One more of my bright ideas have been snatched up by someone else. I thought of this many years ago, back when Brent and Lesli were living in Logan and we were coming up with business ideas left and right.
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1905545,00.html?cnn=yes
I could have been doing this for the last few years. I guess I still could.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Bang Bang
I haven't posted about a few shooting classes I have gone to this year.
The first was outside of Vegas at Front Sight back in January. That was a 4-day Defensive Handgun class. I learned a whole lot. I feel very comfortable with a gun now. VERY comfortable. I also learned that I really need to practice and improve my aim.
By the end of the class I could pretty much hit in the general location of where I wanted the bullets to go. Below is an example of my shooting ability. All the little holes are supposed to be in the box on the two bad-guys' heads (they are the ones in grey). Those bad-guys are holding Cindy hostage. Notice that I accidentally shot Cindy in the shoulder? I hope she doesn't hate me forever. She may never have full use of that shoulder and it may be a permanent weather indicator, but at least she is alive.
This is me at the class. Those people in the background are our highly competent instructors. They were very patient and great teachers. If I could I'd take the class again and again. It was well worth the time.
The second class was last weekend in Kemmerer, WY. It was an Appleseed Project Shooting class (Mike wrote a pretty accurate description of the weekend here). We shot rifles not handguns. It is also a worthwhile class. I have taken the class before and wrote about it last year. The Appleseed Shoots are all over the US, so if you want to take an affordable and worthwhile class using cheap .22 ammo then that's the class for you.
Here I am at this class. Notice that my cheeks have filled out a little? That's because I have been sessile for the last 3 weeks. But also notice that I am wearing a patch? That's because I have learned that I am left-eye dominant, which makes hitting a tiny target really hard to do unless you can trick the weakling right-eye into doing the work or unless you (I) start shooting left-handed (which I am not ready to try and do just yet). That patch was really helpful in making me use my right eye, I need to get one of those things for everyday wear.
One of the biggest surprises for me on this trip is that Kemmerer has a great Chinese Restaurant. I highly recommend eating there. The portions are HUGE, so bring some friends along to help you eat.
What you see on these plates are after 8 people have eaten their fill from 3 plates of mouth-watering food (albeit was a bit salty).
Mike pointed out that the restaurant might have previously been a Christmas Restaurant, a place where you could get Christmas dinner all year round. Notice the seats. Do you think they had elves serving the food?
The first was outside of Vegas at Front Sight back in January. That was a 4-day Defensive Handgun class. I learned a whole lot. I feel very comfortable with a gun now. VERY comfortable. I also learned that I really need to practice and improve my aim.
By the end of the class I could pretty much hit in the general location of where I wanted the bullets to go. Below is an example of my shooting ability. All the little holes are supposed to be in the box on the two bad-guys' heads (they are the ones in grey). Those bad-guys are holding Cindy hostage. Notice that I accidentally shot Cindy in the shoulder? I hope she doesn't hate me forever. She may never have full use of that shoulder and it may be a permanent weather indicator, but at least she is alive.
This is me at the class. Those people in the background are our highly competent instructors. They were very patient and great teachers. If I could I'd take the class again and again. It was well worth the time.
The second class was last weekend in Kemmerer, WY. It was an Appleseed Project Shooting class (Mike wrote a pretty accurate description of the weekend here). We shot rifles not handguns. It is also a worthwhile class. I have taken the class before and wrote about it last year. The Appleseed Shoots are all over the US, so if you want to take an affordable and worthwhile class using cheap .22 ammo then that's the class for you.Here I am at this class. Notice that my cheeks have filled out a little? That's because I have been sessile for the last 3 weeks. But also notice that I am wearing a patch? That's because I have learned that I am left-eye dominant, which makes hitting a tiny target really hard to do unless you can trick the weakling right-eye into doing the work or unless you (I) start shooting left-handed (which I am not ready to try and do just yet). That patch was really helpful in making me use my right eye, I need to get one of those things for everyday wear.
One of the biggest surprises for me on this trip is that Kemmerer has a great Chinese Restaurant. I highly recommend eating there. The portions are HUGE, so bring some friends along to help you eat.
What you see on these plates are after 8 people have eaten their fill from 3 plates of mouth-watering food (albeit was a bit salty).
Mike pointed out that the restaurant might have previously been a Christmas Restaurant, a place where you could get Christmas dinner all year round. Notice the seats. Do you think they had elves serving the food?
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Summer Reading Program
Remember those summer reading programs offered through your friendly neighborhood library? I do. And I miss them. So, I am starting up my own library reading program which means a list of books that I hope to read before the summer ends. Feel free to join me on any of the books listed below:
Walden, or Life in the Woods
Mary Poppins
Economics in One Lesson
Angle of Repose
If Chins Could Kill
The Case Against the Fed
Dragon Slippers
Breaking Dawn
The 5000 Year Leep
The Omnivores Dilemma
The Federalist Papers
Mainspring of Human Progress
1984
Up From Slavery
The Beetle
The Origin of Species
Uncle Toms Cabin
Lonesome Dove
Andromeda Strain
Watership Down
The Last Lecture
The Covenant
Ravens in Winter
City of
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Janitorial issues
Just to keep you all surprised with my sudden resurgence in blogdom I give you yet another post to read or ponder or ignore.
Actually there isn't much to this one. It's really me griping. I entered a bathroom on USU campus the other day and noticed these floor tiles. Who thought it would be a good idea to add the little white tiles as decoration? Why not just keep the floor one solid grey color? Why add the 4 tiles of white? They look like little pieces of tissue paper and make the room look dirty. It's a big bathroom and I pretty much took pictures of the only clusters...why? Why? have just four widely spaced clusters? Either put in more or leave them out.
Actually there isn't much to this one. It's really me griping. I entered a bathroom on USU campus the other day and noticed these floor tiles. Who thought it would be a good idea to add the little white tiles as decoration? Why not just keep the floor one solid grey color? Why add the 4 tiles of white? They look like little pieces of tissue paper and make the room look dirty. It's a big bathroom and I pretty much took pictures of the only clusters...why? Why? have just four widely spaced clusters? Either put in more or leave them out.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Ogden Marathon May 2009
I have never been to Odgen until this year...at least not that I can remember other than to get gas or drop Cindy off for a blind date with some jerk. But so far this year I have had 4 memorable trips to Ogden. Once to go to the Ogden Temple, once to attend Taco Tuesday, once to sightsee a marathon race course, and once to run a marathon. Each time I was surprised by how nice Ogden seems to be (I've always heard it was kind of slummy and dull). It has really made it's way up in the world and improved it's image. The only negative thing I have to say is twice I had to wait way too long for my food at two restaurants that should have been more on top of things, and when I say way too long I mean an hour after ordering finally getting the food. But the other two times the food came at a decent speed, both those times I ate at the same place: Roosters (they get my endorsement because they did a fabulous job, although I suspect they have listening devices at every table because once it felt like the waitress appeared a little too quickly to poor my water right after I said something about it really quietly).
This time round to Ogden was for the Ogden Marathon. (Ellen told her story here.) Ellen and I headed down the night before to get our bib numbers and a good night sleep. We are becoming old hats at marathons, this being our 2nd (I am being sarcastic). We stayed with some family friends from Hayward who recently relocated to Ogden and bought an historic house with elephant skin walls. They are in the process of renovating it, I can't wait to see what the final outcome will look like. Surprising to me, but I actually had an excellent nights rest before the marathon...no waking up hundreds of times worrying that I overslept, I slept right up to the 4:15 am alarm.
We ate dinner at one of the slow restaurants downtown. Good thing we didn't have any where to be because when I say slow I mean slow. Then we took a stroll back to the car and passed a barber shop that was closed for the evening. Not a soul in sight except Ellen and I...you can see us in the mirror. Ellen's eagle eye noticed something out of the ordinary which is why we stopped to take this picture. Can you see it?
There is hair still on the floor. Is that regular procedures for barber shops to close shop without cleaning up?
The next morning we woke up bright and early, the buses were leaving at 5 am to take the race participants to the start line (starting time is 7:30am). That's a long time to wait in the cold burning calories that you'll need for the race. This time I came prepared with lots of food and a book. I ate the food but I didn't read the book, the atmosphere is too charged to read books. Next time I might bring a blanket and pillow (I saw someone else with them). We have a little bag with our bib number on it to put any personal affects that aren't needed during the race, this little bag gets put into a truck and transported to the finish line where we can be reunited with it if we finish.
Anyway, the race went well. I had been sick for two weeks before so I had a two week rest period before the race where I didn't run at all. I was worried about the effect this break would have on me since I am a really slow runner and our longest run had been only 19 miles which hurt me and made me bitter. Turns out that it was a very good thing for me. When I finished the 26.1 miles I felt good...tired but good. I wasn't sore beyond belief, in fact I could and did reach down and pick things up off the ground and sitting down and then standing up wasn't a chore that made me apprehensive. But like I said I was tired so I moved slowly everywhere I went. Where two weeks earlier I had sworn off marathons my feelings changed at the end of this one and I actually started planning my next one (this isn't uncommon because running a marathon is actually quiet easy it's the training that is hard).
Anyway, I have forgotten all the stories during the race. It is all a blur. Apparently all the photographs of me during the race look like I got punched in the gut and I hate my life, but I seem to have forgotten the pain. To me now the race was a picnic in a quiet lazy park with servants all around to assist my every need.
Here we are at the end with our medals around our necks. Don't we look like a color coordinated running team?
So, next stop on the running circuit this year is the Sawtooth Relay in Idaho. Then we begin Speed Camp 2009. Later we may hit Pinedale for a half marathon and most certainly St. George for a full marathon. I need to spice things up this summer and add something else to my regime, most likely it will be biking. What kinds of exercise goals do you have this year?
This time round to Ogden was for the Ogden Marathon. (Ellen told her story here.) Ellen and I headed down the night before to get our bib numbers and a good night sleep. We are becoming old hats at marathons, this being our 2nd (I am being sarcastic). We stayed with some family friends from Hayward who recently relocated to Ogden and bought an historic house with elephant skin walls. They are in the process of renovating it, I can't wait to see what the final outcome will look like. Surprising to me, but I actually had an excellent nights rest before the marathon...no waking up hundreds of times worrying that I overslept, I slept right up to the 4:15 am alarm.
We ate dinner at one of the slow restaurants downtown. Good thing we didn't have any where to be because when I say slow I mean slow. Then we took a stroll back to the car and passed a barber shop that was closed for the evening. Not a soul in sight except Ellen and I...you can see us in the mirror. Ellen's eagle eye noticed something out of the ordinary which is why we stopped to take this picture. Can you see it?
There is hair still on the floor. Is that regular procedures for barber shops to close shop without cleaning up?The next morning we woke up bright and early, the buses were leaving at 5 am to take the race participants to the start line (starting time is 7:30am). That's a long time to wait in the cold burning calories that you'll need for the race. This time I came prepared with lots of food and a book. I ate the food but I didn't read the book, the atmosphere is too charged to read books. Next time I might bring a blanket and pillow (I saw someone else with them). We have a little bag with our bib number on it to put any personal affects that aren't needed during the race, this little bag gets put into a truck and transported to the finish line where we can be reunited with it if we finish.
Anyway, the race went well. I had been sick for two weeks before so I had a two week rest period before the race where I didn't run at all. I was worried about the effect this break would have on me since I am a really slow runner and our longest run had been only 19 miles which hurt me and made me bitter. Turns out that it was a very good thing for me. When I finished the 26.1 miles I felt good...tired but good. I wasn't sore beyond belief, in fact I could and did reach down and pick things up off the ground and sitting down and then standing up wasn't a chore that made me apprehensive. But like I said I was tired so I moved slowly everywhere I went. Where two weeks earlier I had sworn off marathons my feelings changed at the end of this one and I actually started planning my next one (this isn't uncommon because running a marathon is actually quiet easy it's the training that is hard).
Anyway, I have forgotten all the stories during the race. It is all a blur. Apparently all the photographs of me during the race look like I got punched in the gut and I hate my life, but I seem to have forgotten the pain. To me now the race was a picnic in a quiet lazy park with servants all around to assist my every need.
Here we are at the end with our medals around our necks. Don't we look like a color coordinated running team?
So, next stop on the running circuit this year is the Sawtooth Relay in Idaho. Then we begin Speed Camp 2009. Later we may hit Pinedale for a half marathon and most certainly St. George for a full marathon. I need to spice things up this summer and add something else to my regime, most likely it will be biking. What kinds of exercise goals do you have this year?
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Grand Memorial Day Vacation 2009
Here is some photos to get the ball rolling of my Grand Memorial Day Vacation 2009.
Last year we hit Mt Rushmore, The Badlands, and Devil's Tower. This year we made our way south to a once GRAND portion of Route 66, The GRAND Canyon, and Kolob Canyon which is near the GRAND Staircase.
In honor of the movie Cars, which was filmed on location along Route 66, I ask you the following question: If you were a car what kind of car would you be? And is that car the same as your favorite car? I'd be a Toyota Tacoma or a Jeep Cherokee. But my favorite car right now is that sexy 2010 Mustang. A few weeks ago my bishop got a new 2010 Mustang (white with a blue stripe), I think it is the only on in Logan. I'd never seen one before and I felt a welling of envy bubble up inside me. On this trip the 'stangs were out in full force. I guess everyone and their dog owns a 2o10 Mustang...almost makes me rethink whether I like it or not, but each time I see one I covet just a little bit. Cindy on the other hand would be a Jetta (she actually chose 2 cars, but I can't remember the other one), but her favorite car right now is a Dodge Challenger (also a very nice car, if I had to have one I wouldn't be sad). Once again, if we weren't being passed by a Mustang it was a Challenger making my little Saturn look even wimpier than it is. Everyone else and their dog had gone out and bought a new Challenger last weekend. I couldn't tell by all the fancy cars on the road that the economy is bad.
Isn't that just beautiful? I wish my cell phone had 5megapix camera at the very least and the pictures could download larger...oh well, try clicking on the picture to see if it gets bigger. (Or maybe, if I am going to make some wishes, I should say that I wish my camera had a panoramic setting.)
Next road trip you take try out this little game to pass the time:
This works really well as a 2-person game. You go through the alphabet and name the other person in the car a new name starting with each letter of the alphabet, they will do the same for you. It is really fun to see what the other person thinks of you by the names they think fit your person. You can reject the names they choose and they can pick another, but eventually you have to move on to the next letter whether you are satisfied or not.
Last year we hit Mt Rushmore, The Badlands, and Devil's Tower. This year we made our way south to a once GRAND portion of Route 66, The GRAND Canyon, and Kolob Canyon which is near the GRAND Staircase.
A portion of Route 66
In honor of the movie Cars, which was filmed on location along Route 66, I ask you the following question: If you were a car what kind of car would you be? And is that car the same as your favorite car? I'd be a Toyota Tacoma or a Jeep Cherokee. But my favorite car right now is that sexy 2010 Mustang. A few weeks ago my bishop got a new 2010 Mustang (white with a blue stripe), I think it is the only on in Logan. I'd never seen one before and I felt a welling of envy bubble up inside me. On this trip the 'stangs were out in full force. I guess everyone and their dog owns a 2o10 Mustang...almost makes me rethink whether I like it or not, but each time I see one I covet just a little bit. Cindy on the other hand would be a Jetta (she actually chose 2 cars, but I can't remember the other one), but her favorite car right now is a Dodge Challenger (also a very nice car, if I had to have one I wouldn't be sad). Once again, if we weren't being passed by a Mustang it was a Challenger making my little Saturn look even wimpier than it is. Everyone else and their dog had gone out and bought a new Challenger last weekend. I couldn't tell by all the fancy cars on the road that the economy is bad.A view of the Grand Canyon
Isn't that just beautiful? I wish my cell phone had 5megapix camera at the very least and the pictures could download larger...oh well, try clicking on the picture to see if it gets bigger. (Or maybe, if I am going to make some wishes, I should say that I wish my camera had a panoramic setting.)Next road trip you take try out this little game to pass the time:
This works really well as a 2-person game. You go through the alphabet and name the other person in the car a new name starting with each letter of the alphabet, they will do the same for you. It is really fun to see what the other person thinks of you by the names they think fit your person. You can reject the names they choose and they can pick another, but eventually you have to move on to the next letter whether you are satisfied or not.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Mountain Pine Beelte Races
One week ago today I posted that I was going to start posting once a week. That means I better get going on that deal.
So, to make things easy for myself I am going to post about my new temp job that is about to end because it was only a 3 month gig. It's a job of intense excitement. I am a referee at the local Beetle Larvae Races. I am pretty much one of 3 referee's, and it's a pretty cool gig.
Here are some pictures to describe my job:
My work station
An incubator for the little beetle larvae. We are measuring the effect of temperature on the growth of pine beetle larvae from two populations of pine beetles. The incubator holds 7 phloem sandwiches which are the nurseries for the little developing larvae.
A phloem sandwich with the galleries containing wriggling larvae (my job is to follow the little larva along its gallery and measure its size each day. There are 4 juvenile stages (called instars) that it must go through before it becomes a pupa and finally an an adult.)
Sometimes the phloem sandwich gets funky with fungi (that's the green/grey stuff).
I know these look disgusting...like these larvae are growing in your larynx or something. Or I've just documented alien life on a distant planet...Jupiter. Really, it's just the effect of taking a picture through an eyepiece on the microscope without a camera mount. I didn't want to take too much time fiddling around taking pictures, so this is what you get. It is actually quite beautiful under the microscope. The larvae are off-white or pearly-white depending on which life stage they are in.
I know, I am one lucky lady. Best part about the job is that I can listen to audio books. I have listened to several classics this way. Here's the list so far for those of you who aren't on Goodreads with me (two of which are now in my top 20 favorite books of all time, they are denoted with a star):
*The Virginian (Owen Wister)
Love Among the Chickens (P.G. Wodehouse)
The Phantom of the Operal: The Original Novel (Gaston Leroux)
Pollyanna (Eleanor Porter)
The Last Man (Mary Shelley)
Pollyanna Grows Up (Eleanor Porter)
Kim (Rudyard Kipling)
The Last Trail (Zane Grey)
*Tarzan (Edgar Rice Burroughs)
The 3 Musketeers
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