Batting Clean-Up

Wow, so Rachel took over the posting responsibilities there for bit since she will likely disappear for the next 4 months now that school started. I've been fighting the technology age old battle of PC versus Owner....and subsequently PC v. Owner's forehead....on the screen. Buy a mac people.....buy a mac. Speaking of which, we just bought Rach one out of necessity for her program and it's sure great to finally have 2 computers again, one of which runs like a champ.

I figured I'd bat a little clean up and fill in any gaps that we may have missed. So yes, the semester is running now at full steam for both of us, and we're grateful for it to be here, but sad that Summer is over. We did have a really good Summer, much better than the last one. Our goal was to PLAY, even if we did it the cheap-o student way. Last Summer that was the goal, but we ended up roofing my parents cabin for 3 months. The most difficult part was the very end, putting up a stove pipe that is 12 feet tall and weighs A LOT. Did I mention that this was to be done without damaging its shiny...soft....finish, without damaging the roof, while hanging off the roof that is too slippery (because it's metal and covered in dust from the road behind the cabin) to walk on...yep, we're pretty proud of it. We finished it finally this May.

What am I even more proud of? My official life decision not to become a metal roofer of A-frame cabins... :-)

What does all this roofing lead to when it's done? A wet Elvis...

and yes, you're right...German Shepherds really weren't meant to be wet (ugly Elvis), but we're sure not going to stop them!

We sold the Mark Twain finally! Yes, for those of you who don't know, let me recap a story for you:

• We got a boat for free from my Aunt (it was her late husband's), we helped her move, we found it on the side of the house.

• We rehabilitated it, fixed, polished, cleaned, painted, and tuned up all that was necessary to make it a great boat.

• We tested it out on Deer Creek to make sure that everything worked.

• We took it to a boat shop for work, who also gave it a clean bill of health.

• Family members took their children on it fishing.

• We finally got up for a big trip with it and my dad's boat to Lake Mead....and sank it...er...nearly sank it (sitting in the middle of a lake a mile from shore in 100 feet of water while water rushes in and is already at knee level).

• we saved it...after much stress and fast action, forklifted it at the lake to tow it home, then pulled it into pieces and put it up for sale.

So, now you are informed if you weren't previously. At any rate, we finally got it posted for sale in May, and the trailer and boat sold within hours....all we have left is the motor and controls, and it will be posted soon as well.

Well, there's the hole where the motor nearly fell off...no worries, we saved everything.

What Rachel failed to mention was that while she was making and writing tributes to new friends, I was in the background with my old friend. We'll post more about a trip to San Francisco later, but we hooked up with Doug and Mariah before they headed off for the bay. You can tell who the businessman is and who the lazy one is! We're so proud of Doug... ;-)

We like our friends!

Well, we went to Moab, as you've read from Rachel's posts. We had such a great time down there. I only wish I had figured out a way to get Rach a mountain bike so we could have done some biking. I think she would have been grateful for a nice bike ride as opposed to the trauma we put her through in the Jeeps.

So, we went saw Newspaper Rock, which is some really cool hierogliphs (petrogliphs?).

After elephant hill, there's a fun little section that is nice and narrow, I hope the following pictures can adequately show that. Keep in mind that Jeeps are rather narrow vehicles compared to trucks, Hummers, etc.

I like the scratches down the wall, apparently people try to fit trucks down here because they think that theirs is somehow more narrow than the other trucks that are called out as being too wide on the sign leading into this area. I wish I was there for that!

Of course, when it's 105 degrees outside, you look for shade wherever you can find it.

She ran out once I told her I went in looking for what was making that suspicious rattling noise...

And finally, we're on our way back down. This part is about 100 yards from the parking lot at the base of the hill...so it's the first and last thing you get to see on your trip. All in all, tons of fun, and worth every non-airconditioned minute.

So this is the last bit of Moab we'll make you deal with. I thought I'd throw in just because it's pretty, and we all like to look at pretty things, right?
I can't remember the exact name of this canyon, but I think it's something like 'The Boulevard' since it looks like a bunch of skyscraper buildings lined up. What's really cool is that you can see the different layers of formation on these sheer walls (of course that's a little too much nerd to expose in yourself, so only admire it secretly...I'll wait).

At the foot of Delicate Arch...

And finally, chillin on Main Street Moab with los padres. Yes, it had been a long day, and yes, that is my blue bandage of LSAT death on my knee. Note to all those still reading: do not put away roofing knives the night before one of most important tests of your life....you will accidentally slice your knee open and end up with stitches and a horrible reaction to the tetanus shot in the ER. All this took place in June.

Well, I think that I'll have to call it quits on this rambling soon. I must apologize for any spelling or simple grammatical mistakes, I'm working on some lab work at the same time, using blogging as a distraction during which I've convinced myself that I'm actually 'thinking' and therefore being productive.

I hope this rambling finds everyone doing well! Hopefully....more to come. Cross your fingers!

The Boat Show

So we've gotten a little backed up on posts recently due to midterms, projects and just overall disarray I think. So, despite the fact that the boat show was in February, I thought I'd post some pictures from it. It's an annual tradition for our family to head to all sorts of different expo extravaganzas! Weird I know, but the Friday night of nearly every "show" is considered college student date night, so we can get in for really cheap. This show was actually a little disappointing since they only brought the poor man's house boats....not even one of them had granite countertops! Can you believe that? ha ha. We actually could have bypassed like 90% of the show and not missed much. Like for instance....who buys a boat that is made 100% of diamond plate steel? Or, why would I still be interested in watching the wakeboard show when all the "pros" are out skiing (per the announcers comments since it had snowed a couple feet the day before) and instead watch who is likely his little brothers. By the way, the were definitely not pros, and sad as it may seem, there wasn't even any carnage... I know, I know, that shouldn't bring me happiness....tough!

We decided to find my mom a boat for kicks, and it turns out that she is only concerned with one thing....well, maybe two, but they're related.

1) Does it have a potty?
2) If so, can you actually fit in it to do your business?

You'd be suprised how many boats have number one, but neglect number two. Hence, Corey volunteered to be the ultimate tester.... makes me laugh just thinking about it.

Not only was there boats at the boat show, but there were attack dogs as well.....yes, I said attack dogs. Well, I typed it anyway, and then retyped it just for emphasis. So as random as it sounds, we had the privilege of watching a Belgian Malaneux (really sorry pooch about misspelling your breed), which happens to be the dog they use at the prison, nearly eat his trainer alive.

Maybe he just didn't approve of the dirty Jimmy Buffet Hawaiian shirt. I guess we'll never know.
We saw boats of all shapes and kinds, some with big bows and some with little bows. Some with pretty colors and some with PLAID.... what? Yes, and it's gotta be the most expensive boat there outside of a house boat. Plaid? Really? I know it has been in and out of fashion lately, but on the side of a boat? It never ceases to amaze me what "the industry" can convince people is good looking. It's got the Mastercraft name, so you can put whatever the heck on the side of it you want and people will eat it up. Lets not think about trying to sell a plaid boat 10 years from now....ah, but there's the secret. People who buy this boat don't own it for more than 3-4 years before they get a new one. On average they will use it for family outings 3-4 times per summer. So wow, 16 trips on the water....if only my cars could be traded out every 16 trips... Anyway, forget the fact that they have a HORRIBLE maintenance record, just like Range Rovers (I reference this because I saw one no more than one year old with 5 foot flames shooting out from the hood yesterday....again) and will cost you more than what people put into a house to buy and fix for 4 years. WOW, anyway, I love capitalism, truly, I do.

I took that picture so I could warn my loved ones away from the hype that is actually the Land Rover of boats. That wonderful status symbol that says 'I care more about appearances and a name than efficiency, reliability, and financial intelligence. But I have enough money, so what the hell?' ha ha, I joke, but really, it's the best way to confuse all around you as to how you got your money in the first place. Maybe they just do it for the joke?

In the end, we picked our boat of the show. Hands down it was the winner. So we took a picture in front of it to show it off. Well, and because when we remembered we wanted a picture we happened to be standing there. :-)

We had a newcomer to the group this year. Cindy, Rachel's younger sister, occasionally needs a break from her educational institution that turns out to drive thousands to anxiety attacks annually, BYU. So, she comes and stays with us for the weekend to get her fill of normal-dom (not a word I'm sure, but I'm working on getting a couple added to the dictionary) to set her on an even keel. She seemed to enjoy it, although I think it's more fun when you realize that we're there to hang out and see some cool things and collect as many books as possible, not to look at the price tags and actually contemplate buying them.

Anyway, I have a lot to again catch up on, so hopefully I'll get a couple more posts up soon. PS, If anyone knows how to do the little collage that the pictures can expand out of so that my blogs don't have to be 7.3 miles long, I'd love to know. Thanks!

A Whole New Mind

I thought that I would post some random things that I've been up to in short increments in order to increase the number of smaller posts we have as opposed to my more traditional 'once a month gigantic' post. So, the book that Rachel and I just finished reading is 'A Whole New Mind' written by Daniel Pink.

It's an interesting book, written on the premise that, although there still are careers in left-brained disciplines, with the advent of outsourcing and the overall evolution of the global marketplace, a new type of worker will find themselves successful. No longer is just engineering a good product good enough. Instead, products need to be continuously improving, customizable, and relative in order for them to maintain success. It does a good job of opening the right mind of those of us who are left brained (If you're organizationally based, numbers oriented, scientific and/or logical, that's you.....and me). At any rate, here is a link if you'd like to read an excerpt or a professional synopsis as opposed to mine.

http://www.danpink.com/aboutwnm.php
(The photo was also pulled from the same link...)

Overall, I liked it. It is extreme in a few instances and predictions, but the point of the book (I believe) is to pry open the mind of us left brained folk; therefore some extreme language is warranted. I've found it surprisingly applicable in my brief career of real world engineering experience. When I was at ATK, I found myself complaining about the higher ups and certain members of my surrounding cast because they held so fast to the archaic business model of slow and steady wins the race combined with a false belief that the status quo is fine because the numbers say so. What a gross waste of time in meetings, meaningless redundancy and illegitimate time frames existed there in my opinion.

PS.... It's everywhere in the engineering world.
PPS.... I wonder what the statistic is on how much time is wasted in corporate America annually? What does this equates to in dollars?

At any rate, this is surprisingly an easy read, and I did it in a week with my incredibly slow reading ability. He is a very good author in the fact that he writes in a very conversational tone as opposed to a formal tone so it makes for an enjoyable read.

Enjoy!

St. Patrick's Day

So I thought that this clip was pretty funny about the next major holiday coming up.... Saint Patty's Day. Absolutely classic.

jimmy fallon st.pat.

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ENJOY!

Ode to Valentine's Day

I love Jimmy Fallon.... If you need a short break, check this out....

Valentine Medly (SNL)

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