As most of you know, I spent a few days this week up in Logan to do some training and learn from a friend of mine, Cris Guymon. It was a very good couple of days, but talking about insurance training and meetings is not the most fascinating thing to put into a blog. so for all of you who decide to read this thing, I tried to make my trip home on Thursday a little bit more interesting.

I left in the morning, and the first thing that I decided to do was go to the Logan temple and take a couple of pictures because I had never seen the place in person. I didn't go in or spend much time there because I needed to be on the road heading home. Anyway, I got there and took some pictures from the parking lot, and here is one of them that turned out pretty nice.

After leaving the Logan temple I drove for about an hour, with my music and a nice cloudy sky to a small place in Roy. Laura and I were watching a show on Food Network one day that showcased a place called "The Burger Bar." So when I got there it was about 10:30 in the morning and I was not even close to hungry enough to eat a big old burger. So I got some onion rings and a snickers shake. The show said that the onion rings were great and awesome, I've had better. The shake was ok, but I could have gotten the same thing pretty much anywhere else. Here is a picture of the sign, the place has been around since like 1956, and it was cool to eat there, just not as exciting as I thought it would be.

After leaving the Burger Bar I headed south and was going to stop by my friend's house, but I couldn't find it, despite my directions and google maps, so that was a little bit of a waste of gas and time. I had also expected to stop at Danny J's apartment to play some guitar hero, but he had to be in class, so I just kept on driving. Something that I did see, which was awesome, was the National Guard tribute bike built by Orange County Choppers. There is a show called American Chopper and it shows a business that builds extravagant thematic motorcycles and I finally got to see one in person, at 75 miles per hour. I did manage to get a shot of it, because it was awesome!

After passing this by, I decided to take a couple of pictures of big signs, for cities that mean absolutely nothing and that nobody cares about. I took two pictures, one of a sign for Scipio, and the other the sign for Beaver.

If all that excitement weren't enough I saw a pretty big dirt devil and took some pictures of that, one of which I will put in here.

That is last of my pictures, I also counted 9 dead animals on the side of the road. I know that is a little gruesome but oh well, it kept me busy while driving forever through nothing. to tell the truth, I saw 11 dead animals, but 2 of them were so rotted and gutted that I decided not to count them because they looked like smudges, not animals. Well I hope you all enjoyed the ride home from Logan with me, it was so exciting that I just can't wait to do it again someday!

Graduation

Last week was the last week of spring semester, which meant finals and then finally graduation on saturday. It was a pretty crazy week on its own, but then having everyone come out to celebrate graduation just made it that much more insane. Not only were Laura and I graduating, but also my cousin Leslie, so her family came out as well.

Friday was fun, the rugby team got some guys together and played a little bit of two hand touch rugby on a muddy field, which was fun because people were slipping and sliding all over the place. That night we had 20 people in our group that went to Sizzler for dinner. Having my family (Grandparents + parents + Scott), Laura's family (parents + Emily and Matthew), and Leslie's family (parents + Ben + Jody and Zach), there to celebrate with us was just awesome.

Saturday was graduation day and Friday night both Scott and Matt stayed at our apartment, so we had to drop Scott off at the hotel, because he wasn't going to the graduation, then we dropped off Matt at the Centrum so that he could go in with everyone else to watch. Laura and I went up by the scence building and got in line...well, we got in a mass, then into a line later. Walking down was pretty cool, there were a ton of people graduating and the only bummer was having to pass the gay pride parents... Anyway the commencement was great, a girl had a seizure and found out that it was a 3 inch tumor in her head. President Monson gave a good speech, we moved our tassles and that was it. Once it was over, Laura and I bolted for the door and waited for everyone to come out so we could take a couple pictures then run off to AppleBee's for lunch, which was again with 20 people. That afternoon was the convocation and that lasted an hour or so, maybe an hour and a half, i don't remember.

Saturday afternoon was pretty relaxed. After the convocation Laura and I went home to the apartment to change and when Mom and Dad Harmon came we opened some presents, including an awesome clock which we promptly put up in the office. That evening a bunch of us hung out at our apartment watching the NBA playoffs and eating a little bit of pizza. Laura, Mom, and I went to Artic Circle and then went to the hotel to hang out a little more with family, make fun of people on TV, and say our goodbyes because Laura and I weren't going to be getting up very early to see everyone off.

It was great to see my grandpa and talk with him a little bit because I haven't seen him in a while. He's 82 now and hopefully he has 20 years left in him. anyway that was our weekend, it was exciting, it was fun, and it was crazy all at once. Such is life.

Amplifying DNA - posted by Laura

     I just watched Jacob's video (about the parts of the brain) that he has on his blog, and thought I would post one of the videos that goes along with a method that I use to amplify DNA! This song is about the Polymerase Chain Reaction, and if you know what it's talking about, it should be really funny. Shawn calls me a nerd when I watch videos like this, but I'm okay with that! :-) Enjoy The Polymerase Chain Reaction Song!  

(disregard the advertisement at the end)

Random Ramblings

I am not going to whine, I'm not going to gripe, I just want to say that I am so close to being done with school that I can taste it! I can't wait to be done, but at the same time, there is so much work i have to do in the last week of school that I don't even want to think about it. Here is what I have done to relieve some of the stresses of school:

1. Running

Almost every morning Laura has class at 8:00 in the morning, and I don't have class until nine. That means I have 1 hour to kill before I even have to think about anything. So what I do is get my tired and barely awake butt up to the track and run a little bit. It really isn't the most amazingly fun thing to do, and it actually hurts, but I figure it is better than sitting in an empty classroom playing games on addictinggames.com. So what I did, once my foot was better, was develop a routine that I can continue to expand as I get stronger. First, I walk a lap, which equals about 1/10 of a mile, then I stretch so I don't pull any muscles. I started out running only 5 laps, but starting Monday I will be running 8. After running those laps I walk another lap, then run another 5, or in Monday's case, 8. Finally I walk one more cool down lap, stretch a little bit, then go to the locker room to shower and get ready for class. This helps me to wake up in the morning, it keeps me from eating a junky breakfast because if I do eat a junky breakfast, I might die during the run.

2. Rugby

I have grown to really enjoy this sport. I heard on a commercial for rugby that I watched on YouTube that: "Rugby, a villain's sport, played by gentlemen." I thought that was awesome. What rugby does is give me a chance just to get out and play a game that has nothing to do with school. Even when we only play two-hand touch, it is nice to be out there running and yelling at people, which is surprisingly nice. Also, when playing rugby, I get to kick the ball off a tee, like a kickoff in football, and that gives me a chance to show off how far I can kick the ball. (I made a field goal from the middle of the field once).

3. Age of Empires

My mind is a magical thingy. hehe. Age of Empires is a game on the computer that requires strategy, quickness and a lot of attention. Lately I have been playing as the Dutch Civilization, and what I have to do is develop a city, develop an army, and conquer the map given to me. I sometimes play against 2 opponents, sometimes 5, and up to 7 opponents. Each game can take an hour or more and I can just get into a different world and not think about anything else going on, I don't play very much, but when I do play, I dominate!

4. Chill with Laura

Another way I handle stress is just to chill with my wifey. Yeah she studies and I sit there, but it helps me to relax knowing that she isn't freaking out about all the things that she has to do, cause she has a lot on her plate. I know she is tired of school too, so we are kind of in the same boat. When we just sit around, watch food network, and cheer on some Iron Chef or critique the contestants on Chopped, I like it. We watched "The Office" yesterday, and Laura was sitting there and it was fun, we talk about who is doing what, its awesome. Then she falls asleep, and that's fine with me, I can watch Discovery Channel or SportsCenter until it is time for us to go to bed. Laura's awesome, we are almost at the 9 month mark of being married, when I was on my mission I took a picture looking like I was pregnant and about to pop, I won't do that this time.

That's all I got, this is a pretty random blog, have fun. Peace!

Easter Holiday Happenings!

So here are some of the things we've been up to since the last post;

1. Spring break!
2. Rugby
3. More school
4. Running and the Ab Lab!
5. Puzzle
6. Cookies
7. Cake
8. Maggie Moo's
9. Basketball
10. Elder's Quorum Pinewood Derby (No real rules)

1: Spring break, kind of a crazy break. We went to California for a few days, then up to Bountiful, then down to St. George for a wedding and that was about it. it wore us out and made us want an actual break

2: Rugby, besides missing a couple of games because of injuries and going to a wedding I have been at practice and been playing for the St. George men's team. The season is over for now, but some friendlies and other exhibition games will be played later on during the summer. Plus, I found a team out in Columbus that I can go play with once we are there, it keeps me active and its a great stress reliever, at least for me :-)

3: More school, boring, tiring, and I'm frankly sick of going to school. Most of my classes seem worthless at this point and all I do is sit there. Only a few more weeks and we will finally be done, for a month, then summer school starts. I can't wait to be done!

4: I have been running at the indoor track in the SUU PE Building in the morning. Since I come to campus with Laura and have an hour before I actually have class, it is nice to go for a little run, a little over a mile, and then shower and go to class. It wakes me up and hopefully I can lose some weight before graduation!

5: Laura and I completed a 1500 piece puzzle that we got at the SUU bookstore with the gift certificate she earned by being on the women's week panel a little while ago. It was pretty hard because there were so many pieces, and, because there wasn't a lot of color differences.
6: Cookies, several times over the last few weeks we have made cookies. Chocolate chip cookies from scratch and from a Betty Crocker bag, also, I made my first Peanut Butter cookies ever. They turned out to be a little flat, but they tasted good and our Pyrex bowls with nifty lids that fit perfectly are great cookie jars!

7: Cake! Laura made a yellow cake and frosted it with rainbow frosting stuff. it was really good and it stayed moist for days after she made it. I was so proud that I almost cried.

8: Maggie Moo's. This is the new ice cream place a few blocks from our apartment. It is like Cold Stone Creamery, and it is awesome! We've been there a few times and we like it a lot because the ice cream is really good and the mix ins are great too. We went there last night for our eight month anniversary. I got a cup of cheesecake ice cream with brownies, teddy grams, and caramel mixed in. I was very happy. (By the way, do you say care-a-mel or carmel?)

9: Basketball. Ward basketball continues with the beginning of a double-elimination tournament that we began with a bye week. Since our regular season record was the best, we are the number 1 seed and didn't have to play last week. we did play last night and won by 8. Next week we play at 7:15 and hopefully, we win.

10: Elder's Quorum Pinewood Derby. This is what I really wanted to get to. Last night, before basketball. the elder's quorum of my ward had a pinewood derby with limited rules. the cars had to be under 8 ounces. rules done. One guy come in with a small airplane turbine on the top of his car, and he won the whole thing. I made a very BYU car and didn't do so well, I won worst design because of how BYU my car was. I thought it was fun. I am putting a bunch of videos that I took especially for this because it was just funny to me how much time some of these guys spent on their cars. the track was really nice, made out of metal and had an electronic timing system and bracket generator. Enjoy the videos!