Update On Operations

So one thing with Mike leaving is that he bequeathed his Tracker vs. Monster 100oz truckers mug to me. My current goal has been to drink one of these full of water everyday in attempt to ward off any threats from my hereditary kidney stones. I have had to pee a lot as a result.

While doing that I've been trying to kick butt on my thesis which I have actually been doing quite well. There has been many days when I realize that I am the only person in the whole of the Brimhall. Oftentimes day or night, you can catch me looking at this thing, trying to make sense out of it. I dare you to take those numbers and write a thesis about them.

However, when I am not working on that or watching a Robert Redford movie (which I have been doing a lot of), I am usually kind of bored. Tonight was no exception -- I was looking for jobs on the internet while watching Cocoon (Yeah, I know -- pathetic) and then I found out these dudes were gonna be stopping through town.

I told Simon (the one on the left) about the White supremacist who killed that Prison guard, he was kind of fascinated by that. Especially cause he thought that the white supremacist was the one who had made Torsten's sandwich at Arby's earlier that day.

So, I'd say everything was in order.

Snow Cone Review #2 (Ella Goods)

I think I was a little hesitant to go to Ella Good's. It is in that part of Provo that seems to be booming with commerce right now. After the deserved succcess of J-Dawgs, nearly everyone and their mother thought that they could open up a little old shack, sell a little old thing, and make a ton of money (however, I am sure that "The Deli Craze" would tell you differently -- note to them: never open a restauarant in a place where hair was once cut). Plus everytime I drove by, the place was crawling with zoobies -- and I can't stand those people lately. But last night I ventured out, and I was not disappointed.

First of all the place has a ton of selection. They have a lot of flavors to choose from and then they have all these crazy add-ins (I think one was pixie stix). I asked the girl what the best thing I could get was and she told me a pina colada mango with ice-cream -- I submitted. The thing was really good. They put the icecream at the bottom, which makes a pleasant surprise at the end, kind of like a reward for a well fought fight. I think the best part about it was that I wanted to go back and try every combination.

Sorry the lighting is weird:



Here's my rating: (out of 4)
Taste:***1/2
Service:***1/2 (the girl was really nice and likes to talk to you)
Price: Small ($1.50) - Ella Large ($3.50) plus add-ins (25 to 50 cents)

Location on 700 East Provo, just south of 820 N.

The sad part is that my quest maybe over. I don't think I am ready to have another crappy snow cone after this one.

I woke up this morning

to find that this kid had left provo for good.

We are going to miss him.

More Vacation Reports

So we did some other fun things while Steph was here. On Thursday night we got to hang out with our new married friends, the Christophersons. After eating at Koko kitchen, we went over to Gilgal Gardens to check out some freaky religious sculptures. I had been here a few years ago with Nathaniel and the Emilys, and let me just say that they did a great job of cleaning the place up.

The happy couple:
With Brother Joseph:
On Saturday, Steph and I went to Summerfest in Orem. She was particularly excited because of the ferris wheel that they had.
The view from the top:


Another day we checked out the wildlife at the Bean Museum on campus. It felt like we were on an African Safari.
What's up Crocodile?!

Whats up everyone!?

Okay thats it, there were plenty of other things done, but no visual proof. Still, they were totally awesome.

Snow Cone Blog (Genesis)

So last week Steph and I went to a reception in Salt Lake. Afterwards, we met up with Suzanne at Snoasis in Sandy. She claimed it was the best snow cone ever. When we got there, there was a line stretching through the parking lot which took a good half hour to get through. The Snow Cone was amazing. I got Tigers Blood -n- Cream. I have now taken it upon myself to take on a similar quest in Provo this summer (I really have nothing better to do). If anyone would like to be a contributing writer, please let me know.

First up:

Snow Shack
Corner of 3rd South and 6th East, Provo

I rode my bike to this one because it was super close to my house. When I got there, no one was inside, where upon a young man around the age of 14 jumped into the shack. I asked him what his favorite flavor was and he told me Mango-Orange. I ordered a small, which they were out of (this seems like a strange concept, go buy some more paper cups). I got a kiddie instead because I didn't feel like shelling out 3 bucks for shaved ice. I also asked for cream, but apparently they were out of that as well. When I got home, it looked like this:


Kind of pitiful, eh? It tasted pretty good, but it was super slushy. I probably will not be going back.

Ratings: (out of four)
Taste: *1/2
Service: *
Price: Kiddie ($1.50) to Large ($4.00)

Vacation: All I Ever Wanted

So the research assistant leaves today (sad). But we have had some totally great times while she was here.

One night we decided that we wanted to play catch in the park, so we bought a ball and went to Nielsen's Grove Park in Orem. Stephanie is totally excited:

But when we get together we are totally serious.

It was kind of nice that night.


Then we also got to live like seven-year old kids and spend a day at seven peaks. It was so much fun. My major accomplishment for the day was going doing the boomerang backwards!! Stephanie subsequently found out that I scream like a girl.


Yesterday we left early to beat the heat and hiked a few miles from Aspen Grove to Stewart Falls. I was hoping that it would be flowing with Stewarts Key Lime Soda...but nope, just water.



Apparently Steph thought it was going to be one of those clean hikes, so she was a little disappointed by this.


Last night I decided to return for my second time in 6 years to the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti. The best part about the pageant is that you get to look at the temple for a few hours, oh, and it was beautiful outside.

There were so many Mormons there, us included.
You thought that was the end. There is more to come when I get some pictures from Steph's camera. Stay tuned.

It just might be a sweet summer after all

http://www.slcgov.com/arts/twilight/

best. thing. ever.

or at least one of them:

operation lets do this utah (update 1)

So I have been in the throngs of teaching and data collecting for my thesis, all in the hopes that I can meet my utah extradition deadline. In order to aid in this process, and to make sure that I am getting enough R&R, I imported a research assistant from Seattle -- her name is Stephanie.

Today, after getting a massive amount of samples collected from a statistics class and eating a massive amount of Ice Cream cones from Macey's (highly recommended), we decided to get cracking on the rest of the list from "Operation let's do this utah".

Todays task was ghost towns. We headed down to Eureka -- which funnily enough I had been to on two previous occasions, and learned that it was a stronghold for methamphetamines in Utah.

Here is my research assistant on the main street.

She's cute...I mean, she is really good at entering data into SPSS.

Eureka is not much of a ghost town. In fact the guy at the general store where I bought a Pepsi Summer mix told me that Eureka was growing with commuters.

The side of his store had a cool old sign.

He also told us that Porter Rockwell's cabin was in town. I thought I had missed it before, but it turns out they brought the thing into town on a big truck. Porter Rockwell had a cool beard. I, unfortunately, do not:

He also told us where we could find some cool abandoned ghosts and stuff. We hiked around for a bit, but couldn't find much.

Stephanie, shouldn't you be crunching numbers?


This is an old something. We checked, there were no ghosts inside.

Sometimes the research assistant tried to get a little too friendly with her gangster pose.

While we didn't find a ton of ghosts or towns, we found some areas ripe for tagging. Stephanie shows off her latest masterpiece. Word!

Oh and technically we saw some mines so you can cross that off the mission list as well. Yes!

The exciting news is that Steph will be here all week. More adventures to follow...

dear nathaniel:

this is awesome

http://www.seecoy.com/chariotsofmortalkombatfire.html

i miss chris coy.

Summer!

one month down, three more to go!