Me

These are some pics that people have been taking of me.

My Trip to Boise

On Thursday I drove out to Boise for a friend's wedding. I've known JM since she was 2, so it was a really good experience to watch her get married. Even though her parents don't, I got a really good feeling from DC. I'm really happy for them. I ended up staying longer in Boise, though because I didn't want to go back to Rexburg.
On Friday I went to the zoo with JM's mom and siblings. It was a lot of fun. It's been a long time since I've had 17 nieces and nephews calling me Uncle Sean.
On Friday night I helped NH & VM change out all the outlets in the house (my father taught how to do this in Chad's house last year). It felt good to know more than VM and to have better tools than him. That night we went to a water park. I got some good pics there - especially of Johnny.
Also next to the water park was a field filled flags.
On Saturday, I went shopping and went out to shoot pictures. That night I went shopping with MH (formally MM) and CM (I bought a hat). After shopping I got to watch the illusionist for the first time.


I have to say, one of the coolest things about this mini-vacation was that every night, as they were putting the kids to bed, I got to go on a 30 minute bike ride (so that I wouldn't be a distraction to the calming down and sleeping process). It was so nice to go riding every night.

Spring break & My trip to Provo

I've been pretty busy lately.

Spring Break
For the second week of April I went home to Cali. On the first day I went to a friend of mine's place to help her weed her garden. It was a garden I helped put in several years ago and it felt nice to get back into it.
Then on Tuesday, I took John and we went to City Beach and went rock climbing. There were five automatic belays and then a whole bunch that weren't automatic. I was able to climb 4 of the 5 without any problems. The fifth inverted about half way up and I struggled climbing upside down. There were these little kids that could do it without any problem. That was annoying. But John and I had a really good time. I think once I graduate I'll get into that a lot more often.
On Wednesday I went to an A's game with my father. We got some really good seats and watched the game. We were late, so we missed the first inning when the A's scored three points. Then the game went 6 innings scoreless. Then in the last two, the Chicago Whitesox scored 8 points. It was really sad to watch, but my dad and I had a good time anyway.
On Thursday, I went to see my friend at work. She works for Panera as the head pastry chef. We have a tradition of always having breakfast when I come to town. After breakfast I went and got new tires for my truck. I was very grateful for that purchase. While I was there, my dad came buy and bought me supplies for this semester. I got a lot of food and a lot of juice. I love it.
On Friday I packed, up so I could spend the night in the North Bay with John. We had dinner at H's place and had a basically fun night.
On Saturday and Sunday I drove home.
It was a great trip

Provo
For Memorial Day weekend, I went down to Provo to see Dun & Gu. I drove down Friday night arriving about 9pm. I met up with a friend from Boise (SD) and we went to dinner at this great Mexican place. I eventually got over to Dun & Gu's and we stayed up late talking. On Saturday mid-morning we got up and went to a Brazilian restaurant called Tucanos. The basis of the place is that you can have all the salad you want. As you sit and eat you can put up a green flag or a red flag. If your green flag is up, you are in "need" of meat. A server walks around from table to table with skewers of beef, chicken, breaded zucchini, breaded squash and various other rotisserie goodies. The server asks if you want any. If you do, the server uses his/her machete and cuts you off some. It was awesome.
To walk off the feast, Gu suggested we go up to Bridal Veil Falls. There was this great bike path there and these beautiful falls. We enjoyed the falls and the path. While on the path, Gu found these caterpillars.
After Bridal Veils, we went up to Heber to find a place called "Granny's Drive - In" where supposedly, the best milk shakes in Utah were made. It was great.
After we got home we porch sat and watched birds eat worms. I took a nap. We then went on a bike ride through Springville. About 1/2 way through our ride we came upon this mini-natural preserve. Some guy with lots of money has purchased a whole bunch of random animals and just has them there living. Everything from llamas and ostriches to reindeer and kangaroos. it was really random.
On Sunday, I went to a BYU singles ward with SD. Then I went back to SD's place to play games and hang out until dinner. For about two years now, I've been going down to Provo and dividing my time between SD and Dun & GU. Finally, they met for dinner, poker, and hearts. It was great fun.
On Monday I went to this inspiring memorial service put on by Gu's family. (Sorry, but I don't have any pics from that...). It touched me very deeply. I really enjoyed it, as an outsider. It was great to be an observer there.

So yea, those were my two trips. I'll update my Boise trip once I get the film developed.

Squirels

So I don't think there is any one local that reads this, so I'm pretty safe in writing this.

Today I came home from my internship to find out the power was out. RR told me that he heard a loud pop and that the power went out. I was kind of curious if it was a transformer (I once saw one of those explode in Oakland). So RR, TN, & DA went outside to check. Lying next to an electrical pole is a very fried squirell. Up on the top of the pole is a little converter thing with a patch of hair attached to it. I think I know how we lost the power.

Now anyone else would have just went "oh how sad" and walked away. Nope. Not my roommates. One of them immeadately grabbed a piece of newspaper and grabbed the carcus by the tail and took it in to the apartments above. (I refused to go, but I sent my camera along.)

about three hours later, DA went up to the guys in that apartment to remind them of the football game tonight (that I'm not playing in because I just barely healed from the last one). DA asked them about the squirell sitting in their trash. MR responded that they just found it there. They think that the animal crwaled in through a window, ate something and died. (And I thought my roommates were horrible cooks) When they through out the trash, one of my roommates grabbed the dead squirell and took it to another's place to leave it there as well.

I love living with my roommates. They make life so interesting.

On a different note, it snowed for 6 hours today. I hope the weather is better where ever you are.

Life Lists and a little OCD at the same time

My sister wrote a blog today about her life long list. (she was stealing from someone else for hers) This is the list you have of things you want to do before you die.

I'll admit that I have a pretty detailed list as to what I want out of life. I organized it as a "Stay In School" list. It is no secret that I hate being in school, but at times I need reasons to stay here. For example "If you don't get degree, you can't have this...."

There are six areas on my list (like I said - OCD): Involved in, Education, Travel, To Learn, To Have and To Be.

Just a sample for you:
To Have
Family (including a wife, 2-4 children, & a dog)
House (Garden, garage, home entertainment center)
Transportation (Truck, Subaru, Trailer)

Travel
Domestic (Disneyland, Vegas, Enchanted Highway, East Coast including Virgina and DC)
Foreign (New Zealand, Ireland, Russia, Canada & China)

To Learn
Cello
ASL
Photography
Woodworking
Welding
Quilts
Stars
Oceans

Like I said, it is a pretty comprehensive list. There is more to it but that's a good portion.

This week in History

This week has been filled with tragedy. Not just in 2007, but for several years. It amazing how two single events have led to a whole bunch of events.

Adolf Hitler was Born April 20, 1939. Several years later he managed to orchestrate the killing of 6 million Jewish people.

This event led to 12 students, 1 teacher and 2 terrorists being killed on April 20, 1999 in Columbine, Colorado as the terrorists celebrated Hitler's birthday.

This tragic event led to a psychotic killer killing between 31-33 people (I love how CNN & Fox differ on numbers) in Virgina.

That alone would be a very bloody week in April. But this week is also sees the anniversary of two other horrific events. Sadly they were on the same day. On April 19 1993 86 people in Waco, Texas were killed during an exchange with federal agents. Their leader, David Koresh, had a warrant out for his arrest at the beginning of the experience, 51 days prior to the April 19th blood bath.

2 years later, on April 19th 1995, Timothy McVeigh used the Waco Texas events as an excuse to kill 168 people in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He then waited 4 days and celebrated his 27th birthday on April 23.

This really is a bad week in history.

Thoughts from Sean

These are just random thoughts I have had floating around in my head....

If it's okay to trash talk about a rival sports team; And if we teach our elementary school children that sticks and stones will break their bones but words will never hurt them; And if we tell children to just ignore people when they say bad words, because that person is just trying to make them feel better. And if we are a people that cherish our rights to have freedom of speech. And if it is okay for rappers and R&B singers to degrade women verbally....why did Don Imus get fired? Are we telling our children not to express their opinions or open their mouths? Are we teaching our children that a redneck cowboy can really offend a college Women's basketball team? Is either A) a Women's Basketball team that weak that words destroy them or B) we are just looking for reasons to be offended?

Why do we fly the flag at half staff for a few killings in Virgina but we don't fly the flags at half staff everyday to help remind Americans that almost every day a US Soldier is killed in Iraq defending our freedoms? What makes 32 killings in one day more important than over 3,000 killings over the course of 4 years?

Why s the president of the United States allowed to take vacations on the same week he approves extending the troops in Iraq by 3 months?

My Sister is currently listening to John Lee Hooker. I wonder if he knows John and I were at JLH's last musical engagement. Santana was there. Van Morrison's daughter was there. Bonnie Raitt Sang as well. It was a rocking good time. I was never quite sure if John Lee hooker enjoyed it though. If I remember correctly it was on June 25, 2001, but it has been a while since then.

Why is it that my mind often returns to KNJ? Why is it the KNJ of 2004 and not the KNJ of 2006?