Archive for September, 2008

So I suppose it’s become some sort of tradition to have lemon meringue pie for my birthday. It’s probably been my request 80% of the time the last decade. Obviously I had to follow along and ask for it again this year. Well that’s great, except we don’t have a working mixer for some reason right now. And no one really jumped on my whisk-power drill idea. And we didn’t have candles.

No worries. We got a pie from a local pie place, and I improvised with a tea light candle.

Of course, the other part of the tradition dictates that I must have my picture taken with whatever sort of cake or pie I’ll be eating. My iPhone was the most easily accessible option, so I turned it over to my mother hoping she’d figure out how to work it rather quickly. Besides the multiple photos that I deleted that were blurry beyond recognition…

“Hey mom, the candle went out which is why I have my mouth open telling you the candle went out. For the fourth time. Because you’re making me laugh too much.”

“See, I can’t stop laughing. You’re making this too difficult. Stop accidentally pressing the shutter button. I know the touch screen is sensitive.”

“Whose idea was this anyway?”

“Whew, we got one!”

And we got that one just in time, because I was laughing so hard I was crying, and teary-eyed birthday pictures would probably be a little confusing.

After enjoying some pie, we ended up going through baby albums.

Have I mentioned lately that I love my brother? Because I do.

Especially when he does things like this. Little goofball. Not so little any more. But still a goofball.

While I enjoyed the pie, nothing can quite compare to wearing your birthday cake. I really went to town on this one.

Now I have to figure out what we’re doing for my real pre-birthday in a couple days.

That epic picture in the last post was taken looking back towards St. George from the Arizona Strip. We drove into the strip a ways today to see the sights and get a better feel for the terrain between St. George and the Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument.

We took the truck, which was a good plan considering many of the backcountry BLM roads we were on had significant ruts and dips going through washes and drainages.

After spending the afternoon south of town, we headed just north of the house to Snow Canyon State Park for a hike.

Besides the abundant scenery to take in, we found tiny lizards and even tinier frogs (toads?) that were less than an inch long. We also spend some time observing cacti.

I was intrigued to see that the event we would have been at this weekend had the NASCAR Crocs tour not been canceled is having some issues with rain. Good thing it ended up being an off weekend.

And no, this entry has nothing to do with politics.

My friends, what this country needs is change, and today I am proud to announce that I proudly accept the proud nomination for… oh wait. Never mind.

No, I’m just a college grad. But at least it’s official. This is a VERY expensive piece of paper. But now I’m qualified to do anything from flipping burgers to running a country!

Really though, it’s beginning to sink in that my undergrad college experience is over. I’ve got the diploma to prove it, and summer is nearing an end but I won’t be going back to school. So unless I can convince myself that summer will be lasting a lot longer this year, I’ll be done with school for the time being for the first time in 17 years, not including preschool.

Change also seems more official in my parents’ lives in the last several months. As yesterday’s post shows, the house is now looking lived-in. The parents carry Utah drivers licenses, and the vehicles have Utah plates.

One of the old Alaska plates now hangs on the garage wall as decoration.

Now before I start getting sentimental, on to the day’s news!

We went to a case sale, where people buy large quantities of canned and boxed things that are usually edible in some way, shape or form. We participated in the exciting festivities in the Smith’s grocery store parking lot and came away with four cases of our own.

Lynn’s and Albertsons came next as we searched for some veggies. I had a Starbucks Frappuccino.

Now that you’ve had sufficient time to let that picture mess with your mind (if it had its intended effect), yes, it IS a very tiny Frappuccino. My hands are still fairly normal-sized. They were giving away free samples, and I was glad to oblige.

Our shopping efforts came to fruition when dinner plans were made, as all the brightly colored veggies got chopped up by my normal-sized hand holding a knife in preparation for kabob grilling.

The finished product was quite scrumptious, and made a great dinner paired with bratwurst and Octoberfest beer.

After dinner on the patio we watched The Whale Rider, I introduced my parents to the wonders of Priceline, and we watched some clips from the Daily Show and the Colbert Report.

Change is good, especially when it involves tiny Frappuccinos.

Today I got started early with a drive from parking at Reagan Airport to parking at Baltimore Airport. It’s a good thing I left myself a little time to spare, because the main route GPS wanted me to take was a no trucks allowed parkway, so I had to drive an extra 15 minutes to bypass the parkway. On the first short hop from Baltimore from Newark, I got a bulkhead seat with TONS of legroom. It was great. of course, as luck would have it, the only seat I could get on the long flight from Newark to Las Vegas was a middle seat.

Regardless, I was really impressed with Continental Airlines overall. This was the first time I’ve flown with them, and they don’t charge for first checked bags (EDIT: They just announced they’ll be charging for a first checked back as of October), they still give free meals on flights, plus they have free built-in touch screen LCDs with lots of entertainment options. I watched What Happens in Vegas, which as it turns out was a much smarter, wittier comedy than I was expecting. I was stifling laughter and I’m pretty sure I woke up my sleeping rowmates a couple times. Oh – and there’s a brief bike polo scene in the movie!

Also built in are a bunch of games, including multiplayer games with other passengers on the plane. I played chess with a girl from row 6 and Battleship with another guy in the row in front of me. Nice.

In Vegas my mom picked me up from the airport after some morning shopping including Trader Joes, a liqour store, and a cactus greenhouse. We drove past the strip on the way out of town. I’m looking forward to being back later this year.

It was quite the climate and geography change from the East Coast. The 2 hour drive from Vegas to St. George includes a really scenic drive through a canyon on I-15.

The rocky terrain in this area boasts some amazing colors…

…including the view driving up to my parents’ house, which features the entrance to Snow Canyon just North of St. George.

We timed getting home perfectly with my dad getting back from an overnight excursion for his job (Manager of the Parashant National Monument). Here are my parents discussing their new cactus purchases for the day.

And here is the backyard, filled with various sharp prickly things. I knew they had purchased a number of them, but I didn’t know what I was in for when I stepped out back. It’s a full-fledged cactus farm!

There have been some significant changes since I was last here just over two months ago (feels like 6 months ago). Most notable on the exterior, my parents have trimmed the trees and pruned back bushes and the front of the house is much more visible as a result.

Interior-wise, last time I was here they still had a bunch of furniture to buy since they sold much of the old stuff in Alaska, and it was nice to see four days of furniture shopping last visit (plus many more days without me) produce some nice results.

The decor is hillarious, yet very fitting. While the house architecture, styling, paint, and furniture are of a Southern flavor, the artwork and wall hangings are all still very Alaskan. Such ornaments including Alaskan paintings and my dad’s inbred caribou antlers from Adak (island I was born on).

And I still really like the open floorstyle of this house. The entry leads into the living room, which is open into the dining room adjacent to the kitchen, which opens into the breakfast nook and family room area. It’s a great place for my parents now that my brother and I are out of the house (and by this I mean it will fit their empty nest lifestyle well – not “thanks for buying such a nice house now that Ian and I aren’t around to make a mess of it”).

We finished off the evening with some Bailey’s on ice, a favorite bedtime routine of my parents. They stocked up in Vegas today, since alcohol can be a little hard to come by in Utah.

My mom also got an interesting variety of wines, and I expect we’ll try a couple out while I’m here.

I’m not used to how quiet it is here at night. I guess I’ve gotten used to sleeping in downtown hotels with constant traffic and city noise outside. The quiet is really nice though.

My dad just pulled out the spotting scope and showed me Jupiter and its four brightest moons. Good times.

First off, I’m sitting here listening to Sarah Palin give her speech at the Republican National Convention, and I went into it fairly open minded having not heard her speak too many times. That said, I’m getting severely rubbed the wrong way by her speech. She’s staying away from her policies that I don’t necessarily agree with, but the substance of her speech has so far been making Obama the subject of ridicule and jokes that are anything but funny. They’re not attacks on issues or charachter, they’re borderline insults. She seems to be unable to help but mock the Democrats. The constant booing and chanting of the convention floor doesn’t help either.

Anyway, enough politics for now.

I started off the day by heading into DC and ended up right behind the White House to have our morning conference call. I’d never seen the back of the White House before, and it’s much closer to the road than from the front. While on the call, I watched numerous tourists get pushed back to the far curb by upwards of 15 policemen while a motorcade rolled up (not the presidential motorcade, but probably someone fairly important with several tinted window SUVs and a police car).

And of course, while there I had to wander around to the front side for the classic picture. There is an infinite amount more security than the last time I was there. You can no longer drive on the road in front of the White House without going through a roadblock and a bomb-sniffing dog checking out your car. You can still walk through, however.

I met up with Rhett (good friend from Oregon) who is doing an internship with One Economy, a DC non-profit that aids low-income families across the globe, this summer. He’s enjoying his summer, and one highlight was when he ended up talking basketball with Obama a few weeks ago. Obama is an honorary boardmember of One Economy, and at a luncheon a few weeks ago Rhett happened to end up at the same table as him. Pretty awesome if you ask me.

We had really good Italian food at Vapiano, where you pick your dish and watch it get made in front of you. It’s kind of a trendy, modern restaurant.

Also, I had ridden the DC Metro before, but I have to say that after experiencing public transit in numerous other cities, the Metro blows them all away as far as ease of use and the infrastructure.

This evening we had a small marketing event with a local DC running club. We gave away free stuff and raffled off a couple pairs of shoes.

After returning the trucks to parking at the airport, I met up with Perry and his wife Megan and went back to their place for a while to chat and have some ice cream. We had some great laughs, as this well-timed picture illustrates. I’ll probably see them again when I’m back next week (and Rhett too for that matter), but I figured I’d better see them tonight because Megan is pregnant and due in three days, so by the time I get back they may have their hands full.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be up early to drive to the Baltimore airport where I’ll fly out to my parents’ place in St. George, Utah for the weekend.

Or boring compared to some other days at least.

We headed out for DC this morning and decided to take the longer, more scenic route. We started out by heading across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, deemed one of the seven engineering wonders of the modern world. It’s a 20 mile bridge with tunnels built in to create shipping channels.

We drove up near Chincoteague, where I lived a year as a kid. It didn’t particularly bring back specific memories, but it was kind of odd emotionally to be in that area for the first time in a long time. I kept thinking about how completely different it would have been to grow up there rather than in Alaska.

We arrived in DC and Nate and I spent far too long looking for parking for our trucks. We’re staying in Arlington right next to Reagan National Airport, so we ended up parking the trucks at the airport in economy parking. It’s the only open-air overnight parking we could find. Then Nate did his whole psychic thing again as we were walking to find some food and said he wanted Chipotle. Sure enough, a block up the street we found one.

After finding food, we met up with Lyndsay and Molly for a productive meeting regarding our grassroots efforts coming up for the Chicago Marathon.

I’ve tentatively made plans to see both Rhett and Perry tomorrow either before or after our evening track club event, but if it doesn’t pan out at least I’m back for a much longer period of time next week.

I’m ending the evening with a blog post (obviously) and drafting an email I’ll probably never send for the sake of some catharsis.

Today I woke up and headed out to the beach to go jump in the ocean. The current was rather strong, but I managed to only get unexpectedly sucked in by a wave once. That once was enough to get pretty waterlogged. For a few hours after my nose was randomly draining water. Regardless, it felt really good to be in the ocean for a bit.

Today was fully sunny for the first time since we got here, and as a result the beach was rather busy all day (it helps that it was a holiday).

We decided to stick around an extra day and head to the DC area tomorrow, so I grabbed breakfast with Stephen and then we met up with his friend Jessica to go do some geocaching at a nearby state park. It provided a much different atmosphere than the beach.

We ended up walking quite a ways in search of a cache we couldn’t get to without crossing a marsh.

Along the way we stumbled across this diorama in a tree. The random assortment of assembled items was quite amusing.

On the back side of the park, we wound up at a beach that many locals utilize for boating and relaxing to avoid the tourists on the main beach.

After geocaching, I accompanied Stephen to Best Buy so he could look for the Kite Runner, the movie version of the book he just finished. While there, we noticed this peculiar label. Notice how it says iPhone 3GB. There is no such thing as a 3 gigabyte iPhone. You’d think a computer/electronics retailer would catch that one.

We went to a surf themed baja mexican/seafood grill for dinner. Afterwords, Nate enjoyed another Nerds Rope…

And Nate, Molly, Stephen and I played a game of hearts. Between the number of times Stephen had the 2 of clubs and the way my hands meshed with his in a really bad way, it was a very odd game. I ended the game by shooting the moon, which simply secured my 3rd place finish while putting Stephen out of his misery.