The Joys of Christmas

While traditions may not abound in my family, there are several moments that I have come to appreciate over the years. As I visited my grandmother on Christmas Eve day, I regained my appreciation regarding the fragility of life; so many of us go about our days without too many cares in the world. During this season, we think of presents, shopping, singing carols, etc. Do we spend enough time visiting those in need? Countless elderly and afflicted individuals fill hundreds of hospitals, nursing homes, care centers, etc. hoping for a loved one—or anybody—to stop by and spend a few moments with them. While visiting my grandmother, a lady (stricken with a poor memory) came by. She kept speaking to us as if we were her daughter, Stephanie. She talked about how she carried her nine months in the womb and had toiled to make sure she had a good life. She repeated these words several times as she made her rounds around the hallway. But where was Stephanie? I don't know. I'm not saying that Stephanie is at fault; maybe she had stopped by earlier that day or some other day. It's hard to say. But it's at these times when I see these individuals that I remember to appreciate my family and loved ones even more.

I love that during Christmas I can spend time with my family—much more so than receiving any gifts. While we may purchase a few gifts each year, I can honestly say that this has been one of the least important aspects of Christmas. Having a few days to be with family is so much more rewarding. I especially enjoy going to Laguna Beach every Christmas Day. It's fun to wake up and do Christmas in the morning, but it's so much more enjoyable to spend a couple of hours by the beach, enjoying the beautiful, blue skies and sunny 75-degree weather. Today was especially beautiful. Even having seen so many gorgeous days at the beach, I was taken back by how pleasant the weather was. Anyway, I hope that everybody enjoyed their Christmas, no matter how they celebrated it.

Popping the Question

It's about time that I let the world know that I officially got engaged. The past week or so has been extremely busy (not to mention the rest of December). Some of you have asked why I have not brought such an important matter up until now. Well, I wanted to make sure that my family and closest friends were all notified first. I didn't want them to have to find out via Facebook or my blog. If I neglected to call, text, or IM you, I'm sorry. Ce la vie.

Anyway, Diane and I got engaged on Saturday, December 15, 2007 up at Sundance. It was a very exciting night. If you're interested in hearing more, ping me.

SoCal Stories

It has been a busy month. I have only been home for four days, but it feels like it's been longer. Sadly, I will be leaving the family in a few days. However, not all is lost; I will be spending the rest of my vacation with Diane and her family. I'm looking forward to it. Anyway, let me recount some funny stories from the past few days.

1) My mom picked me up at LAX on Thursday. Within five (yes five) seconds of putting my luggage in the trunk, a policeman (on a motorcycle) pulled her over. My mom had not parked at the white curb because there were too many cars in the way. Rather, she stopped in the middle lane (no cars behind her) and popped the trunk. I thought this was perfectly reasonable, but the policeman did not. My mom pleaded with the man to be lenient with her, but he seemed rather unforgiving. After checking her ID and record, he finally let us go. We both would have been ticked had he actually given us a ticket; I mean, we literally were stopped for less than ten seconds!

2) While running some errands with my parents, I had to make an exit near my dad's office. I figured that I had plenty of time to move over two lanes to exit. I have done it in the past and I plan to do it in the future. Anyway, maybe it was withdrawal from California freeways, but I had a difficult time getting over. There was little room to move, I had pressure from the guy behind me to hurry up, and road was quickly running out. In a matter of seconds, I had to make a quick and decisive action. I turned on my blinker, waited a second, and then made the quick transition across two lanes to the off ramp. I think I gave my parents a scare, but that's okay; they give me a scare when they drive. :)

3) Upstairs in the bonus room, we have joined our two couches to create what we lovingly call the "family crib." It's so much fun! Sometimes, we all jump in and hang out as a family, chatting about whatever, watching TV and movies. You'll have to try it sometime, if you have the opportunity. Here's a pic.

Early Morning Weirdness

Today, I experienced something that I have never seen before. I seated myself in seat C (row 4). I sat there patiently waiting for the plane to fill with passengers. Soon after I sat down, a lady with her newborn asked if she could take the window seat. In case you're thinking that she (or her baby) was the problem, you're wrong. A few minutes later, a gentleman asked me if he could sit in the middle seat. This perplexed me because the plane was approximately 2/3 full. I reluctantly agreed (I like my space). As I stood up to let the gentleman in, I noticed that across the aisle there were two empty seats (aisle and middle). Utterly befuddled as to why this man did not sit in either of those seats, I decided to sit in the available aisle seat (one row behind me, across the aisle). Nor sooner did I switch seats than the man took my original aisle seat! WTF?! Who does that?

The Hot Chocolate Nightmare

It is about time that I tell the story, a story about hot chocolate. It all began in November. Brooke and I were devising ways to get rid of all the swag that HP sent us. They seriously sent us hundreds of Frisbees, Post-It notes, etc. We had already setup a booth in the Wilkinson Center and given away a lot of swag and talked to a lot of people about HP and Microsoft.

A few weeks came and went and the time came for the next big marketing activity. Brooke ordered four 5-gallon containers of hot chocolate. We were to setup two outposts: one at the bottom of the hill and the second in front of Tanner building. Early on the morning of December 5^th, Brooke and I met at the bottom of the hill. I helped her setup and then I proceeded to drive her Jeep up to the Tanner building to setup myself.

While driving by the RB, I was happily cruising through the parking without a care in the world. There was one truck in front of me. It was on the right-hand side of the parking lot and I was more on the left-hand side. Then suddenly, the truck decided to make a wide left turn into a parking spot. It did so in front of me, not giving me much time to react. In my shortsightedness, I hit the brakes somewhat hard. I totally forgot that I had hot chocolate canisters in the back.

The moment I hit the brakes, the hot chocolate flew forward with one lid popping right off. Burning hot chocolate spilled everywhere! I immediately stopped to assess the damage. Both canisters were tipped over, but only one had burst open. I quickly grabbed it and in the process burned the tips of my fingers on the scalding chocolate. After getting back in the car, I noticed that the stereo was no longer working! The hot chocolate had short-circuited the amp. Anyway, with hot chocolate all over the Jeep and a broken stereo, I proceeded to setup for my event.

The event went well. People love free hot chocolate on a cold morning. I was also able to give away swag and talk to people briefly about HP and Microsoft. After the event ended, I was supposed to head off to class for a debate. I never made it to the debate. I tried to assess the damage as much as possible and used lots of paper towels to soak up as much hot chocolate as possible. I then proceeded to pick up Brooke and her friend. I told her my tale. She had to go to class, so I dropped her off and then proceeded to spend the next couple of hours cleaning her SUV.

I soaked several hot rags and absorbed a lot of hot chocolate. I repeated the process a few times, but I still had not solved my problem. I had to go to Diane's school and get my teeth cleaned. Now that I had squeaky clean teeth, I came back to my smelly problem. I drove to the one car wash place that I knew shampooed carpets. I hoped that they were going to be able solve my problem. It took them about an hour to clean my car. I drove home happily, thinking that my problem was solved.

When I got home, I noticed that there was still hot chocolate in the car. In fact, the passenger seat had a great, big pool of hot chocolate. I drove back to the place, showed them to mess; they cleaned it up and I headed off for home again. What do you think happened? That's right; there was another puddle of hot chocolate! I began to investigate the problem even further. I realized there was lots of hot chocolate under the passenger seat.

Realizing that my quest to clean the car was futile, I called Brooke and updated her on the bad news. The Jeep still smelled like hot chocolate and the stereo was broken (at best, only the amp). I told her that I still needed the Jeep to check out the stereo. I have a friend that works at Circuit City. He checked out the car and said that it should only be a bad amp. He gave me a few options: 1) Call the Jeep dealership and pay hundreds of dollars; 2) Buy a new head unit and rewire the car; or 3) Find an amp on eBay and pray that it works. I decided to try option 3 first (after all, I'm poor).

Fortunately, the cosmos smiled upon me and I found two amps on sale on eBay. I bid on one and I was lucky enough to buy it the following day! The next step was waiting for the amp, which took about one week.

Finally, we're up to present day. The amp arrived a few days ago and I finally had time to get it installed (I was a bit preoccupied this past weekend). When I hopped in the car, I noticed that there was still hot chocolate in the car. I decided to first go visit Dave and see if the amp solved my problem. It did! I was so happy! Although, I was a bit put off by the mold that was growing around the amp (the carpet didn't have time to dry).

I found a shop-vac, dried the passenger seat and headed home. I then proceeded to clean the mold from the SUV. After some time, everything was back to normal. The Jeep was cleaned, the stereo worked, and I was free of my burden! I had paid my dues and was free of this dreadful responsibility. Yay!

If you're still reading this, then you are probably sick of me writing. Thanks for being a good sport and listening. :-D

Time to Spare

Today, I took my last final of the semester. I am pleased to say that it only took me 35 minutes. I love taking exams in a short amount of time. For whatever reason, it makes me feel great, especially since I know that staying at the testing center any longer wouldn't benefit me at all.

The down side of finishing finals so early is there is nobody to play with. My friends are still studying for their finals. However, I now have time to do things that I have wanted to do for some time. For example, today I read a non-school book for about two hours. I also went to the gym. It was a great day.

My Amazing Home Teachee

Since Diane has left me, I have had some free time to hang out with old friends. Having completed my finals this afternoon, I am as free as a bird. Sadly, most of my friends in my current complex (which aren’t many since I spend all my time with Diane) still have finals, I called up my old home teachee. She’s working full-time, so I knew that she would probably be home. Anyway, I was over at her place, catching up on the times when her roommate broke a friend’s vacuum cleaner.

Since the vacuum wasn’t cooperating, the girls decided to figure out what was wrong. After dumping out the container (there’s no bag in this vacuum), they noticed was wads of long hair wrap around the thingy that rotates (yes, that’s the official name for that piece). There was enough hair to make a wig—and it was very colorful. Unfortunately, the problem was still not solved. So, my amazing home teachee takes a screw driver, removes the cover and proceeds to fix the vacuum cleaner. The belts had gotten loose and thus weren’t causing the “thingy” to turn. After about 20 minutes, the vacuum was back together and working like a champ.

The Next Wave of Proselytizing

So, I was on Facebook today reading the news feed and I came across this group that I think is a bit peculiar. All I can say is what is this world coming to? I didn't research the nature of this group much further, but I present it to you to decide.

BYU Network Issues

I can’t tell you the exact minute, but at approximately 10:50am MST, Google and all of its subsidiaries were unavailable at BYU (or maybe just my work computer). I just logged onto Google Talk from my Blackberry. I would jump on Blogger.com and write this up right now, but I can’t access the site. It reminded me of the time back in 2005 that Google has “DNS issues.” What’s strange about the whole situation is that I can access Yahoo and several other websites.

Update [11:20AM]: Services are back on. :-D

The Progression of Surfing the Net

I came into work today all ready to work on an internal web app that I'm building. I have yet to make meaningful progress today because of a number of distractions. First, I had to help Michele move six boxes of wrapped fudge to the 7th floor. After that, I got to my desk and proceeded to check any updates on Facebook, read the news, etc. I came across a NY Times article (hat tip: Xaida) on the best travel spots for 2008. Number eight on the list is Death Valley, a place that I've wanted to visit for several years (if you're interested in going, please let me know). Anyway, from Death Valley, I jumped onto Google Maps to get a better look at the area. Then I noticed a big gray box: government land in Nevada. I started thinking to myself, "I wonder where Area 51 is..." I then hopped on Wikipedia and started reading about it. I momentarily got distracted by HMMWV's, but I quickly returned to see if I could locate Area 51 on Google Maps.

So there you have it: Facebook => NY Times => Death Valley => Google Maps => Area 51.

One thing to note about the image found below...check out all of the craters. These were made from various bombs that the Air Force tested. Look at the one near the top; it's over 500 feet wide!

Cold Days Ahead

The last two weekends it has snowed. I have been very excited to see snow because it justifies the cold weather (to a point). I was looking at the weather report for this week and it's not looking good! The whole week is going to be bitterly cold with an average high of 26 degrees! The lows will be in the teens and quite possibly the single digits. I have been thinking about going night boarding this Friday, but I am getting a little worried that I may come home with frostbite. Maybe I will have to go snowboarding during the morning instead when there *might* be some sun.

Tuesday: 30/13

Wednesday: 28/14

Thursday: 28/19

Friday: 26/18

I am really excited to go home to California and enjoy some sunny and warm weather. After a good week or so of that, I am very excited to soak in the sun while sunbathing in Kauai. It's going to be another warm Christmas. Yay!

The Oil Change

For the past few years, I have been going to Mike's Auto Tune and Tire. Overall, I can say that my experiences at his shop have been positive. I feel that he has been honest and fair in his dealings with me. I have been pleased with the services performed and the staff has been willing to resolve any concerns that I have had. One issue that bothers me is inability to properly estimate the wait time. For example, I am currently sitting here at their shop waiting for my SUV's oil to be changed. The wait time was supposed to be 15-20 minutes; however, I waited 50 minutes before they took my car into the shop. So, what should have been an hour appointment has become nearly 100 minutes.

Fortunately, I have been able to finish up my papers and projects while here. Nevertheless, had I known that it would take so long to get my car serviced, I would have asked them to drive me home; I prefer to be in a more relaxing environment. That's not to say the shop is completely unpleasant. There is free hot chocolate and cookies as well as a little TV. If you want hot cider, that's available; personally, I think it's gross. Now if they had free WiFi, I wouldn't be complaining because I could be reading the news. Anyway, does anybody have any positive (or negative) experiences with auto shops that they'd like to share?

Parking Problems

I have wanted to write about this for a while, but I have been too busy with school and final projects. In recent weeks, I have noticed a problem with parking in my garage. I don't know what's up with Nevadans, but they obviously were not taught how to park properly. Before I get people flaming me about how Nevadans know how to park, I am only referring to these two girls (who shall remain anonymous). One of them doesn't pull in far enough, which makes it a little tricky, at times, to park in my stall. Her neighbor parks even worse than she does! She pulls in crooked and lets her backend hang out a couple of feet. I feel like kicking the car every time that I see it.

Christmas is Almost Here

It was quite befitting that on December 1 it snowed in Provo. Not only on the benches, but in the valley! I was very happy to see snow because it's been a little chilly for some time now and it's about time that we have something to show for it. I didn't check the weather report, but I think that we got about 4" or so. Hopefully, Provo will get more snow and I'll be able to experience a truly white winter. Most years, it has been a partially white winter.