was whether or not my dad was going to buy me candy. Anyways, we got here around 7:30 PM and it was too dark to see anything, but the air was cool and it smelled like camping.

I also have a brother that lives here, Adam. I called him up and he met us at a steakhouse downtown. We don't see each other or talk very often, so it was really good to see him. He moved up here with some friends just to get a change of scenery.

That was last night. Now it is morning and I'm getting my first look at Portland. I went jogging, here's some pics:

Cool houses. For some reason this place reminds me of "The Goonies"

While in Portland, participants of Regional Meetings will stay at the fabulous Windgate Inn. Amenities include a workout room, heated indoor pool, full breakfast bar, and B.O. free rooms and sheets.

That's pretty much the most ducks I've ever seen at one time.

The Cord

See. Here's the cord I was talking about. You thought I was lying didn't you?

I'm excited it's here, that means I can update much more frequently.

I'm Still Here

Look! Seals! Reminds me of the frat days...

Haven't updated lately, we've been waiting for a cord to come in so we don't have to pay WalMart $4 every time we want out pictures. That's why I haven't been updating lately. The cord's here, so I'll update soon. I've even got a pic of it so you know I'm not lying...Anyways, good stuff to update on; a trip to San Fran, Idaho, Halloween, & more. Stay tuned!

Regional Meetings

So I just found out that I will be attending Regional Meetings for work. These happen once a year and give us the chance to meet with agency co-owners from all over the country. The first stop is Sacramento, from there we go to Portland, then to Salt Lake, then Denver. Next week is Vegas and then Phoenix. We have a company plane, so that should be good.

Honestly I'm a little bummed about going to this.

HR Conference

Tomorrow I am going to a conference up in Salt Lake for the Society of Human Resource Management, of which I am a memeber. We will discuss important and boring HR issues such as current employment law and strategic planning. I've got a lot to get finished before I go so I'm going to stop writing in my blog and get to it. Ready...go.

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

So I read this back in July but am just getting to post it now. It still hurts...

It is with a heavy heart that I write this review. What went wrong? Why this feeling of emptiness, disappointment, malcontent? Perhaps nothing could live up to the expectations I had for this book, an expectation caused by two years of eager anticipation. Reading it was like seeing the Cubs disintegrate after the Bartman debacle all over again.

I should make it known that I'm a huge Harry Potter fan (despite the constant urges it gives me to practice witchcraft and sorcery), I even wrote my own book 6 because I couldn't stand waiting for the real one. You can see it here if you want. I think that's the problem--I had thought about it so much that I had enormous expectations and was dissapointed when I saw how it turned out. I have more specific gripes about it, but I don't have the heart to go over them. They are here if you care to read them, post #44.

Anyways, HBP is a good book but it didn't do it for me. By all means check it out. Don't NOT read it because of my review. Me? I'm going to go get a new hobby.

I give it a 7/10.

The Weekend

This weekend we went to Sand Hollow State Park in Hurricane with some friends. None of us had ever been there, but we had heard it was fun so we went on faith. It was awesome--picturesque, not too hot, water not too cool, and me and Nick Sidwell went cliff-diving. I really shouldn't have, as I sprained my ankle on Labor Day and had fallen on some rocks on the way to Sand Hollow, cut open my hand and almost broke my thumb. Mmmmm....But I did it anyway. I love cliff jumping...

Sand Hollow reminded me a lot of Lake Powell, another one of my favorite spots in the world, except that it was much smaller, not as crowded, and the water was a much healthier color. I'll get some pic's up later.

Book Review: Post Captain

My latest read is Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian. Remember the movie Master and Commander with Russel Crowe? That was the film adaptation of 2 or 3 Patrick O'Brian books. There's 20 total (not counting #21, which was being written when O'Brian died) and they are very good reads. It's amazing--half the time I don't even know what's going on in the books as they are filled with nautical jargon (booms, pulleys, yards, top-gallants, royals, etc), yet somehow I'm enthralled with it all the same. At first this worried me, until my step-dad Jim (who is a big sailor himself and was the one who recommended the books to me in the first place) told me he doesn't understand most of it either.

The books take place in the early 19th century during the Napoleonic wars and center around the adventures of Captain Jack Aubrey and his surgeon friend Dr. Stephen Maturin. I don't feel like writing a summary, so go check the book out yourself. I'd recommend starting with Master and Commander first though.

I give it an 8/10.

I'm officially an old man.

Remember being a kid and hearing your parents and grandparents say, "When I was your age, gasoline only cost 25 cents a gallon!" and you realized that, perhaps 50 or 60 years in the future, you would be saying the same thing to a similarly ignorant and uninterested kid?
Well, that moment has come about 30 years early for me. The other day Amy and I were driving home from work when we passed a gas station posting $2.99 per gallon and I said, "Man, when I was in high school gas was only $1.10!" I then realized that by saying this I had unwittingly come one step closer to becoming an elderly man (at least in mind-set), as I already think teenagers today dress stupid, have despicable music, and are much more superficial and directionless than I was as at their age. All I need now is to hike up my trousers and get an indescribable urge to move to St. George...

Dancing

First there was the enigmatic All Your Base Are Belong to Us. Next came the hefty hillarity of the Star Wars kid. Then the Numa Numa dance came on the scene and revolutionalized the way we look at fat kids with a computer camera and too much time on their hands. Just when I thought the internet couldn't possibly provide another nugget of joy of this caliber, I come across Matt Harding's Dancing. Go see it.


Now here's a guy who has life figured out.

Trip to England

Our trip was actually back in July but I'm working on getting it up now. I should have a new one each day.

The weekend

This weekend we drove up to Salt Lake for a reunion with some of Amy's high school friends. She had a good time and I was happy for her. For me, on the other hand, the experience can best be described by this cartoon.

We also did a yard sale with my mum and looked at cars. The end.

Hiring Your Own Boss

Slowly trudging out of the swamp. I've brought on an assistant, a beast of a nice guy named Layne, and things are progressing nicely. We're almost on top of things. You ever notice how the people who are always going off about how busy they are usually waste large amounts of time telling people how busy they are--and not working? Well, I've realized that I'm one of them.

Anyways, one of the biggest jobs I'm working on is an HR Director. My job being part of the future HR department, I am in the unique and fascinating position of being able to choose my own boss. It's pretty fun.

Swamped.

Ouch. This has been a tough week. I'm working on about 12 jobs right now, not to mention turnover reports, exit interviews, and trying to set up a buddy at work on a blind date.

My job can get stressful at times. Usually when people call me up to fill a position they need someone right away, so if I don't find someone soon they tend to get a little...impatient. It's like they think they're ordering a pizza or something: "Ok, we'd like a commercial lines csr with 10 years experience and extra people skills. Put a college degree on that. No olives. You'll deliver in 30 minutes, right?"

I'm bringing on an assistant soon, so that'll help out. For now though I'm stressing.

Repentance

I've been a horrible blogger. Entire months have passed without a post. I've had pictures ready for weeks and haven't put them up because I'm too busy reading espn.com or playing games. I've been a bad person and a paltry excuse for a blogger.

Whew. That feels much better. The first step of repenting is confession, so thanks for allowing me to get that off my chest. Seriously though, I'll do better from now on. If I haven't posted at least once a week please send me hate mail until I update. I don't want this to end up like Derek's blog...

July 15- Westminster, the London Eye, and sleep.

So after a lengthy flight, an hour and a half in the passport line, and a quick train ride (that cost us $40), we arrive at Victoria station in downtown London. I can't tell you how excited I was. I just about flipped out when I realized we were riding over the Thames. I've been a fan of English Lit for some time, so for me coming to England is like a kid who loves Peter Pan finding himself on a trip to Never-Never Land. The accents, the double-decker buses, the quaint country side, it's all magic to me.

After a quick ride on the Underground we arrived at Baker Street Station. A 5 minute walk takes us past the fictional home of Sherlock Homes and Madame Tussauds wax museum and we arrive at Regent's College, our home for the next 2 weeks. Just a few minutes before arriving it started raining, a pleasant, light, Hawaiin-type mist. By the time we reached the college it was much harder, and we walked into the reception area completely wet, as illustrated in the adjoining picture. The man you see is Doug, an English professor in Colorado and one heck of a nice man.

I got to tell you, these Brits love their parks. Regent's College is placed, quite appropriately, in the middle of Regent's Park, an enormous stretch of open land that seems out of place in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world. Sure it's not uncommon for a city to have a gigantic park--New York has Central Park and Tokyo has Yoyogi Koen--but London has Regent's Park, Hyde Park, and Green Park all within a short distance.

One thing that immediately stood out to me was the diversity of London. I've never seen such a variety of people and cultures together. British, American, Middle-Easterners, Indians (you know, from India), Muslims with their head shawls, French, Germans, and other Europeans, you name it. It's awesome to see so many different people together.

Running on 4 hours of crappy airplane sleep, we then made our way to Westminster station for the London Eye, a giant ferris wheel that overlooks all of London. I guess "ferris wheel" isn't the right term, they call it a "Millenium observation wheel" because it sounds more sophisticated. Kind of like garbage men wanting to be called "Sanitation Engineers" or Hogi Yogi employees being called "Sandwich Artists". Anyways, here's some pics.

This is one of the compartments. They can fit about 30 people I think. Here's a group shot. I think this compartment may have been bigger than mine and Amy's first apartment...

View of Big Ben, Parliament, Thames.

Us.

This thing is GINORMOUS!

We spent most of the day in a stupor brought on from jet-lag and lack of sleep but were told to stay up as late as possible or it would mess up our schedule. Amy and I made a goal to stay up until 7:00. We made it to 6:30.

June 29th- Traveling

We left Cedar City around 3:30 in the morning and took a school van to Vegas. From there it was a 4 hour flight to Cincinnatti, a three hour layover, then another 10 hours to Gatwick airport south of London.

Long flights have never really bothered me and it wasn't too bad. I think Amy got a little bored though, as evidenced by this picture she took.

The in-flight movie from Las Vegas to Cincinnatti was Robots. The in-flight movies from Cincinnatti to London were Hitch and Robots. And sure enough, the in-flight movie coming back from London was...Robots. Not a bad movie, at least not the first time...

My new most favorite website

This is my new favorite website. At first it's just kind of weird, but after a while it grows on you (not unlike sushi, Napolean Dynamite, and George Costanza.) Check it out! Homestarrunner.com.

Thanks be to Mike Brady for telling me about it.

Another Conference!

I just got back from another conference. This one was for a sales program called Integrity Selling that we're introducing the producers to. It's a great program, heck, it even had me excited to sell insurance. Just for a bit. Not anymore. I'm too happy with my salaried, sit behind a desk and interview people job. It takes a special kind of person to be in sales, and I'm just not that special.

Anyways, the trip was really fun. We stayed at a place called Tuscany Suites, which was the ideal Las Vegas location: sunny, nice hotel, cool tropical landscaping, and far enough from the Strip that you're not racked with the usual disdain for mankind that typically accompanies a trip to Las Vegas. Sweet pool too.

I also got to see my brother Gabe and his girlfriend Shea, who have recently moved to Vegas. We don't see each other often so that was quite enjoyable.

RANT- Taking your anger out on the counter-lady

As I was sitting in my aforementioned stupor at the Las Vegas airport, I heard a ruckus at the gate next to me. This beautiful pic is of a man yelling at the Delta lady unfortunately stationed at said gate. Either his luggage got lost, his flight delayed, or, most probably, he is not happy with what he has become in life and is jumps at any opportunity to vent it on someone. You've seen people like this: chewing out waitresses at Denny's, swearing at little league umpires, raging at airport desk clerks. As if somehow it's that person's fault your steak is undercooked, your kid is an uncoordinated gimp, or they can alter the weather if you yell at them long enough.

Sometimes it's hard not to, I guess--like when your flight gets delayed, you're angry, there's no one else to vent it on and you know the poor desk person has to sit there and take your crap--but seriously, what good does it do? All it does is ruin someone else's day.

Anyways, I never heard this guy's reason, but he was really socking it to the poor Delta lady. Just before this picture was taken I heard him say, "I AM NOT DRUNK!!" in a defensive, angry tone that told you he probably was drunk. I apologize for the bad picture quality, but I had to turn the flash off for fear I would become the next target for his malcontent.

Flight Delay

So my flight was supposed to leave today after work. I am told that there is a delay and I will not be able to make my connection in Salt Lake (note to all travelers: expedia.com sucks). My first impulse is to take my frustrations out on the poor lady behind the counter (as is customary in our society, see following RANT), but I somehow manage to harness my anger and instead use it to think up other ways of getting to Boise by 7:00AM in the morning.

Turns out my only other option is to drive to St. George (45 min. away), catch the Las Vegas shuttle (3 hours away), and catch a midnight flight from Vegas to Boise and arive just in time for 31/2 hours of sleep before attending the career fair. Having no choice, I commondere a company car, the sporty Intrepid, and make my way to St. George.

This is a pick I got of myself at the Vegas airport (it has been dramatized to give you the full effect of how I am feeling on the inside).

Boise Trip

So I get to go to Boise tomorrow for a Career Fair at Boise State. I'm way excited; trips are just about the only time I get to eat out and watch sports on TV. Also I love to travel and it's been a while. I'm supposed to fly out of Cedar City after work tomorrow. I'll post some pics when I get back. Peace OUT.

Newspaper

Check it out. We made the front page of the Spectrum doing a career fair at SUU. That's my head in the background. The guy in front is Steve, a beast of a nice guy and one of our interns.

This article was on the front page. Must have been a slow news day in southern Utah...

Book Review: Hard Times by Charles Dickens

Just finished Hard Times. I'll post a review later.

Book Review: Lemony Snicket

Amy and I saw Lemony Snicket at at the dollar theatre the other day. It was pretty good, so I thought I'd check out the book too. It's written for children and although I've heard really good things about it I thought is was rather dull. Knowing everything that happens because you've just seen the movie will do that to a book though. Same thing happened with Harry Potter.

I thought afterwards I'd read book 4, as I heard the movie encompasses books 1-3, but I just haven't been able to bring myself to do it yet. The series has kind of a fun twist, in that none of the books are supposed to be happy. I'd recommend it to anyone who either 1) likes children's lit or 2) is an aspiring Goth.


Bonus: If anyone out there can tell me what the whole spyglass thing in the movie was about, I'd love to know.

President's Day

So I had a weird dream last night. George W. Bush had just won re-election and about a dozen or so members of congress were throwing a big celebration-party. Only this wasn't your usual champane and tuxedos, Dick Cheney rambling on party, oh no. This was more like a executive-branch-breaks-meets-frat party- party.

Our noble legislators were wearing characature masks of the president while singing, dancing, and swinging a giant effigy of dubbya himself on a huge pulley over a cheering crowd. It was pure pandemonium, reminded me of the Pistons-Pacers bru ha ha back in aught-4.

Apparently Dubbya was also thinking of said bru ha ha, because he came running out of nowhere and told everybody "bring it down a notch". The senators gave a collective "AAWWWWWWWWW", just like a bunch of girls at a slumber party who are told to go to bed. The party subsided until three or four crowd members ran up to the stage and started ska dancing, and Dubbya had to lay the smack down.

Then my alarm went off and I woke up, got out of bed, and realized that it's President's Day.

A coincidence that I would have this very dream on this very day? I think not! Most likely it was some sort of sign, a foreshadowing of the not too distant future. Just remember, when someday you see footage on CNN of congress dissolved into an orgy of violence: you heard it here first.

Then Amy and I drove down to beautiful St. George, about 50 miles away. St. George is a city of old retired people and Californians attempting to flee the heat, drought, and over-population of their home state by moving to a hot, dry, and overpolulated city in another state.

Had an enjoyable day in St. George; went to the temple, jump-started a car, and bought a furnace igniter. I then came home and fixed our furnace, and am quite proud of myself for doing so without being consumed in a giant fire-ball.

Our House

Here's the house. We live in a wonderful small town. I was dissapointed in the size at first, but now I love it. No traffic, no pollution, large enough to keep you entertained, but small enough to be comfortable. It's also great if you love outdoors stuff--plenty of places for mountainbiking, rock-climbing, hiking, camping, etc. Then there's the Shakespearean Festival, great if you're a theatre buff.

My Job

I work as a recruiter for a large insurance brokerage. Never thought I'd work for an insurance company--in fact if my 8 year-old self found out that this is what his future job would be instead of making video games, I'm sure he'd be disgusted. Not that it's any of his business, anyway. Little brat.

Anyways, I really like my job. Basically whenever my company needs to hire someone they tell me and I set up job postings, interview applicants, administer assessments (apparently it is not PC to give someone a "test", it must be an "assessment"), make recommendations, then call up everyone who didn't get hired and break the news to them. It's all pretty fun, except for the last part. I've worked on accountants, graphic artists, salespeople, customer service reps, bookkeepers, secretaries, bank officers; all different kinds of jobs. It's a fun job but not as easy as you would think.

The funniest part is that I'm a 26 year old just out of college interviewing people almost twice my age...and I make them nervous. Weird, huh? I never thought of myself as particularly intimidating, but apparently being percieved as the man who holds the key to their financial future makes me a little scarier.

I love my company and the people I work with. They pay well too, though it's the type of place you stay at for the people. Sometimes I go to career fairs across the country and I occasionally travel, but most of my days are spent at a computer looking over resumes and doing interviews. I've been working here a year and have got some good stories already, but unfortunately I'm not allowed to share most of them.

Here's a pic of my office, though it's subject to change at a moments notice (my third office in a year).

The Fam

This is my wife Amy. We have a lot of fun together; she's spunky, adventurous, and quite possibly the most adorable person on the planet. Serious.

We've been married about 2 years now. It goes pretty quick- 2 years is an entire mission. We both look pretty young for our age; I'm 26 and she's 25, but most people think we're just out of high school. I think it's pretty amusing and like to have fun with it, but it annoys her.

No kids yet, though when we get together with a large group of people it's fun to casually say something like: "Here, take these potatoes honey, you are eating for two now," or "Hey, should we tell them?" and wait for the awkward silence that inevitably follows. I know, I know--it's a cheap, weak joke. I think my mom just about had a coronary the first time I did it, though she's wised up by now.