I Love the Wiggles

Thanks Judson -

My Next Rave

Here is what I am going to use at my next rave party. I can't wait. Is anyone else concerned that we drink this stuff? This must be another evil side effect of Yellow #6. Thanks for sharing this with me Rachel.

And I Ran . . .

For those of you who may have missed SNL last night, here is the digital short. It is the funniest thing I have seen on SNL this season. Enjoy!

A Joyful Waste of Time

Thank you Kyle and Haley for giving me a reason to be up blogging at 12:30 AM tonight. Everyone needs to go to this website and try this out: www.myheritage.com.

I am proud to share my looks with the likes of Laurence Fishburne and the one and only Ricky Martin! And evidently 50 cent better be watching out, because I am now rolling with Kanye.

The Marathon!

It has been way too long since my last post. For this I apologize. Thanks for the forgiveness.

I am excited to report that I ran a marathon this past weekend. The following is the story of how those events around that event that transpired:

Thursday October 4th, 2007

I was getting very excited to run the Marathon. As I was finishing up work for the day, I decided to make a trip to Home Depot (I needed a new toilet seat, to replace the crappy wood one that came with my new bathroom, in the house we moved to). To my dismay the incredible VW Jetta that I own would not start. For the full details behind the rocky relationship that I have with my vehicle, please see this previous post here.

I quickly went into a frantic panic. In my panic I remembered that my friends Julia and Randy were planning on driving to Salt Lake City that night. I called them and luckily they hadn't left yet. I had 5 minutes to pack which resulted in me forgetting to pack underwear, but I was on my way to St. George.

The fun continues . . . It is 2 in the AM and I am driving and conversing with Julia while Randy is snoozing. Our conversation is around how I never have seen someone get pulled over in the middle of the night. Well that was the wrong conversation to have, because literally minutes after those words left my mouth I am getting pulled over. Thank goodness the Moapa Tribal Police were making sure their 10 mile stretch of 1-15 was safe during the middle of the night. The experience did help us learn just how unorganized Randy is. He does have his last 10 years of car registration and insurance information in his glove box though. Unfortunately with all of that information he some how managed to not have a current insurance card. Go figure.

Randy and Julia dropped me off at sman9 and Allison's house to slumber that night. The rest of the trip was very enjoyable including the 26.2 mile run. I decided that it would be fun to run with my Dad and sister Sydney since it was her first marathon. Sydney did great and came in 20 minutes faster than even our most optimistic projection!

Here are some pics:

The starting line after taking a bus up the canyon. It was 40 degrees up there. Everyone from the FC who ran the race. Go 7 Habits!
It was really cold at the start!

The home stretch before the finish line.

Not quite sure what happened to my banner, but my Mom told me that she was proud
of me too, and that she still thinks I am handsome.

We all won medals. We are amazing!

The sherpa demonstrates how to avoid bloody nipples.

I would like to give some shout-outs to those who made my marathon possible:

1. To Melanie for risking her horrible joints and going on most of my long runs with me
2. To Julia for running with me for a cure for Aids as my warm-up race
3. To Randy for giving me transportation to and from the race
4. To Spencer and Allison for giving me shelter
5. To Sydney for being the inspiration behind this race
6. And to the sherpa (my father) for paying for the race, running with my water and goo, purchasing my vaseline and wet-wipes for the pre-race lube-up, and singing Neil Diamond to me at Mile 13.

Zaragoza - A Review

Zaragoza was just a stop-over on our drive to Barcelona from Madrid. It ended up being a diamond in the rough. It had an unbelievable Cathedral in the middle of it's town. Read more here.

Highlights

• The Cathedral
• Parking was so easy here
• My first of several experiences with Churros
• Having Britta ask me if we should prop a chair under our door handle of the pension where we rented a room for the night. It really wasn't that scary, but Britta wondered if it might be a rent by the hour place.
  
• The whole feel of the town felt very similar to some of the cities I served in on my mission.
• All of the pastries we ate for breakfast
  
• Having Britta get sincerely angry at me when I made her hold a stupid pose for a long time in front of a statue of Ceaser, while I tried to take a picture.
  

Lowlights

• Not much more to do other than see the cathedral

Toledo - A Review

Here is a link to Toledo's history: click here. This place is a mid-evil city. It was very cool. I felt like I was in the beginning of Aladdin with all of the small alleys and streets. If you thought about it while you were in the middle of the maze it could make you claustrophobic.

Highlights

• Holy Toledo - The cathedral and the art inside were unbelievable. Unfortunately you couldn't use a flash inside so most of the pictures turned out pretty crappy.
  
• All of the sword shops. I swear there had to be at least 50 of them. Who really buys that many swords. I only need one.
• The fact that they have installed escalators up the side of the hill so people visiting don't have to walk up. See Europeans are lazy just like us Americans.

Lowlights

• Walking up the hill (we didn't see the escalators until it was too late)

Madrid - A review

Madrid has a really cool history as does everywhere we visited. If you are interested check it out on wikipedia here.

Highlights

• I loved all of the pedestrian streets
• The beginning of a lot of ice cream eating
• How late everyone stayed up at night
• Tortilla Espanola
• The beginning of eating at many roadside cafes
• The royal palace
• Retiro Park
• The Prado Museum
• Just walking around

Lowlights

• Struggling to understand Spanish with the Spanish accent. It really took me almost the whole trip to get it.
• Driving in Madrid. Wow! It was a whole new world for me. I only got honked at 5 times or so. Those giant round abouts are quite tricky
• It was so hot!
• The effects of Jet Lag

Dublin - A Review

Well you have all been asking for it and now it is finally here! I am going to put up a post for each place that I visited. I will try to keep the info brief and then just include a slide show of my photos.

Highlights:

• The accents - much better live and in person
• The street musicians. There is something that was just charming about it all.
• The live music in the pubs.
  
• Rugby - I got to watch a World Cup Rugby match between Ireland and Georgia live in one of the pubs on my way home. I loved being in an atmosphere where everyone knew the game. It was more exhilarating than I thought it would be. It gave me the itch to start playing again.
• Woman walking and breastfeeding at the same time in public. I imagine it is much more difficult than it appeared.
• Man teaching son how to spit on moving cars from the second deck of the double decker bus.
• The Guinness!
  

Lowlights:

• Running to catch our bus to the airport with our backpacks on.
• Sleeping in the Dublin airport on my way home. Not as comfortable as one wood think.

Are you sure you don´t already have kids?

That would be Britta´s question to me after staring a few moments at me with my new sun glasses and beard. Evidently I pull off a good Dad look. I told her it looks much better when I have my mustache.

Greetings from Zaragosa, Spain. This is the half-way point between Madrid and Barcelona. It has ended up being incredible. Here is a picture of the Cathedral here:

Unfortunatley this internet cafe stinks and I can´t upload the pictures that I took. Hopefully I will be in a better situation tomorrow to show you some photos. The cathedral is incredible to say the least. The inside is much more beautiful.

. . . . Okay it is now the next day and I am in Barcelona. It is an incredible city. I like it even more than Madrid.

I hate driving in Spain. So far I have only been honked at 6 times. I heard that roundabouts were terrible. I have thought how horrible them must be when I saw them on TV. However only driving in them can I officially tell you how much I hate them.

Quick entry for today. Hopefully more tomorrow. Good Night.

Holy Toledo Driving in Madrid is Crazy!

Dear Readers,

Once again I welcome you to my blog. So today was an interesting and long day and needless to say I am super tired now that it is 12:30 in the AM. First off I finally had success at sleeping last night. I think I got a full 7 hours in, which made me happy. I woke up at 8:00 and decided finally I could go for a run (I am running the St. George Marathon on October 6th). I wasn´t sure how I would feel since I hadn't run in over a week and I am at a much higher altitude than San Diego. I took off to Retiro Park (Madrid´s version of central park). I actually felt great and I think that it helped having so many other runners out (mostly older Spanish men in very short running shorts which made me feel out of place). I ended up running 14 miles which made me very happy.

Today was the first day that we were going to have our rental car which we will have for the rest of our time here. We went to the airport to pick it up and then headed straight to Toledo. For those of you haven´t heard of Toledo you should check it out on wikipedia here. Basically it is a preserved Midevil City that was started by the Jews, Conquered by the Muslims, and then taken over for good by the Christians. What remains is a midevil fortress on a hill filled with pieces of all three cultures. The pictures really do no justice because you can´t get a good angle on anything because all the streets are barely wide enough to fit one car and they wind all through it. You almost get clasterphobic when you are in the middle of it.

After a long afternoon of walking the hills of Toledo we headed back to Madrid in the car. Boy what a treat. Could the Spanish make things any more confusing! Plus parking was an absolute joke. On top of being lost and getting honked at in round-abouts, Britta had to go to the bathroom. We ended up finding a parking spot literally miles from the hostel. We started the trek back to the hostel and like the genious that I am I realized I had left my wallet in the rental car. Needless to say between the run this morning, Toledo, and parking the rental car my feet hurt. Here are the pictures from today. I am going to dedicate my blog to your questions tomorrow so if you have something that you have been dying to ask me let me know and I will respond. Buenas Noches!

I am having troubles uploading the photos to the blog tonight. You can see the ones from Toledo by following this web link: Click Here

Mad for Madrid

Well kids. What can I say? Madrid is freakin awesome! However Jet Lag is not. I really thought I was over it until it was 5:30 AM this morning and it dawned on me that I still hadn´t slept. Here are some pictures from Madrid in slideshow format. Enjoy!

Ay Who There Has Stolen Me Lucky Charms?

Greetings Fellow Bloggers,

I am coming at you live from the Internet station at my new hostel in Madrid. First off let me tell you that I have only been in Madrid for a half day, but is incredible. It reminds me of Buenos Aires a lot, but clean and without Dogs. I will report more on Madrid tomorrow. This blog is dedicated to my last half-day in Dublin. I really liked Dublin, but have decided that you don´t need more than a day to see it. We had a great adventure, running late to the airport and I was dreading having to lose a day in Spain over missing our flight. Luckily things worked out and we caught our plane in time. The hostel sleeping was great with ear plugs. Our hostel in Madrid seems much nicer (more showers and not so public) so I am looking forward to a better nights sleep.

I come back by myself for one half day in Dublin when I fly back on the 15th. I am excited though because that night Ireland has a World Cup Ruby match, so I am going to find a good bar to go and watch it in with some diehard Ireland Rugby fans. Enjoy some of my favorite pics from Dublin:

Look at me I am in Dublin and I haven´t bathed or slept in 24 hours!

Sign Reads: Please Keep Off Lawn! I am rebelling just like the Irish did 5 times.

The effects of Jet Lag = naps in the park at 4 in the afternoon

Grafton Street!

Britta informs me that this is as close to action as I will be getting on this trip.

Ay this be me TJ 'Paddy' Davis jumping in front of Saint Patrick´s Cathedral. (There really are guys named Paddy here!)

Walking down some old Church. It only took Britta one day to comment on my ´man bag`.

These guys played us a fine Irish Jig in the Temple Bar while we watched those around us enjoy pints of Guinness

The old soap in the fountain trick is even funny in Dublin, Ireland. I can´t believe that Britta put the soap in there. We could have been deported.

The main river in Dublin

Until Next Time . . .

O Danny Boy . . The Pipes the Pipes are Calling . . .

Well I made it to Europe, and the jet lag is kicking my butt! We are in Dublin today, and it really has been everything I hoped it would be. I am already loving the hostel living. I am in a mixed dorm room with 18 beds and two toilets and two showers. I have already been offered to help finish off a bottle of Southern Comfort with a new found friend from Austrailia. Even though I have never seen the movie, I decided there is no way Paris Hilton (even while acting) would stay in a Hostel. In fact I just told Britta how impressed I am that as a girl she would be willing to live like this for several weeks. I don't know many other girls who could handle it. I also have been made fun of by her, because I think I brought twice as much stuff as she did. It actually is pretty nice (don't freak out Dad). I really love Dublin. I can barely understand half of the people here, but everyone has been really nice. The weather has been excellent. It is around 65 degrees which is a nice break from the heat wave we were having in San Diego.

We enjoyed a great lunch today at a charming little cafe called 'Subway'. It was quite delightful. Ireland has recently become the most expensive country in the EU, so we are saving our money for Spain.

I forgot to bring the cord to my camera with me today so I could upload some pictures, but I will remember for the next post. In the meantime here are some images off of the web from things that we saw today:

This is Grafton Street. It is a walking street mall with lots of street performers. Alas the Bush Man in San Francisco could put them all to shame.

This is Trinity College in Dublin. It's campus is almost as nice as the University of Utah's but it doesn't quite have the history.

This river runs through the town and really adds some charm. However if you look at it closely it is quite brown and I have decided that they most likely dump their sewage into it. No matter it still adds charm, much like the East River does to New York.

Well that is all for today. I am off to the Pub for some Guinness and to listen to some traditional Irish folk music, and hopefully see an amateur boxing match (doesn't it seem like there is always one of those in every Irish movie?). Cheerio!

A New Day Has . . . Come!

Doesn't this picture just inspire you to be a better person? Imagine a full two hours of this, including voice, crazy modern dancers in the background, and Celine's own hypnotic dance moves and then you will better understand how I spent my last Saturday night.

For only $87.51 after tax I was able to join Spencer, Allison, and Judson on the back row of the collesium as part of the last year of Celine's historic 5-year indentured servitude to Caesar's Palace. Rene must be so proud. It ended up being a lot of fun. Judd designed some very clever t-shirts for us to wear to the event. The cleverness included such phrases as:

'Celine Dijon: The Canadian Mustard'
'Celine you promised to never let go; I'm so cold!'
'Celine Dion: The Canadian Queen of Rock and Pop'
'A life without Celine is a life not worth living'

The t-shirts evoked all sorts of emotion from tears to laughter (okay mostly laughter) from all of those around us at the theater and on the strip. My favorite response was when people asked us how many times we had been to the show, assuming from our shirts that we attended regularly. While the show itself felt like listening to a Celine Dion best hits album while dropping acid, her voice really was incredible. Her entertaining skills not so much, but I am very glad I went and I still feel it was worth the cost.

All I can say is 'wow'!

Calling all Science Nerds

Okay so my friend C-blake's latest blog entry has me giddy about constellations. In fact I haven't been this giddy since the merit badge counselor at Steiner chose to use my flash light to highlight the constellations we had to memorize. I felt so cool to have such a powerful flashlight. Click Here

Stardust: An enchanted Review

I have seen many movies since my last blog review of Disturbia. However it has been that long since I have seen a movie that has brought out such emotion and energy from my soul that would cause me to write a review. No, Stardust does not star Boy Meets World star Shia Lebeof, but it does feature the ever inspiring Claire Danes, who has not put forth such a riveting performance since Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Claire stars as Yvaine, a star fallen to earth, sought after by many for her mystical powers. She is being chased by a group of witches seeking to eat her heart for its powers of giving eternal youth, a group of princes who seek a medallion she wears so that they may succeed the throne, and finally by a charming human named Tristan, who has promised the girl he loves that he will bring her a fallen star in return for her hand in marriage.

As you might guess Tristan ends up falling in love with Yvaine while bringing her back to the girl he thought he loved and they live happily ever after. Spoiler Alert! (Am I supposed to say that before or after I give away the movie.)

The movie is really entertaining. Robert Deniro's character is great and there are a lot of funny characters along the way. It is kind of reminiscent of the Princess Bride, in the way that is told like a story and filled with a variety of funny characters. The highlight of the movie is in how Tristan declares his love for Yvaine. There was not a dry eye in the house for that moment. I have taken notes and plan on proposing to my wife with the exact words that Tristan used and giving my fiance a Babylon Candle so that we can live side by side in the heavens for eternity. I hope you get a chance to see the movie and that you will let me know what you thought about it. Cheers!

The Japanese Tea Gardens are soooo Overrated!

Well the Fodor's Northern California book is full of crap. It mentioned multiple times that when visiting San Francisco one must stop by the beautiful Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate Park. Well Fodor's I trusted you and you have now lost that trust. Not only were the tea gardens a waste of time, but that waste of time cost us $4/person. My only consolation is that upon leaving this underwhelming place I was able to inform several other people in line that it would not be worth their $4, and so they bailed. I am glad that I could provide that service. My next trip I might spend a day outside the gardens telling people to turn around. I was that disappointed. To my chagrin most of the pictures we took were of this stupid park. Enjoy the pictures. Beside the tea gardens this trip was a blast. Some highlights in no particular order include:

• Risking my life in a go-cart on the streets of San Francisco (for more info on this please see the following blog entry: Julia's San Fran Blog Entry
• Driving into the back of Lisa's car in said Go-Cart
• Watching Lisa freak out going down a hill and try to stop the Go-Cart with her leg
• Sleeping on the floor of the hotel
• Running 13 miles on Sunday morning from the base of the Bay Bridge to the Base of the Golden Gate Bridge and back.
  
• Finishing my run with those people finishing the San Francisco Marathon and getting free bananas for doing so
• Wakeboarding on the delta in Stockton
• Cheese Cake Factory Brunch - Awesome!
• The BART - I love good public transportation
• Watching the Bush man get in an argument with a couple upset that they were scared and everyone laughed at them. They were most upset that he didn't even apologize. I love the bush man.
• Going to dinner with Zeana
• Huevos Rancheros in Rancho Cucamonga
• BBQ'd peaches that Ruthie stole from her neighbor
• Aerobeds
• Allison not believing that Judd was alone in San Francisco with Lisa
• and many more memories that I can't recall at this time

We ate at the House of Nan King. This place was great. We had to wait for about a half hour to get in and the owner didn't even let us orderour own food, but the food he picked for us was delicious. I recommend it to anyone visiting San Francisco.

These are not cutouts. They are real people who gave us marriage advice in Walgreens.

Watch out ladies. I am in a Japanese Tea Garden.

I think that this picture might make my mantle

I was so mad I had to bite my fingers

Lisa tried to be happy, but inside she was as mad as I am in this picture

It was so boring that we had to take pictures like this

Learning about myself at the San Diego Fair

So about a month and a half back we headed to the world famous San Diego County Fair. What a treat! Here are some highlights:

• Eating myself sick! Some highlights were the bloomin' onion, chicken legs, orange julius, ice cream, home made cinnamon rolls, and krispy cream chicken sandwiches
• Losing about 30 bucks between the 5 of us on stupid fair games. We were given a dumb little stuffed animal for our efforts.
  
• Learning the exact year of the second coming from a crazy evangelist who had a booth there. I wish I remember what year he said it was.
• Having Julia try out the magic curling iron
• Learning all about my personality. There was a crazy old magician with a machine. He reminded me of the crazy guy that lived in Colorado Springs in the Prestige. Anyways this evil machine could tell you your personality by analyzing your signature with your birth date. Here is what mine spit out. It's evil I tell you:

Your first impressions are likely to be correct
You enjoy challenge but avoid conflict
You need a pat on the back occasionally
You like your friendship to be appreciated
People find you honest, conscientious, and trustworthy
You are sometimes jealous and possessive
You have a strong desire for wisdom
Although you have definite ideas, you keep an open mind
You are not as innocent as you would like people to believe
You never hesitate, even when the going is rough
You have the ability to combine the artistic with the practical
You have to learn to see another's viewpoint

Here are some pictures of the events:

Bloomin' Onions!

Chicken Legs!

About the only thing that was free to do there

Trying to win the giant tiger stuffed animal. (Also the only evidence that Adam Buie ever lived down here!)

I love Sanjaya

Ok I really don't love Sanjaya, but I did get to see him in person. Funny story. I was in Phoenix for work a couple of weeks ago. (I almost melted!) I stayed over an extra night to hang out with Tyler and Erika. They were showing me around town and we decided to go get dinner by the hockey stadium. Low and behold it was the same night as the American Idols tour concert. A guy approached us and offered us $80 seats for 20 bucks. Such an offer could simply not be passed up. Here are some of the pictures of that memorable evening:

Celebrating receiving the tickets outside the stadium

Waving the phone with the crowd

Sanjay Live!

I couldn't contain my excitement when Jordin Sparks came out

A Magical Evening

I Hope I Get Asked to the Dance - A Post Long Overdue

I am blessed to have a friend down here who works at UCSD with Student affairs. Not only does she hook me up with free premiere tickets to awesome movies like Disturbia (please see post below), but she also can get you into College dances for free (rad huh?) Who is that friend you ask? Lisa Garcia! (Lisa, this is the shout-out that you requested. I hope you enjoy your 5 minutes of blog fame).

So Lisa's roommate Melanie and I had been joking about going to crash this college dance. Melanie decided that she wasn't going to mess around and risk having someone else ask me, so she went all out in asking for my company at the dance. I returned home one evening to find my room looking like this:

Swedish Fish were everywhere and I had a bowl of like 25 gold fish sitting on my table. (The Swedish fish were eaten in one day, and the gold fish were dead in two). There was also a poster board with some clever phrase about fish in the sea I believe.

I decided right away I needed to be as creative in my response. So after much deliberation I answered with a text message that read: 'Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, Yes I will go to semi-formal with you'. Needless to say she was blown away with my creativity.

The dance was a mega-hit to say the least. I forgot how fun it is to watch awkward 18 and 19 year olds try and fit in. We played some fun games like: Mimic the dancer next to you, walk up to a complete stranger and start freaking, and my favorite of all, dance like your drunk so the chaperon approaches you.

Our night concluded with us stealing the balloon tower from the reception area and planting it in a random house. Hopefully we didn't embarass you too much Lisa. Thanks for the memories!

Here are our dance pictures:
Group Picture

Couple picture

At the end of the day I was reminded how much I miss High School Dances.

My Stint on American Gladiators

I wanted to show everyone how I look and talk now that I live near the beach in California.

Sarcasm People. Come on.

I am really alarmed at the number of people who think I really don't know that Shia LeBeouf was not in Boy Meets World. I would hope that by now you would realize my blog is full of sarcasm and my strange sense of humor. I just think that they look some what a like and I remember lots of people thinking they were the same person when Holes came out. I would like to send a shout out to Christi in Austin, TX. Christi is the first person whom I don't know personally to read my blog and make a comment. I encourage all my readers to check out her blog at http://llewellyn-photography.blogspot.com/.

Christi is the only person who I forgive for thinking I really am stupid enough to believe that Shia LeBeouf and Ben Savage are the same person. Thanks for your readership Christi.

P.S. Sorry for the lack of recent blogs. I will attempt to get you caught up on my life this week. Stay tuned!

Disturbia . . . . A Review

I had the privilege exactly one week ago today to see the much anticipated movie Disturbia one day before it's release. The following is the story of that event:

So I received an email from my friend with a print out for two free movie tickets to see Disturbia the night before it opened. I was eager with anticipation. Disturbia as you all well know stars lovable actor Shia LaBeouf, who starred in my favorite TV series Boy Meets World. His first major film role was based on one of my favorite books 'Holes'.

We arrived to the theatre in anticipation and excitement one hour before the showing. A long line had formed, and I was amazed at the caliber of people who would be attending this free event along my side. Evidently the homeless community is well connected to the interweb, because it would appear that many of them also received free tickets in their inbox as well.

The doors were opened and the seats were quickly filled. Luckily the movie that was supposed to start at 7:00 didn't begin until 7:30, because the host of the event z90 had some fun contests for the audience to participate in. My anxious desire to win a free pizza caused me to enter the 'best scream' contest. My competition ended up being a 12 year old girl, who played the sympathy vote more than Chris Richardson did on American Idol this week. I could see Simon's eyes rolling as the audience got caught up in her youthful charm. Anyways long story short, I took second place in the contest, even though the guy sitting behind me told me I got jipped when I sat back down. I didn't win the Pizza, but I did take home an awesome transformers Movie T-shirt, which I am donning at this very moment. I soon realized that the Pizza would have only brought me temporary happiness, but this T-Shirt will be around for years to come.


Anyways on to the movie. I give this movie 2.5 stars. I was entertained, but I won't be anxiously waiting to see the movie again. The thrilling scenes were for the most part thrilling, but the rest of the story was just a little too sappy for me. I did enjoy the fact that an iMac had a key role in the film along with iMovie. One thing that did stick out to me was towards the end I began to feel like I had seen this movie before. I soon realized that the movie felt a lot like the movie 'Red Eye' starring Rachel McAdams. Of course it didn't take place on a plane, or involve a lacrosse stick, but it too was a thriller with a chase scene in a house at the end. Now that I am writing this I realize that it isn't like Red Eye at all, but that I just think Rachel McAdams is hot and deserves some time on my blog.

In summary (for those of you still reading), go and see Disturbia since it is still entertaining, and then go and rent 'Red Eye'. Thanks you for your readership.