Time for a hair cut

Today was a pretty good day. I got my hair cut in the morning. Not by Candace, though. She wasn't in, and I was tired of waiting to have it cut. Of course, now I miss my hair, but that's the thing with my hair. Doesn't ever look good long or short. Oh well. Short looks a little more professional. Then I had work. Then I went to pick up Laura at 6:00. By the time we got back to the house, Mike and Candace had already finished cooking the fajitas and were eating. That's kind of a bummer. I was wanting to cook with Laura. But they were pretty good fajitas. Afterwards, we played Tetris. She's not very good at it yet, so I was playing on the hardest level and she actually beat me once at the end. At about 8:00 I dropped her off at home, and then I went to see her intramural game at 9:00. They lost. Didn't even score a point, so that was sad. I think the team they were playing was slightly better, though. There were a lot of guys there watching, so we spent a lot of time throwing the disc around and being sideline refs. After the game, we played a little pickup, which was slightly entertaining because none of us guys were dressed to play, and plus there were only three guys on each team. So it was good practice for the girls, I guess. After the game I came home and did miscellanous tasks on my computer (video editing mostly) while I helped Becky with her CS project and watched the Red Sox game with Mark. It was a pretty awesome game. 12 innings, and some stunning plays. There was this one play at third base by Chavez who just barely managed to field a hot grounder deep behind third, then dove for the bag and tagged it like a millisecond before the runner got there. I don't think I'll ever forget that. Of course, it was bad for the Red Sox. So was the unexpected squeeze bunt with the bases loaded and two outs that ended the game. Poor Mark. Well, it's only the first game of the series. I love the baseball playoffs. I don't know who I'm rooting for yet. All I know is I'm against the Braves and Yankees. Every other team seems interesting. Anyway, the other thing I did tonight was check up on details about the Chico tournament next weekend. I'm suddenly very interested in going. I don't think I'll feel too bad about missing the Sunday meetings, but I am a little worried about missing work.

Posted 11:14 PM | Comments (1)

Intramural Volleyball is Fun

After work today I went straight over to Kiwanis and tossed a Frisbee around for about half an hour before a game finally started. Unfortunately, I got to play only 2 points before I had to jet for the volleyball game at 7. The volleyball game was fun—a little disappointing, though, because we had only 4 people as the game started. So even though we all played pretty well, we lost the first game pretty quickly. During the second game we kept pace for a while and our fifth guy showed up. So we thought we actually might win—we were ahead by a point at one point. But we just barely lost. Oh well. It was kind of sad, but I played well today—not very many mistakes except on serve. And it was a lot of fun. After the game I cooked some spaghetti. Jonathon dropped by—I guess his whole family is here for General Conference until Sunday. And then I just wasted the night away—oh, and I officially decided to go to the tournament next weekend.

Posted 11:16 PM | Comments (1)

Man of La Mancha

I take the LSAT tomorrow. I'm not too worried, but I really wish I had another logic section to practice on. I think my timing will be all off there. Laura called about 5:30 and said that she got out of her test in time and could do dinner (last night she wasn't sure if she'd be done in time). So I picked her up about 6:15 and we went to eat at Mi Ranchito. I've decided that Mi Ranchito is much more expensive at night than it is with its lunch specials during the day. Of course, the crab enchilada I had didn't help. It was okay, but definitely not worth more than a good old chicken or beef enchilada. We got to the theatre with plenty of time to spare. The play ("Man of La Mancha") was okay—kind of short and weak on plot, but much more entertaining than your average movie. And our seats on the floor were fantastic—it's so cool to be that close to the action. The guy who did the Spanish guitar at the beginning, and who led the song "Little Bird" had a fantastic tenor voice. And Sancho, played this round and short guy, had this really high-pitched and whiny voice that just fit the character perfectly. Otherwise, the singing and acting was just sort of average. But it was still fun to watch. I think the story sort of deconstructs itself—advocating the dream but making no argument that dream is ever attainable. Then we went to Leatherby's for ice cream—we had a huge Sundae. Well, I'd better get sleep for the LSAT.

Posted 11:20 PM | Comments (1)

I don't like the LSAT

The LSAT did not go very well this morning. I got there early enough, even though I had to stop by Albertson's for doughnuts and pencils. The test was in the WILK, up where they have all those meeting rooms. The room was pretty full, and the weird thing was everyone had little digital timers that I guess they all got from prep classes. The girl next to the right of me, who was a real chatterbox, asked about my preparation and when I explained that I had only taken one test, she was like, "so you're one of those people." Anyway, I really should have prepared more because the time factor really messed me up. The first section was the logic games, and I was just not ready for that so soon. I think I actually had time to look at only 2/3 of the questions there. It was kind of frustrating, because I knew I should be doing better, but I was constantly wasting precious thinking time worrying about that whole time thing. The next section was reading, and that went way better, but I soon found out that it was the "test" section, meaning it won't count for anything. Then came the reasoning section, and I didn't have time to read 2 or 3 of those—well, I should have had time, but as soon as they said "5 minutes left" I started freaking out about time, and it was like a little loop in my head—"I'm almost out of time, better read faster; oh wait, what did I just read? I don't know but hurry up and read it again because you're almost out of time; wait, what did that just say... and so on." These are problems I don't think I'd have had with a little more preparation. Then came the break, and they gave us bagels. Then came another reading section, which I didn't do as well on as the first (didn't have time to answer a couple of questions). And then came a reasoning section that I finished just barely in time. Finally, there was the writing section. This was all too easy and actually kind of fun—we had to decide, based on a whole bunch of information, whether an anonymous scholarly association should hold its annual conference in a big city or at a small and quiet resort. I went with the small and quiet resort on reasoning of quality time vs. a quantity of attendees being distracted by a big city. So, anyway, I don't find out how I did until the end of the month, but I'll really be shocked if its as good as my practice score. I'm thinking low 160s, at best. Still good enough for BYU, but I don't see Harvard banging down my door.

After the LSAT, I had about 10 minutes for Frisbee at the intramural fields. It was fun, but I didn't even have time to feel warmed up. Then came conference, which I missed the first half for recovering from the LSAT, eating, and showering. And then I fell asleep for the second half. Mike and Candace were the only other guys at home. Have I mentioned that Geoff, a guy who saw my add online, has moved in. He seems pretty cool. He's working in Salt Lake, but has this girlfriend named Rachel down here. Anyway, he moved his stuff in on Friday, but I have yet to see him (only saw him when he was checking out the place). He's taking Mark's room, because he only wants to pay $200, and Mark's taking Jonathon's room (even though he still only wants to pay $200 as well). Hopefully we'll get someone for Marshall's room soon. Anyway, between sessions I caught some baseball (Both Atlanta and the Yankees won—but Red Sox won later, and get this: Marlins beat San Francisco. That just seems wrong, but I'm happy for Pudge). Then I went up to the institute building for Priesthood session. The interesting things there President Monson almost breaking out in song on Les Miz ("God on high"), but then returning to his normal limerick readings style for the rest of the lyrics. And then President Hinkley talking to the Bishops of the church. I started to leave during the middle of the closing song, but I passed by President Pinegar's office, and he just gave me this sort of sad look, so I was guilted into staying. Then I picked up some ice cream for the party tonight. Then I went over to Dave's house, where Mark and Dan and Dave and I had pizza, fought off Dave's dog, watched "Dr. Strangelove" and played Phase 10 until about 1:00 in the morning. Just like old times. Then I went home. Oh, and somewhere in that all, Becky called and invited me over for dinner tomorrow with Grandma and Grandpa, and I volunteered my pot roast as food, and I also called up Laura and invited her over for food. She said yes. Well, I'd better get to sleep so she can make me breakfast tomorrow. It should be a great day.

Posted 11:24 PM | Comments (1)

Conference Time

I went over to Laura's before conference. She had waffles waiting for me, with cherries and whip cream to top them. I got a couple of important thoughts out of the morning session. First off, in Elder Holland said, "God is more liberal in his views and in his beliefs than any of us are willing to believe." That got me thinking. Secondly, Elder Wirthlin said (I'm paraphrasing here) "Spiritual perfection comes one step at a time. Like becoming a great athlete or artist. We cannot repent of everything at once." So that was all some pretty sound and worthwhile advice. After the first session ended, we looked at some of her pictures. So I got to see what her family looks like for the first time. Then we went for a little walk on the trails winding through the hill south of campus. We also went to the Maesar building (which she had never been in) and I showed her around. Even took her down to the library and read poetry to her—stuff from "In Memoriam." Hey, I know it's not ideal for romance, but it was spontaneous and it was all I could find. And then we walked back west and found the flower gardens, which I never knew existed before. Then we watched the afternoon session. Then I went home for a little while to work on Elder's Quorum stuff. Then I came back over to pick her up. She had been taking a nap. We had a pleasant dinner over at Becky's, and we pulled out Becky and Wayne's wedding video, and Grandpa started talking to me about computers. Then I took her home.

Posted 09:29 PM | Comments (2)

What's your love language?

I went to FHE, which coincidentally was on the topic, "what's your love language?" Weird. Then I went to help Danika move. This was a spontaneous thing, but we got a good number of people to help her. (Meanwhile, the Red Sox beat the A's—that was the only exciting thing about the night). After all this, I came home.

Posted 10:32 PM | Comments (1)

Where does the time go?

Not much to say about these last few days. We had practice Tuesday night, throwing together a zone for Chico. I had a presidency meeting to make up for the fact that I'll be gone on Sunday. We made all of the home teaching assignments. Ryan and I stayed at the church until 10 getting those all entered in the computer. Then I came home. Last night I just cleaned my room and did more EQ paperwork. Then tonight Laura and I went to Village Inn, had chicken fried steak, and broke up. The End.

Posted 10:34 PM | Comments (1)

On the road to Chico

My day started very early with packing. Had to clean out the car and wire up all the fun electronic gadgets and whatever. Then I got to work and met with Gary all morning. We were wrapping up some stuff we started yesterday about modularizing the training courses. I also called this guy who yesterday was asking about the Outlook example I did. Basically, he wants to build a task management system with PopChart but without Exchange or anything. So I did some research, and hopefully it will turn into some consulting for the company (i.e. me) so I can have a distraction from docs. Oh, and it appears I might be doing a training class out in DC in the middle of November. So I hurriedly wrapped up things at work, then joined the development team down at Ruby River where we were saying goodbye to Dave. It was his last day.

And then we hit the road. It was Neal, Jessica, myself, and a girl named Erin who heard from her father (an ultimate coach at Chico) that we were going to be in the neighborhood and wanted to hitch a ride. She's pretty cool and funny. She converted to the church five or six years ago and has a very interesting perspective on things. It was a long drive (especially since my GPS didn't tell us the right place to turn), but fun nonetheless. We're staying with this random family in Chico tonight. I'm honestly not sure if any of us even know them, but they're Mormon and you know how Mormon's all have connections.

Posted 11:39 PM | Comments (1)

Chico Ultimate Tournament

Dave diving for the disc

This weekend the BYU Ultimate (frisbee) Mens and Womens team went to Chico State University (California) for the famous C.H.U.G. tournament. It was a blast. We left Friday around noon (well, my car did--with Neal and Jess and some random but cool girl named Erin who hitched a ride to Chico--all the other cars left earlier). We stayed with the Dunbar family in Chico on Friday night, and played Ultimate all day long Saturday. Until 6:00 PM when our legs fell off. Then we went to the Joslin's and Michelle's parents' houses a few hours away in Nevada City, and partied in a pool until pretty late. In the morning we went to church and drove back. Such a long drive.

Anyway, both teams did pretty well, going 3-1. The men's team beat Chico B and Sonoma pretty handily. Then we pulled off an upset of UC Davis, before losing a game we souldn't have to Berkeley after they threw a zone at us. The womens' team pulled off some impressive victories as well, including Stanford, but I can't remember who all they played.

Here's some video. And a few pictures of the pool party afterwards.

• Video
• Preface (2:04)
• Mens Game 1 vs. Chico B (7:49)
• Womens Game 1 (7:12)
• Mens Game 2 vs. Sonoma (7:54)
• Womens Game 2 (9:31)
• Mens Game 3 vs. UC Davis (10:20)
• Mens Game 4 vs. UC Berkeley (5:50)
• Pool Party (5:48)
• Pictures of Pool Party

Posted 06:49 PM | Comments (3)

Logan / Utah State Ultimate Tournament

For the second weekend in a row, I went with the BYU Ultimate Frisbee team to a tournament, and man is my body tired. I mean, I started cramping really bad at the end there. Anyone who has ever done an all day Ultimate tournament can attest to the fact that it's almost like running a marathon. Except longer with a few more breaks. I can't believe we have tournaments the next two weekends as well.

Anyway, we went up early this morning and came back after the games ended (and we had dinner) around 8:00 PM. I was with the A team and we went 3-1 again. We beat some anonymous team (I'm still not clear who they were) handily to kick things off. Then we pulled a narrow victory over a good Colorado University. Then we decimated Colorado State B, only to get the same treatment from Colorado State A. I can't tell if they were simply the best team we played these last two weeks, or if we were just dead tired and without subs (we only had 9 people, total, and 3 of us went down with cramps, and you field 7 at a time, so you do the math). I think Don ran savage the whole last two games.

The B team went 2-2, I believe. I think I have some video of them as well. The few girls that came went 2-1 in their hat tournament.

• Video (27:55)

Posted 11:06 PM | Comments (1)

Orem Ultimate Halloween Tournament

Wow, the third all-day Ultimate tournament in as many weeks. I'm feeling a little less tired after this one. I don't know if it's because it was less demanding (city league vs. college) or if I'm just getting used to running. I do know that I'm losing a lot of weight and that it was a beautiful day for throwing a Frisbee.

Anyway, our team (Cement Shoes, with Neal, Mandy, Mark, and all of the Randall company I've played with 3 seasons now) went 3-1. Again. I see a pattern. Undoubtedly the favorites going into the tournament, we had a little scare in the first game against Spandex (Jon's team, white shirts). Neal was MIA because of some test, and they threw a zone at us, but Mark and Dan and I ate it apart, so that proved to be their undoing.

By the second game, Neal arrived. It was against Naked Ninja Midgets (Clint and Amber's team, green). It was back and forth all game. We just kept making mistakes, which was deadly against a team with their speed. So we lost at the end, 13-11. That was a heart-breaker, and proved to be the title game when they went undefeated the rest of the way.

But hey, winning's only half the fun, and we played a great game against Juice (Aaron's team, light blue), which kept things surprisingly close thanks to some good coaching and well-played strategy.

The fourth game was a blast, against "Like a Rockstar" (Micah, Mike's team, yellow). I thought that was going to be the tight one for us, honestly, not Midgets. In fact, they jumped out to a 4 or 5 point lead, and we were dead tired. Then I think we started to realize that they were just as tired as us, and that the game was entirely winnable. We pulled out the victory, and I honestly think the win can be 90% attributed to a pyschological shift on our part.

Anyway, it was a great day, and here's the video to prove it.

• Game 1 - Cement Shoes vs. Spandex (1:27)
• Game 2 - Cement Shoes vs. Naked Ninja Midgets (26:22)
• Game 3 - Cement Shoes vs. Juice (7:14)
• Game 4 - Cement Shoes vs. Like a Rockstar (35:37) [warning: we had the cap on the camera for 2 minutes]
• Costume Contest (5:47)

Posted 07:28 PM | Comments (1)

Yoga Party

Amber and Monica doing Yoga

Here's some pictures and video from a party we had at our house tonight. Well, it wasn't even really a party, just a spontaneous gathering. And don't ask me how we got started on the Yoga.

• Pictures
• Video (10:33)

Posted 11:40 PM | Comments (1)