Date Night in San Francisco

8 Things You Can Do in San Francisco:

1. Eat really great at The Slanted Door.

2. Have intelligible conversations with intelligent people.

3. Walk to Coit Tower, which means climbing stair after stair after stair. We actually found a secret set of brick stairs (found below in #7).

4. Notice things along the way that we would have never otherwise noticed.

(What happens when this guy stands up?????)

5. Enjoy serene scenes from Coit Tower.

6. Watch Kristen kill a large bug with her eyelashes.

7. Pretend like we're taking engagement pictures again.

8. Enjoy some time with our hot wives.

M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I

Does anyone else remember chanting that spelling the day you learned it? Over and over and over?

Today, everything ended early in church, and teachers all over were struggling to maintain the attention of their classes. After doing every "enrichment" activity I could with my class, I gave in to the all-popular game of hangman.

Each kid had a turn to spell out something--preferably from the lesson. It went smoothly, then a self-proclaimed "smartie" girl in my class said she had a word that was really going to stump us. With just 2 minutes to go, I was skeptical. Aside from the kids of the spelling bee craze that has taken the nation, I would be surprised and embarrased if a 7-year-old could take me.

Several minutes later--after church was over--the class had to give in. I had absolutely NO IDEA what her word was, and figured it must be in Japanese or something (a language she says that she knows). She excitedly filled in the letters to the hangman puzzle, loudly and enthusiastically adding, "The state! See!? I knew I'd get you!"

MISS ASJUPE

SMILE!

This is the face of two people who just went to the dentist yesterday and HAD NO CAVITIES!

You might think, "Well, they just went to the dentist 9 months ago and had a lot of work done. Why would they have more cavities?"

We both had a few teeth that were on "cavity watch." (In fact, I had 4 teeth in this category.) And they aren't cavities! Yeah!!!

AND...the dentist said I really need to consider getting braces, because my gums are starting to recede on my front tooth based on the angle it is sitting. That's happy news, since I've been trying to justify them for about 5 years, and couldn't get over it being a vanity issue. Vanity issue or not, that's a lot of cash.

But at least WE DON'T HAVE ANY CAVITIES!

Eatin' Well and Then Burning It Off

My appetite for seafood led us to San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf over the weekend. Karen and I arrived early enough to even find free parking.
We found this little place right on the pier that is nationally recognized for its seafood--Scoma's Restaurant. It was the best food since the cruise.
One of the highlights of the Wharf is the Bush-Man. I snapped this shot of him in action. Karen was a victim of his tactics last year, so we (and about 40 others) took a moment to laugh at the startled reactions of others. The guy on the right could not figure out what we were all looking at, but in a split second, he understood.
A shot looking on to Alcatraz.
After some casual walking around the piers we spotted the Ghiradelli Chocolate Factory. The brownie sundae with both milk and dark chocolate was delectable.Following a terrific feast the night before, Karen and I hopped on our new bikes for a beautiful two hour ride Saturday morning around the trails near home. Do bike seats come with any more cushion these days? We are both feeling it today.

Our Second Trip to Elko, Nevada

Well, ya gotta do what ya gotta do...so we decided to make the most of it. After our clutch burned out last week, we had a 15-hour drive ahead of us to rescue our car. We went all out, left on Friday, and got a motel room in Elko for $50. Livin the high life, I tell you. No, folks, we won't be going to Hawaii with Cory, Kristen, Ang, and Paul, but we really shell it out for a good Travelodge.

The Lodge was courteous enough to provide labels for the ammenities. The lounge was labeled, the room numbers were labeled, and the shampoo was labeled. Thank heavens...one of the perks of this Travelodge was that it was pet-friendly. Without the label (and based on the smell), we could only have assumed that this shampoo was not meant for humans.

We also decided to take our camera for pictures along the way. We figured there had to be something scenic. Then we remembered that we were in Nevada. The only thing scenic in Nevada is the California border. However, the airline that we took our rental car from sure thought highly of the view.

We almost went for Premium gas at this Shell...

We also immensely enjoyed passing "Boomtown" four times in the last 2 weeks.

Finally, we found joy in the simple pleasures of a road trip...like clean bathrooms at pit stops, continental breakfast, lots of time to chat, and a bag of grapes to snack on.

Good times.

*YOU ARE HERE

Where we are...


Where our car is...

Gotta love road trips! More to come next week, after our 15 hour drive to recover the Altima.

The Cars

My work sponsored an event at the Danville Auto Museum to introduce our new community "Trilogy at the Vineyards." I thought I would share some of my favorite cars I spotted. My overall favorite was this 1957 Astor Martin racing car....a huge gas hog.


The Ferrari's also caught my attention....also gas hogs.


This car was likely the largest and most expensive in the entire museum-- a 1960's Rolls Royce formerly used for royalty. It is estimated to be worth several million dollars. But is that just the yearly expense for gas?

So...when all said and done, I'd rather have my 1995 hatchback Ford Escort that costs me $0 per month and gets over 30 miles/gallon......and real beauty!

Atta Boy Luther!!

That's right. I have officially graduated. It doesn't seem quite real, especially since I have been going to school so long ("Dr. Edwards"). The picture above is right outside the Marriott Center after the university commencement exercises. Afterwards, Wayne and Nada Miller took us along with Roni and Coleman out to Ruby River for a delicious steak dinner.


The next morning was the real graduation. As I walked across the podium to recieve my diploma I was assured that my family had made it when I heard "Atta boy Luther" echoing off every wall in the building. I was the second in line to graduate which meant my family had a long wait to the end. Let me just say that when you get this bunch together.....

your liable to find them looking for other things to do, like finding people in the congregation doing this. (Can you spot the couple making out--top left) Interestingly, Karen had taken so many pictures of couples making out during graduation that we ran out of memory just after the ceremony.

After this final graduation we all went out for breakfast. Well, all but Ryan had breakfast. Being a single college student, his biological clock is a little screwed up. Check out Ryan's light breakfast.


In a matter of two days, I graduated and moved all our belongings to Brentwood, California.
Ryan made the 12 hour journey with me and helped me move in. If any of you are considering moving to the third floor, I would consider finding something a little lower. We were exhausted.
The worst part is Karen is back in Utah finishing up teaching until the end of May. Not fun.

Goodbye, Our Fine Furry Friend

Yesterday was the big day. After almost 4 years with Terris, we decided that the one-bedroom apartment life (with no yard) was not going to work. It was harder to give her up than we thought, but we are comfortable with her new owners--Aaron's family--and know she will have a good life.

Thursday we did a "tricks photo shoot." In about 10 min, I took 89 pictures. Here are a few of our favorites:

"Sit and stay." We're aware that every dog can do this, but Terris will seriously sit and stay forever, even if she has food right in front of her.

"Beg." Thankfully, the only times she did this was when we told her to.

"Stand." This trick was my favorite to watch. I felt like I was at a circus.

"Shake."

"High Five."

"Let me see your toe-toes." When Terris was an inside dog, she often came into the house muddy. Brady started saying this to her so he could clean off her paws before she ruined the floors.

"Crawl." This trick took her forever to learn, but now she can crawl all the way across the yard without standing up.

"Find it." Brady would often hide treats in our house, and later our yard, and make Terris sniff them out. She was pretty funny to watch, drooling all over the place. The treat she is sniffing out is in the branches.

Here's just a few more pictures for closure.

Things we'll miss: nightly walks, her crazy (although rarely heard) moan-of-a-bark, running with her, taking her to BBQs and to the park, playing catch, feeding her, petting her, wrestling with her, camping with her, and basically just thinking about her during the day.

Of course I could make a list of things we won't miss (like finding a dog-sitter every time we want to get out of town), but that seems a little wrong right now.

I guess we have to think of a new title for our blog...

The True Meaning of Easter

Yesterday, Brady and I, Roni and Coleman, and Coleman's parents got together for our traditional Easter Egg Derby. The derby involves a NCAA style tourney of competing eggs. To participate in your own derby, follow these steps:

1. Boil your eggs. Unfortunately, despite great care for this instruction, some of our eggs ended up a little mushy inside. They made quite a splatter on contact.

2. Decorate your eggs. This year, Coleman's mom taught us to use rubber bands.

3. Rank your eggs based entirely on looks. This year, Brady's egg won (see "Stripes" above), and was seeded as a #1 pick.

4. Sit across a short table, and push your eggs together. A scientific law states that only one egg will break on contact (unless they aren't actually hard-boiled, in which case they will splatter egg guts all over the table). The egg that does not break goes on to the next round.

5. Declare a champion. Here is the picture from the championship match between me and Coleman's dad. After never making it to a second-round, I actually took the title! We renamed my egg "Cinderella."

6. Enjoy a hearty feast of egg salad sandwiches, fruit, freshly squeezed strawberry lemonade, and the best chocolate cake we've ever tasted.

The Most Expensive Brownie We've Ever Had

And no, we aren't into "special brownies."

Tonight we went to Matt and Emily's for brownies as sort of a last family hangout. Unfortunately we did not double-check the signs, and parked in a tenant space instead of a guest space (one space short of guest parking). $121 later, we retrieved our Altima.

You know, this sort of thing wouldn't be as irritating if it was the first time. Sadly, though, it is not. When Brady and I were dating, Brady was towed from his OWN COMPLEX. Then it was only an $80 blow. We were told that the raise in prices was due to "higher gas prices." I'd say!

Just One More Reason to Avoid Chiropractors

Check out this kookie fellow:

Chiropractor Claims to Travel Through Time

Pink Ribbon Month

Today in class, we were talking about the common types of cancer, their characteristics, etc. This day requires a bit of maturity from students, as we discuss a few sensitive topics (i.e. breast and prostate cancer). However, I couldn't get mad about the snickering after my slip-up in class.

On my PowerPoint, I had a picture of a pink ribbon next to some of the risk factors for breast cancer. One student in the back asked, "What does a pink ribbon have to do with breast cancer?"

My response? "It's for Breast Awareness Month."

Unfortunately, I didn't catch myself the first time. A student asked, "For what month?"

My response again: "For October--Breast Awareness Month."

Oops. It was pretty funny, I have to say, when I finally caught up with the rest of the class. I told them I'd probably be fired for laughing along with them.

Lunch with Chad Lewis

This past week I had the priviledge of eating lunch with Tight End Chad Lewis. It turns out his brother owns a construction company and they both visited the BYU Construction Management students. He sat directly across from me at lunch and we spent a good hour in conversation. We spent some time talking about his foot injury that occured on the game winning touchdown that led the Eagles to the Super Bowl last year. We also discussed everthing from his football future to his many stories of T.O. Chad will be a free agent this coming season. He tried to recruit me to play for the NFL, but I had to turn him down because I already accepted a job. If only he would have asked sooner.

Choking

Well, our bragging has been put to rest.

We have had our hopes a bit smashed. Our little Escort--which we have constantly praised--had it's first major repairs. It simply wouldn't start. $400 later, it is working nicely. (Although we have to point out that on the books, it's worth about $500 right now.) Maybe we should follow Cory and Kristen's lead and ditch it for bigger and better...

On the same day, BYU lost to Utah--again. It seems that under Utah pressure, our teams cannot pull it together. This is the first game this season we have lost when we were ahead with 5 min left to play.


Incidentally, we saw Keena Young when we went out to eat on Friday night. We wanted to comment that we had planned to watch him that night on ESPN, and not at a food joint. We certainly can't be ticked with him, though, considering that he played well.

Hi Mom!

This has been one of those weeks when you forget that you have homework(although I have not forgotten that I graduate in two months). We have loved having Mom around. Aside from spoiling us rotten, Mom has made the most of her trip to Utah. We cheered BYU basketball and volleyball teams to victories, we had several family dinners, and Karen and I continually tried to convince Mom to move out here permanently.
To fascinate Mom with the beauty of Utah county, we decided to take her to Sundance. As you can see from the beautiful trees directly behind us, the scenery was breath-taking(literally). We took pictures anyway......
then decided to take pictures of things more visually pleasing.

The following is Terris's reaction to seeing mom for the first time during her trip. She could hardly wipe the smile off her face.

Terris decided it necessary to show off every one of her skillz to Mom during her visit. The following picture demonstrates our dog's "snoutin' grab" trick.