We found a place

Hey all, So I know we don't have any readership anymore because of our lack of posts. We're rededicating ourselves to posting when we move to California, promise.

Just thought I'd drop a note on here: We found a place to live. When we get there and get settled, we can post some pictures, but we are in downtown Palo Alto, 1 mile from campus, 3 from the law school, in an old but nice 1 bedroom. Now to tie up the loose ends in Utah and move out. We have the place starting the first week of August, so we'll see how soon we can get out there and settle in.

Rob

Graduation!!!

So I did it! I graduated! Didn't think I'd make it sometimes, but it came. I didn't walk when I completed my undergraduate, and am now sad that I didn't. Though the ceremony can be long (especially at 8 in the morning), it was totally worth it! Here are some pictures of that wonderful day. Thanks to everyone for coming and supporting!

I Missed Our 6 Month Anniversary!

Crap...Sorry this is too weeks late.

I totally missed our 6 month anniversary of not posting to the blog! WooHoo....wait...this is a good anniversary right? Maybe it was a good thing that I forgot it.

Well, we're still too busy, but as of a week ago, we've been in a steep recession trend in our overall busy-ness index. I think we've lost 20-30% of our current value already, yikes! It's okay thought. Really, it is. We've got a good $100 mil TARP bailout coming in the form of my thesis defense, followed by a massive $4 trillion "omnibus" (I really thought that Hannity made that word up, the little jokester...then I found a dictionary. It turns out my vocabulary is just smaller than a pimple faced, voice-cracking, 9th grade delinquent) stimulus in the form of moving out of state. Of course this large stimulus is nothing more than a bundle of California field mice rolled up in one barrel (things like Rachel finding a job, finding a place to live, selling everything we own, finishing all the school projects, finding loans, etc). All these things are bound to put our busy-ness index back on track? RIGHT? Please tell me we'll be okay...that we'll be busy again...sooner rather than later? Good thing I've been putting every project possible on the backburner (aka food storage) just in case of an emergency like this one. I've got projects to sustain me through the NEXT busy-ness recession.

Well, I know times will be tough, but I think we'll make it through this recession. And who knows, maybe the "conservative underground" of busy-ness will throw enough "we'll die from socialism soon enough" at us that I'll be convinced to just be a free market hippie and go to the beach, or somewhere else nice, and relax. If Glenn Beck's War Room is any indication, things could get a lot worse...I could be forced to move to Hawaii and never be busy again (a busy-ness index of 0)....and get a tan!

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (a la Stephen Colbert)

For those of you who can't hear my voice when I write this....I love dry sarcasm. :-)

I think we may acually begin posting here again....soon.

Hope all is well!

Bryce the Builder

4th of July Traditions

The Family '08

Traditions can be good and they can be bad. Traditions of censorship like those at BYU are bad... I say that mainly just to poke those Y fans out there reading because it's rivalry week!

Side Note: I love this week. GO UTES!

Okay, back on topic. I love certain traditions we have. One in particular that I have a love-hate relationship with is the 4th of July family celebration. We all....ALL...head up to my Dad's cabin and set up a miniature city on the grass. This year, there were 3 motor homes, a couple tents, and a ton of cars/trucks. Once everyone is there, it's a barrage of fishing, four-wheeling, flaming 'mallows and fireworks. We take everyone out fishing, too many people in a little tin boat, and fish until the cows come home. I guess in this case it would be the fish, not cows. It was a slow year though since the powers that be in the DWR aren't the sharpest crayons in the box. That's a different issue. The town of Scofield (yes, there is an official town with a hall, a school, a store, a fire department and everything) hosts the Pleasant Valley Days, including a parade, a knick knack fair, a dance, a breakfast and everything. We participate every year in the parade. Each year lots of work goes into getting all the grandkids into a float somehow. The number of children now....exceedingly great thereof. Hence the love and hate. What a great time, but it's exhausting, and a state of barely controlled chaos!

This year it was grandpa's African animal safari. The kids wore those animal masks...lions and tigers and bears...oh my! Dad walked behind with the safari hat and a crop...I guess the whip would have been too much. It was great fun and the kids collect about 5 bags too much candy.

By the way, Mark has his Miss America wave for the parade down packed!

It's packed by the way. You'd think this would be a small affair with the town having a population of less than 100 officially, but no, you'd be wrong. This place is PACKED. It's actually really pretty in this setting and really laid back. That night, the greatest fireworks display you can find. Not just because they go all out and get the fireworks kits you'd see (like I did) at Taylorsville Dayzz and other events of it's size, but because they launch them from from the island in the middle of the lake. The mountains around the lake with all the cabins make for great stadium seating with nothing to block your view. Eye level with the fireworks and looking across a perfect mirror of a lake. My favorites are the extra loud ones...they echo around the valley. Prior to this show there is a boat "light" parade, which is rather entertaining because I'm pretty sure that everyone out there with christmas lights on their boats are nearly drunk and can barely see their own hand. But it snakes its way disjointedly around the lake and parks next to the island in the hopes of catching a flaming shard of firework.

What a great time. I was merely satisfied to stare at the completed roof that was such a process to install. Probably the best part of this year's festivites was the surpise arrival of my uncle Mark from Minnesota. He drove out with Barb and his granddaughter and pulled up to surprise everyone. I love my uncle Mark. I would call him my favorite, but I think that each one is so uniquely different that each is a favorite for some reason or another. Uncle Mark is favorite in the category of "Most Exactly Like John Candy in Uncle Buck." He taught me every dirty thing I know, threatened my life when I did stupid things and has to be one of the most fun guys to hang with ever. He's always been, and still is, the only person who calls me Rupert and gets away with it cleanly.

More to come. As for now I'm back to applications for Rach and I, research, and waiting for the next call from "God" (Uncle Mark) telling my wife to give me a swift kick in the butt and tell me it's holy intervention.

Creativity

I thought I'd post a simple update as well as pose a question. Seeing as the few who actually read our lethargic blog are immensely creative as well as some of the smartest people I know, I thought I'd pose this question:

When you have to generate it, how do you approach important writing? Do you have a process? Or is it seemingly closer to Andy Ludwig's, offensive coordinator for the Utes, process which apparently utilizes a blindfold, some darts, and a play list covered board?

I know how to write....well...mostly. I've never excelled in English classes, I guess that's why I didn't choose it as my major. Though I enjoy reading, and comprehend it, I'm slow at it. Grammar work, as well as a class sized discussion of 'what really lies inside the Heart of Darkness' was as good as NyQuil for me. Normally, when I sit and write, there is little process to it unless it's for work or for school. I have a template for engineering memos, I have a format for corporate license agreements and MTA's, but is there a proper way or process to write important, yet creatively driven and completely open-ended pieces?

The reason I posted this is I'm down to the final bullet I have to check off before a wave of my law school applications can be sent in - The Personal Statement (now is when you gasp and the dun dun dun occurs somewhere off set). It's a 2 page opportunity for an applicant to say whatever it is the admissions personnel can't glean from the rest of your application...which isn't much, by the way. The application consists of your LSAT score, your degree and cumulative undergraduate GPA, any other schooling you've completed, an extensive work history (all the way back to high school), and a one page resume that encompasses these jobs as well as any other achievements you can squeeze onto an 8x11 sheet of tree pulp while still making it readable. I've got some vague ideas I've generated for my personal statement, experiences I want to include, but is there a 'preferred' method of laying them out, tying them together and making the whole boat float, or shine? ..if you get my drift/horrible metaphor. As of now, I think I'm just goint to utilize my standard - an outline of sorts, but filling in the gaps is proving difficult.

As far as updates go, which I've thus far neglected, I'm proud to say we are alive and well...er...at least alive. I've spent this week fighting off a rather unique and bothersome virus. Rach has spent it rejoicing in the fact that 5.5 more weeks and she's out of the hardest semester she's come up against to date. I'm about 3/4 of the way done with the basic components of my applications, which will move the process to proofreading and submitting each one, and then completing a set of applications one at a time by completing all their supplemental forms. I have a list of 15 or so schools I'll be applying to. Rachel is getting her applications ready for 5 or so of my schools' PhD in Statistics/Biostatistics/Bioinformatics programs. She's incredibly busy. Otherwise, I'm neck deep in lab research, still trying to get my thesis writing moving faster, working at the technology commercialization office at the U, and I just picked up an LSAT tutor student who is getting ready for the December test. Elvis and Hanna are defiant teenagers (17 months old) who now sport their training collars all day long because they're pretty...not because I need to shock them through the window all day long because they are misbehaving ;).

I plan on posting more old updates for your entertainment as some time frees up, but I have a feeling that it's a date not prior to the date all my applications are complete.

Taylorsville Dayzz

Over the weekend prior to the 4th of July we had an interesting experience. We (mainly my mom and dad) set up a booth at Taylorsville Dayzz for my dad's orthodontic practice. It started earlier in the morning with a horse drawn buggy ride through the streets of T-Ville in the T-Ville parade. It was even complete with the full on parade wave coming from my dad. What's really interesting about this whole endevour wasn't the advertising component, but rather the amount of people that know my dad in the community. He's been practicing now for nigh on 40 years... yep... wow. His practice started in WVC just a few miles north on 2700 West. He graduated from Loyola Chigaco, moved home to Utah, leased office space and ortho equipment, and put a sign out front and an ad in the phonebook and waited for patients to stream through the door. Needless to say that stream didn't really start for...oh...about 3 years. SCARY! I can't believe he did that. Different times I guess. Long story short, he's now the largest practice on the west side of the Salt Lake valley and has treated multiple generations within families in the community. He has patients that come from out of state to see him...yes...even for regular checkup appointments. Sorry for the schpeel, I'm pretty proud of him though.

Anyone say Gerald Poulsen for Taylorsville Mayor? ha ha, kidding...but I bet he'd get quite a few votes just to stir things up a bit...I'd like to think he'd get more for governor than SuperDale...wow...can anyone else believe that he's running for governor? I'm lost...or will be if he draws (and he probably will) more than 2% of the votes given a margin of error of 2%.

Above is a picture of the booth set up, complete with a prize wheel...yep...they went all out! :) Also, a picture of my mom working the booth.

We stopped in to check things out just to make sure everything was good. What we found...people love our dogs! I think they're amazed by how small Hanna is for a german shepherd and how fluffy Elvis is. I also found it interesting that animal control was walking around checking registration tags on the dogs. Lucky for us both of ours are current, but we saw many a dogs get the boot from the city park. The only problem we had was ELVIS...he has a phobia...or problem. He hates, or more likely is terrified of, little dogs, especially weiner dogs. No idea why, but he has issues, major ones.

At the end, we tried to scramble out of the park prior to the firework show. We missed the exit by about 30 seconds and ended up sitting in the car in the middle of a large row of cars watching the fireworks. This makes for great fun with dogs... in case anyone didn't know, dogs and fireworks DON'T mix. So I spent 30 minutes with Hanna sitting on my lap whining with her heartbeat at lightning pace and able to be felt in my chest. Then, to add to the fun. A bunch of 4 wheel drives decided that they wanted to honk at us to move...even though we were in a line of cars in which car number one was a police car parked horizontally. They then jumped the curb and tried to drive past him and out...what great entertainment to see a bunch of "intelligent" young men with dates in the car get pulled over...still makes me laugh...hold on...ok, I'm done.

Everything went off without a hitch other than that and I think it was really beneficial.

Again, this was written while watching TV, so disregard the mistakes and incompletely formed ideas. One day, I'll post something worth reading that wasn't written with me using blogging as an excuse to watch sports...not that I really care, but I picked the Rays as my team (for no reason really, bandwagon mainly)...of course...they lost. I'm bad karma.

Goodnight!

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!