Mud Volleyball

Mud Volleyball

For FHE tonight we decided to play volleyball at Jared & Jake Taylor's house. With the sprinkler on. For a very long time. Only, there wasn't a lot of volleyball being played because things soon deteriorated into mud wrestling. Which was fine for most people. Although it did take me an hour in the shower to get clean. And I keep finding bits of mud in the strangest places...

• Pictures
• Video (29:02)

Posted 11:05 PM | Comments (2)

Pictures of Friends

At Spring Training in Phoenix, 2003

I've started a photo album of friends and acquaintances I've had through the years. It's kind of a tough project because I have to do a lot of scanning to get some of my older friends (i.e. anybody I haven't taken a picture of since I got my digital camera at the end of last year) into the album.

If you're not in here, either send me something, or be patient as I'll update this album when I get a chance to sit down with a scanner for a while.

Click here to see the pictures.

Original Post: August 12, 2003 (16:09 MST) · Updated: September 11, 2005 (16:00 MST) | Comments (1)

Pictures of Family

Rees Siblings, 2000

This is my family. The Rees family. Otherwise known as "Reeses pieces." Two brothers (in addition to me). Three sisters. A mom and dad. Grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles. Sprinkle in a few in-laws and significant others, and you've got us all.

Just by the way of apology, I'm still missing a lot of the extended family. I'll get to that soon.

Click here to see the pictures.

Posted 11:56 PM | Comments (1)

The Karl Album

Karl Thomas Rees

So you want to know what I look like, eh? Well, I can't blame you. So I've created the "Karl album" just for you. All me. All the time. Over 30 pictures of yours truly, spanning almost 10 years. Go ahead. Collect 'em. Trade 'em with your friends. Print 'em out and put them in your wallett. Stare at them for endless hours. I mean, who can blame you? :)

Click here to see the pictures.

Posted 12:18 AM | Comments (2)

Capsule Summaries of the Last Month

Well, I don't have time to backtrack and write journal entries for the last month, so I'm just going to do little capsules of significant events (that I can remember).

July 8th - My Birthday

July 9th - Went to BYU CS Alumni Picnic with Lori (just called as R.S. Pres), had cake afterwards, played bball at the church

July 11th - Bought an exercise bike from Sears, rearranged basement, had an "argument" wih Chris and Katie about the significance of originality (inspired by U2's most recent album and the lack thereof).

July 12th - long good day of playing ultimate, watched saving private Ryan in outdoor theater with Mike and Lori and others

July 13th - Interviewed for calling with Brother Meredith; thought I was going to be activiies chair, but got call from stake that night

July 14th - called as EQ president--now how on Earth am I going to do that. FHE at park, live band, went to Jerry's for burgers and ice cream.

July 15th - Chose Counsellors (Kebin & Saia) / Has anyone seen my PDA?

July 19th - Strawberry campout, saw Scarlet Pimpernell at Hale Center with Lori, great show

July 20th - First day as EQ president

July 23rd - Had our first presidency meeting at Brick Oven.

July 24th - My first Pioneer day ever in Utah. Played Frisbee. Saw fireworks with Erin & Company. Movie afterwards on the big screen downstairs.

July 25th - Kristen takes me to airport. D.C. Pick up car. Hang with family, Becky's friends.

July 26th - Becky and Wayne's wedding. Reception at Greek restaraunt.

August 2nd - Shakespearean festival with Mike, Tonya, and a girl named Angela (roommates with Leah); cute but quiet—would like to get to know her better. Watched Much Ado, Measure for Measure. Mike and I danced on stage.

August 3rd - Gave first Elder's Quorum lesson, bore testimony, sold PDA wi-fi card (Dell) on ebay (first ebay selling experience) and got one that works (Linksys).

August 4th - Played mud volleyball.

August 9th - Schlitterbahn with Laura. Went to South Fork Park with group from ward.

August 10th - Pot luck dinner at our place.

August 11th - Went to dentist. FHE.

August 13th - Ward temple night. First time going on one of those in a long time (funny what a calling motivates you to do).

Posted 02:09 AM | Comments (1)

Hobble Creek Campout

Saia with his Harmonica around the campfire

This weekend, the BYU 229th ward Elder's Quorum went camping up at Hobble Creek. Thanks to Saia, lots of steaks were eaten. And a good time was had by all.

• Pictures
• Video (8:47)

Posted 04:55 PM | Comments (1)

How I met a Guy Named Roger at Temple Square (and other stories)

Just by way of technical details—I've decided to rededicate myself to daily entries today—no more going weeks without writing and playing catchup. We'll see how this goes.

First off, let's review Friday's Elder's Quorum campout at Balsam Campground in Hobble Creek. Well actually, let's just briefly mention that I spent a lot of time at work getting the pictures converted to TIFF format, as well as figuring out how to do photo log entries on my website, the latter of which activity I know I shouldn't be doing, especially with 6.0 pressure. But anyways, I got off around 4:30 to get packed for the campout, which went okay—we had ten people at night, and six left in the morning. Saia drove with a big camper in the bed of his truck. It was actually a pretty cool setup, with a kitchen and a bed and a generator and anything you could possibly need for a campout. I think the weather scared a lot of people away though (like Mike Davis, the wimp). It thunderstormed all afternoon and even set the mountain just north of the "Y" on fire. But honestly, it was great weather for the campout. It was a bit wet when we got there, but we had no rain. And it was a bit chilly at night, but that was refreshing. The steaks from Saia's family's cow were great and plentiful. Most of us had two steaks, one plain and one in our tin foil dinner. Participants in the activity included me, Saia, Jacob Hiatt (who had to leave Friday night), Junior, Roger Pack, Spencer and Phillip Bingham, Jan Phillips (a guy from the neighborhood, just barely got back from his mission), and Trevor and Dan (who also had to leave). I was really hoping for more, but it was a good experience. We watched "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" on my projector. When that ended, it was about 1:00 AM, and we all retired to Mike Davis' huge tent for the night. The only bad thing about that was Saia really snores loudly and him and the rough ground kept me up all night. At about 5:00 in the morning, I took a little walk outside. It was a beautiful night. A full moon, plenty of stars. Quite beautiful. After that, I finally managed to get some decent sleep until about 8:00. Then, we made breakfast—breakfast tacos, with tons of bacon. It was some good stuff, let me tell you. And unlike our last campout, I did most of the cooking. We definitely had too much food, though. After that, Saia informed us he had to get back to Provo because work had called him in urgently. Which kind of sucks, because with only two cars and six people, that pretty much ended the campout before noon. But all in all it was a good time.

After the campout, I tried to play Ultimate, but as soon as I got there, everyone left. I got to throw a little while with Kristie and a couple of other people. Worked on my backhand. Which is really sucking now. I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with my mechanics, because the high release and the outside-in stuff is going okay, but everything else backhand is a crapshoot. So I'm adding an air-bounce to repertoire as well as figuring out what's wrong with the rest of my backhand throws. Anyways, it's kind of frustrating, and I hope I get it worked out before the season starts.

I went out with Heidi tonight. We drove up to Salt Lake. When we finally got there (really bad traffic), we ate at the Blue Plate restaurant, a small but kind of eclectic American place, that is most famous for its breakfast. I found it on the AADining list, and there were some other good reviews on the Net about it. I got a Caesar Salmon Salad. The restaurant took a while. So we were late to Temple Square, where we were going to see a concert in the Assembly Hall.

But the funny thing was that on our way into Temple Square, Heidi started talking to a couple of sister missionaries. At first, they kind of ignored us because we were in the plaza north of the Temple and I guess they aren't allowed to proselyte there. Plus, with the way Heidi said hello, I could see them thinking "oh no, anti-Mormons." No, it's not like a mean hello. It's like a "hello" that seems almost too nice to be anything but mocking or patronizing. But then we got into the square and it became clear that we were nothing of the sort, and we ended up talking to the missionaries for like ten minutes. One was from Connecticut, and the other was from Stuttgart. Naturally, they tried to commit us to refer a friend. Heidi gave them her number, but I didn't.

By the time we got to the concert, it was about 7:55. We had to wait for a pause in the concert, so I went to use the restroom. When I got back, Heidi had met just about everyone in the crowd. There was a couple from Aruba. Someone from Ottawa. She found a seat right next to this old guy who she throughout the entire concert was from Iowa. They even had conversations about Iowa and stuff. Except he said Ireland, not Iowa. Anyways, more on this guy later. The concert itself was pretty good. Basically, it alternated between a performance by a Soprano, accompanied by a pianist, alternating with several pieces from violinist and a cellist. I enjoyed the violinist more than the singing, but it was still pretty good.

After the concert, first of all the Soprano did an unusual thing for an Assembly Hall concert and thanked everyone and their dog for helping her to get to this point. Everyone performing in the concert seemed to be family (the violinists were 3 sisters, the youngest of whom was 12), and I wonder if this was for her, at least, a first performance. Then we got trapped in a conversation by Irish guy we were sitting next to. I was hoping on getting over to see Testaments, but we couldn't escape. Heidi kept looking over at me, I think asking me to find some way out of the conversation, but I was like, "You started it. See, this is what you get sometimes when you meet random people." Besides, I was kind of enjoying it. He was a character. He spent his entire time rambling on about his agenda that America is headed gutter because of rock-and-roll and rap and a total lack of culture, and that everyone needs to keep learning; needs to be open-minded. I mean, it's a great agenda, but he went on forever about it. He was 70, his name was Roger, and I think he really enjoyed having people to talk to. He had a notebook in his pocket and a number of pens, which made me wonder if he was writer, but now I see it's more just for "scholarly" notes. He also had a lot of knowledge about weird things. Like the Holy Grail. Apparently, there's this mind-blowing book out there about the Holy Grail. And he kept telling us other things we should study, all of which bordered on the occult, so he qualified them: "Don't believe anything you read, but read them. It really makes you think. You should always have an open mind." I think my favorite thing about him was his enthusiasm. I hope I have that much enthusiasm when I'm that old. Not about the same things, necessarily, but learning for sure. I also think I'm going to use him as a character someday in a poem or story. Except, I'm having trouble reducing him to a stereotype, and I'm not sure I could get inside his head enough to be a main character.

We headed back to Provo and went to Leatherby's. When I came back home at 11:00, Kristen and Tonya Blake were there. Mike was supposed to have put together a party, but he decided to go buy a new car (a Saturn Ion) instead, so that's all of a party there was. So we sat around and talked until about midnight, when we went over to see Jillene who is moving (sort of) tomorrow and didn't even tell me. That makes me kind of sad. We gave her some pizza, said goodbye, came home, and I slept.

This morning I slept in way too long. Elder's Quorum Presidency Meeting was at 11:00, and I thought surely I'd wake up by then. Well, I woke up at 10:30, and was very surprised it was so late. But I got to the meeting on time. The whole presidency was there, as well as Brother Wood and Roger Pack. We've designated the third Sunday as the day our committee chairs should participate in the meeting, and I was a little disappointed by the lack of turnout. But the formula of the meeting—discussing the various committees—worked well. Then we had ward council again, except none of the committee chairs showed up then either. I guess last week's meeting threw everyone off, and no one called to send reminders. That ended like at 1:22, so I drove home, grabbed some crackers and cheese, drove back, ate the cheese and crackers in front of the building (which is a great way to meet people as they come in) and got into the chapel at 1:35, right as they were starting. It was a short sacrament meeting. Liz talked at the beginning—sort of a farewell talk. But her talk was short. Spencer did a musical number. The next speaker went short. And Brother Beck had to talk for about 15 minutes to fill space. Sunday School was like an hour, which is very unusual. I mean, I got all of my business taken care of and there was still time for me to sit in for half an hour of class. That's the first time I've had time for class in a month. Paul gave the lesson for Elder's Quorum again. We had kind of left it up in the air who was supposed to teach this week, so I'm glad he was ready. We shouldn't have the problem again, fortunately. Shane has agreed to be another instructor, and we won't need a third instructor until September. And then we had PPIs afterwards.

After church, I headed immediately over to Becky's and Wayne's. It was Wayne's birthday. Their house is starting to look pretty clean. The couch fits in nicely. And their table is much bigger than I thought it was. They had it all set up nice with a tablecloth and China and stuff. Some of Wayne's friends came over: couple (Jon and Faith), along with a recently separated girl named Coby and her mother. We had pot roast. It was pretty good. We also watched Oscar, which was pretty hilarious, I have to admit. And then we had cake and ice cream.

By then, it was time for ward prayer and I headed back to the church. We had ward prayer outside. Mike announced "ward bonding" over at our place. We had a lot of people over, almost all of them from the 229th ward. That's a first.

Posted 11:58 PM | Comments (1)

Dead Batteries and Roman Holidays

I woke up pretty late this morning. Again. Mostly because I was writing last night's journal entry for so long. I don't know about doing this daily thing. So many unnecessary details creep up into the entry, and it takes forever. Well, I'll keep trying. Anyways, I stopped by the church to drop off Brother Meredith's notebook, which I had accidentally taken with me as I got out of his car last night (he gave us a ride back to my place). And I left my car lights on, and I guess my battery had already been pretty drained from leaving my PDA plugged in all Saturday, so there wasn't enough juice to get it started. So I had to go home and call up Becky and Wayne, who came over to help. But they wanted to use my computer and pick up their wedding cake and whatever, so by the time got the car jumped and I got into work, it was noon. I grabbed a couple of Big Macs on the way in and that was lunch.

Then I did a little bit of work before heading off to Sharolyn's for FHE. It was a good FHE. Heidi gave the lesson, and the activity was that silly "ask a question, fold the sheet, and pass it on to someone else" game, where everything gets random and absurd. Afterwards, we all went to the old time movie being shown in Provo Park: Heidi, myself, Mike, Dan, and Angela. We stopped and got some Gandalfo's for dinner. The movie was "Roman Holiday," which I've really been wanting to see for a while. I almost saw it with Kristen a while back, but we went with "Tea with Mussolini" instead. We sort of watched the movie, sort of played pranks the entire time. Then Mike had to leave for work, and Heidi decided that she better get some sleep for work, too, so they went home. Then Dan left, leaving Angela and I. She decided she needed to get to bed about 10:30, before the movie ended, so we walked back to Heidi's house and dropped off the blankets. And then I took Angela home. She's a great girl. A little shy, but becoming less so as I get to know her. And then I came home and watched a little TV and worked on this.

Posted 11:33 PM | Comments (1)

Just another day

I picked Heidi up at 12:00 from Convergys (building Q--she just started working there today) and we went to the Hard Disk Café for lunch. Apparently the Hard Disk Café has franchised out, to Gandalfo's primarily, but also Lone Star Café (a hamburger joint) and an Italian joint. It's a pretty good idea, if you ask me. We both got burgers and ate outside.

I chatted with mom at some point in the work day. Cupcake's pretty sick. She's 14 years old. So it may be her time. They also got a new car. Actually, a 2001 something or other. She's pretty happy about it.

Then I went to play Frisbee. The game didn't get started till really late, and we played a short field because everything else was occupied. So it was a pretty casual game. Laura was there. I haven't seen her in a while. I grabbed a Freezi on the way home. Took a shower. Liz called about 10:15 and asked if I could help her figure out her wireless internet card. So she came over and we took care of it. And that's pretty much my night.

Posted 10:38 PM | Comments (1)

I like sand volleyball

Work was pretty boring today. I'm getting rid of the concept different types of maps, and instead presenting maps as containing up to two types of data elements. It'll reduce a lot of redundant instructions. And it only seems like the natural thing to do after Gary converted all of the maps to combo maps. We played volleyball most of the night at the Haws house, and I kind of sucked. I'm just going to pass this off as being out of practice. Then we played basketball for a half an hour in the dark. And I was barefoot. So it's obvious that didn't go so well. Mike and Heidi and I watched Golden Girls after that. After that I grabbed some Nuggets and Chili form Wendy's and watched the Giants beat Atlanta 2-1 in the bottom of the ninth. It was a good game.

Posted 11:42 PM | Comments (1)

How to tell the difference between twins

Again with the boring work. This map restructuring is a good idea, but a lot of work. After work I went to Kiwanis. I was the first one there, but we slowly got a critical mass. I started out hot, but just sort of tapered off there at the end. Amy and Amber Roundy showed. Well, I guess Amber's no longer a Roundy. It was the first time I've seen them together in a while, they keep taking turns going places. And they both did their hair up, so it was hard to tell the difference.

Then I went over to Wayne's and Becky's place and helped them figure out that they need to reinstall Windows, at very least. They may have hard drive or cooling problems. Then I came home and watched a little TV before bed.

Posted 10:45 PM | Comments (1)

The Ryan Shupe Concert

Same old same old at work. Except there was an absolutely amazing storm that swept through about 3 or 4, and it temporarily cut power. At that point I hadn't saved anything since like noon or so, so I lost a half day's work. That ticks me off. I was making good progress.

At about 5:30, I went to Heidi's house to pick her and her friend Kyla up (she's originally from Houston, 20, black, and pretty cool) for the concert. We met everybody else at our house, including Mike and Roger and Andy. Well, actually I guess Mike and Andy then left to go pick up Tonya and Angela, while Roger, Heidi, Kyla, and I went to Kmart to get a tarp to sit on. We then tried to go to the new Dutch Oven Buffet place in Lehi, but it was way too crowded, so we had Gandalfo's instead. I've had a little too much Gandalfo's lately. For desert we grabbed some Frosties from Wendy's on our way up to Sandy. The ride was pretty fun. We listened to a lot of music. Heidi and Kyla and I all have very similar and eclectic music tastes. Meanwhile, Roger became their project. They basically spent most of the ride discussing how to make Roger over. Of course, I missed the exit because there were so many cars backed up, and then I missed the next exit and eventually I just decided to try taking 215 out as far east as I needed to go, and then heading back south. I think this strategy may actually have saved us time. So we got there in plenty of time. The concert started at 8:00, and the opening band wasn't too remarkable. We sat out on the tarp with blankets at the top of the ampitheatre. I ran into Deja from poetry class. I haven't seen her in a while. Didn't get to say much, though. I did get to talk to Angela a lot though. In fact, she let me put my pillow on her lap (the big UT one, so this isn't that big of a deal). She was a lot more animated and flirty tonight than I've seen her before. Meanwhile, Kristen showed up. She was very quiet all night. Seemed sort of sad. The band was spectacular. They're very talented. My favorite piece was a cover of "Devil went down to Georgia," towards the end. And there was some spectacular lightning back behind the mountains to the distant west, the light bouncing off the clouds and highlighting the whole canyon, while the sky above remained clear and starry. They did one encore, and we all stood up and danced for that. And then it was over and we slowly made our way to the car and on home. On the way home we listened to some Sting (Kyla loves Sting, so she backed me up when Heidi objected), and a lot of Tori. We also discussed a lot of rock bands, like Smashing Pumpkins, which they really love. We should get them over here some time when Mark's back. I really wish I had had some Pumpkins in the car. Roger, of course, was a little clueless about the music. We arrived home, and I took Heidi and Kyla downstairs to listen to Tori's cover of Landslide and also a little Pumpkins. Then we all went upstairs and talked a lot.

Posted 11:51 PM | Comments (1)

Take me out to the ballgame

I played Frisbee this morning. It was some pretty intense Ultimate. Wicked hot outside, but it only made me play harder. The last game was killer. At the end of it (which we won, by the way), I just collapsed on the ground for a while. Then I got a slurpee and a hot dog. And then I started doing lawn work. This took a while, because I also needed to go shopping for cleaning supplies and weed/bug killer.

Laura and I went to see the Stingers play in Salt Lake (the Angels were out of town). But first we tried to find this Italian restaurant I saw on the AADining site (Cucliana's or something like that). Unfortunately, I didn't realize that 2nd Ave was not the same as 2nd street, and to make a long story short, we ended up eating at the Pie near University of Utah campus. I hadn't been in there before. The décor left a lot to be desired (although I loved the idea of the walls being entirely customer-made graffiti), and the salad wasn't even worth it, but the pasta was delicious.

We arrived at the game about 25 minutes late, but we were still able to find a good spot for a blanket in the outfield. We both stood up at sang really loud at "Take me out to the ballgame." The game itself was rather boring, and we didn't pay too much attention. The Stingers went up on Tacoma early by about 10 runs, and I think the final score was like 11-2. Then we stayed afterwards and watched the firework show, because it just coincidentally happened to be fan appreciation night. I thought they were going to be all cheap and everything, but it was actually a pretty amazing show.

Posted 11:55 PM | Comments (1)

Video Scavenger Hunt

Yesterday was a pretty typical Sunday. We went over to Maria's after ward prayer, which was a little unusual. She made us virgin margaritas. Brandon came over, which was really weird to see. He doesn't usually hang out on Sunday nights. And of course there was Heidi and Kyla and Tonya and Sharolyn and Philip. Mike left early for work, and I left about 11:00.

Nothing too extraordinary going on at work. Tonight for FHE we did a video scavenger hunt. That was pretty fun. We met at our place at about 7:00, had a lesson by some girl named Rebecca who just moved into the ward. Then we divided into 3 groups and started searching for things on a list I had made earlier in the day. On it were such things as a marriage proposal, something on fire, an electronic device falling from a height of two stories, a kid in a stroller, an argument, and so on. We had about an hour to get as many items as we could, and most of us finished about a third of the list. My group consisted of Angela, Johanna, Amber, Mike, and I. About the funniest thing that happened to us was asking a couple on a motorcycle how to get to California. And Angela asking a guy down by King Henry to marry her (the guy shot her down and didn't even take advantage of a perfect flirting opportunity). Oh, and I ran into a guy from the good old Pflugerville ward named Jason (I think he was a freshman in seminary while I was a senior) working at Hogi Yogi, who got a kiss from Amber as part of the whole hunt. Other groups got thrown out of Albertsons and the library. And one had a hilarious routine at a taco bell drive-through, asking for a Big Mac. Anyways, I've preserved the videos for posterity's sake and hopefully I'll be able to post them soon.

Oh, and tonight I learned that CJ plans on moving out at the end of the month. And he somehow expects us to return his deposit on such short notice. Well, I told him if he or we found a new roommate it'd be alright. Otherwise, I'd hate to think we're going to have to search for a roommate all over again, especially so late in the game with all the students probably having found places. Hopefully, Marshall's roommate replacement comes through, 'cause otherwise it's going to really suck.

Posted 10:59 PM | Comments (1)

Video Scavenger Hunt

For FHE tonight, we met over at our house and had a video scavenger hunt. We divided up in three groups (thus the video is actually three different clips) and had a pretty big list if things to find/do. No one did everything, but I think my group (the first clip) got the most. Anyways, it's kind of hilarious--granted, you'd have to have been there to understand some of what's going on.

• Video (17:30)

Here's the list of items we searched for:

Your mission: To capture as many of the following
objects, events, or activities as possible on video.

• A meeting *
• An argument *
• A member of the Bishopric
• A jogger *
• A perfect stranger in a cowboy hat *
• A perfect stranger giving you a kiss *
• Brigham Young doing the funky chicken
• Somebody (not you) committing a traffic violation
• Taking more than 10 items through the Express lane
• Asking a stranger for directions to California *
• A pair of full-time missionaries (no getting around this with stake callings or "Every Member a Missionary" justifications)
• Someone dunking a basketball
• A vehicle with sirens running
• A marriage proposal *
• Four different farm animals (not necessarily in the same video clip)
• Takeoff or landing by an airborne vehicle
• Something on fire
• Kid in a stroller
• Someone being soaked by fire [sic-I meant water]
• An item stuck in a snack machine
• Two objects with wheels colliding at speeds greater than 10mph
• Checking out a book from the library
• Asking for a Big Mac in the drive-through at a restaurant not named McDonalds
• Another FHE group having FHE
• Kicking a field goal
• Someone running 100 meters in less than 12 seconds
• A mother sewing
• Changing a tire
• Jello
• Superman (or someone dressed up as)
• Swing dancing *
• Someone dropping an electronic device from a height of at least 20 feet
• A band practicing
• Someone dressed up as though about to go on a tropical vacation
• A conversation between two people in one of the following languages: Cambodian, Hmong, Tagolog, Mongolian, Hebrew, or Arabic
• A barbershop quartet
• A group of children singing a primary song
• A license plate from any state that joined the U.S. after 1908
• A school bell ringing
• A train
• A firecracker exploding
• A member of your group obtaining a valid phone number from a stranger of the opposite sex under the pretense of calling him/her sometime

* At least one individual participating in the activity must
truly be participating in the activity—in other words, you can initiate the
activity under false pretenses, but there must be someone there who is not "in
on it."

If there is any question of whether an activity has truly
been completed, the FHE group will vote to see if the clip qualifies.

Posted 11:09 PM | Comments (1)

Looking for Mars

Last night after Frisbee I was talking to Laura about how nice the weather was (pretty cloudy and not too hot) but how I was sad because I wanted to see Mars tonight (it's really bright--closest to earth it's been in 60,000 years). Then I was telling her about that observatory up in Toele that my boss (Neal) emailed us about. I guess it's an amateur astronomy club, and they're throwing together Mars parties for this entire two week period. So I asked her if, by chance, she wanted to come check it out if the weather cleared up tomorrow. I even warned her about how late the thing would last. To my surprise, she said yes, she wanted to go.

Today I went to work as normal. Then we had ward sports night again, with more volleyball and basketball. It was pretty fun, but I'm having such a hard time getting my volleyball skills back.

Then I went home, showered, and called up Laura. I was half-expecting her to back out, especially when I emphasized how late it might be when we get back. (She's an early sleeper). But I guess with no school right now, she's not too concerned, and she said yes. So I picked her up and we headed up to the observatory. It was about an hour drive. We found it alright, although once we got there we did sort of get lost trying to find the place, but then we found the line. We probably waited for two hours to get through the line. There were a lot of people with small telescopes set up around the observatory, and we later discovered that these were almost just as good, but we were curious about the big telescopes, so we chatted the night away in line. It was kind of cold—I'm glad I wore jeans, but I wish I had worn a sweater or jacket (Laura was smart enough to do that, of course). When we actually got to the telescope, it was kind of disappointing. It was little more than a dot. It was pretty easy to spot the glare from the northern ice caps, but it was hard to make out much of anything else. Anyway, it was still pretty informative and cool. From there, we drove into downtown Salt Lake and stopped at Denny's. I was starved, so I had the usual—chicken fried steak with eggs and gravy. Laura wasn't too hungry and just had biscuits and gravy. It was probably 2:30 by then, and Denny's was crowded with all sorts of interesting figures. After we finished with that, we drove back to Provo, and I dropped her off a little past 3:00. That was a really late date.

Posted 11:02 PM | Comments (1)

Ward Stewart Falls Hike

Hiking at Stewart Falls

Here's some pictures from the BYU 229th ward's Stewart Falls hike this morning. It was a light hike, but fun and scenic. Altogether, we had about 15 people there.

• Pictures
• Video (5:05)

Posted 10:18 PM | Comments (1)

Why I decided to hike Nebo

Well, I was a bit lazy with this journal Thursday and Friday and Saturday. Oh well. Not much happened until yesterday. Work and Frisbee and hanging out with Becky and Wayne on Thursday. Aunt Sharla called up and asked if we wanted to come over for food on Saturday. I felt obligated to say yes. I really haven't seen her in a long while and I feel guilty about that. But I roped Becky and Wayne into going with me, and then I asked Laura after Frisbee if she wanted to come, and she said yes. Friday I worked on the newsletter a lot at work, and then didn't do much of anything in the evening—watched "Legends of the Fall" on TV. Hung out with Mike. Played Civ3. Went to sleep late.

Yesterday morning I woke up just in time to join the ward for our hike up Stewart Falls. It was a light hike. Mike and I grabbed breakfast at Gandalfo's on the way up (and thus made everybody wait for us), and then the hike ensued. There were about 15 of us, I would say, including Angela, Lori, Jilleen (back from Oregon), and Luke. I brought my camera and got some pretty good video and pictures. Jilleen and I hung out a lot, snapping photos for each other and climbing up areas no one else really wanted to go. She got herself stuck pretty good at the waterfall, though, trying to follow some people and accidentally climbing up the wrong way. It was pretty fun, and I wish I had worn clothes more conducive to rock-climbing. We also walked the whole way back with each other (everyone else ditched us while we were climbing) and had a pretty good conversation about things. Mike was waiting a little upset waiting for us in the parking lot, though, because everyone else had left and neither Jilleen nor I drove.

After Stewart Falls I went home and did a few chores and cleaned up. I was a little late picking Laura up, and I was a little late picking Wayne and Becky up, but we got to Sharla's house in plenty of time. After the meal, we went over to Aunt Mary's to say hi (she doesn't remember me or Becky) and also to stroll along the stream in the back. That was a lot of fun. We tried to teach the dog how to catch a Frisbee and got a little wet and talked a lot. And then we made our excuses and left for Provo. When I got back, I proposed that we all watch a movie at my place, and everybody agreed—on the condition I help Wayne reinstall Windows while we watched. So I dropped them off to get their stuff, and Laura and I went over to my place. Becky and Wayne soon came over, and I started working on Wayne's computer. I gave Becky and Wayne some cash to get ice cream, and Laura and I played a little fusbol while waiting. Then we watched "Gattaca." It was the first time Laura had seen it. She liked the movie. She got the part where the guy committed suicide—I didn't understand that until the second time through. I also saw something I hadn't seen before—the symbolism of the medal the guy wears—finishing second, and it's a picture of people swimming, which parallels Vincent's swimming with his brother. I'm not sure what all to make of that. Anyway, Wayne and Becky left right after the movie, while Laura and I stayed behind and looked at some of my pictures—mostly stuff from freshman year and my mission. We didn't get through it all before it was midnight and she had to leave—I had almost forgotten about that aspect of being a BYU student. I drove her home, and at the doorstep I asked her about her Labor Day plans, and suggested that if she wanted to do something, she should give me a call. No sooner had I said this than she asked me if I knew anything about trails on Mt. Nebo (which I don't) and if I wanted to hike it.

Not much worth mentioning happened today. Except for the munch and mingle after church where Big Jake made us all spaghetti. And also the fact that Mark was home when I got home from church, so that was exciting. He got sick in Boston, otherwise he would have been out here sooner. Actually, he missed a Radiohead concert on account of being sick—why, I asked him, did he not send me the tickets. And yes, he did drive out with Krista. And yes, his '93 Camaro rocks. We went to 230th ward prayer to say hi to people, but almost no one was there. That ward has changed so much. It's hardly recognizable and doesn't seem like a lot of fun. I'm glad we ended up in the 229th ward. Mark did kind of seem like a fish out of water tonight when all the 229th ward people came over after 229th ward prayer. Mostly played his guitar the whole time, but he met a few new people.

Now I'm starting to look out info about hiking Mt. Nebo. I really should get to sleep, though. I called up Laura and we decided to start at 8:00. That's early.

Posted 11:10 PM | Comments (1)