White stuff.... again.

After reading the post from Tracy, I wanted to chime in with my 2 cents. I'm sure we need the snow. I'm sure Utah, especially the SL Valley will benefit from the snow. Do you know how hard it is to geocache in the snow? It really does suck, for a few reasons.

1. It's cold. Snow is actually frozen water which makes it cold. I hate cold.
2. It's wet. You climb out in the snow, you bring some heat with you. It is enough to melt the snow and therefor is wet. Add that to cold and you are wet and cold.
3. Geocaches are not to be burried. Since they are not originally, now you have snow burying them. It is a lot harder to look for a cache if it is under 2 feet of snow.
4. Tracks. If you search around for a cache in the snow, you leave tracks. For the curious observer, their thoughts are "Why are their all those footprints around that tree?" They either think we are complete idiots for circling a tree, that we are sniffing around for a place to pee or that there is something of interest. Even if the cache is hidden as it should be for other cachers, the curious observer may find and, not knowing about geocaching, take the cache.

Anyway, not trying to complain but spring better get here quickly. According to the forecast, it is supposed to snow off and on for the next couple of days. Basically a series of storms are lining up to dump and run. How crappy is that. Hope to get to geocaching before to long.

One More Storm...

Ugh...there is one more storm coming on Thursday. Please STOP!!! I know we can use the water, I guess, but I'm ready for the winter to be done. I'm ready to get outside and do some walking around, playing with the kids, whatever else can be done. Especially geocaching. I am looking forward to the warmer weather and being able to get out and find some caches around work and home. I'm excited. One of these weekends I am going to take my father-in-law and brothers-in-law out geocaching. Anyway, I know I am a nerd but these things are fun. That's all I have today...

How to handle telemarketers

Give this a listen. If you can do this and keep from laughing and letting on, you are doing better than I would.

http://howtoprankatelemarketer.ytmnd.com/

Great Weekend, Minus the Drive

So me and the fam spent the weekend in St. George snapping pictures and hiking and Geocaching. It was a load of fun. We stayed with my Mom and took her on all of our outdoor experiences. It was fun. Saturday we went to Zions had lunch and did the Riverside Walk, which takes you back to where the Narrows start. Then we did the Canyon Overlook hike, which was fun with the kids since there are some major drop offs. Then on Sunday we went and did the Emerald pools, Lower, Middle and Upper. It was fun, long but fun. On our way home we stopped at a small ghost town called Grafton, they filmed some of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid there. We did a couple caches in that area as well. Monday we got up and packed up the car then went out and found a couple of caches in my mom's area. There are some amazing sites there where caches have been hidden, forgot my camera though. Bummer!

Got on the road and hit some nasty weather between St. George and Cedar City, but we made it home finally. We had a movie on for the kids to distract them and keep them quite and it worked. It wasn't until the movie was over that Bree realized that it was snowing. It was kind of funny, guess the distraction worked.

Gotta Have Your Music....

or the monsters will get you. I don't know why, but it has been an exceptionally bad day. Just my mood, nothing anyone did, just feeling depressed. Maybe it's all the damn snow we've had. ;) Anyway, I decided that I needed something to boost me up today and nothing does it better when I'm at work then my music. Just turn it up as loud as my ears will handle, find some good songs and just rock out. It's some of the best medicine out there for chasing those monsters away. The nice part is I have music to battle almost any monster. I have Mo Tab to bring in the spirit when it's needed. Some good upbeat music for the general times. Today I started with My Chemical Romance's Welcome to the Black Parade. Good upbeat song. Went from there to Rodney Atkins, If You're Going Through Hell, then Bowling for Soup, Almost. Then one of my favorites for digging out of crappy days. Will Smith's Lost and Found album. The whole album is one of the best for chasing away monsters. Now the monsters are gone and I'm going to be headed home in about 10 minutes, cross my fingers, when my ride gets here.

New Camera Fun

So the new toy that I talked about the other day was a new camera. I got myself a Canon Rebel XT. It is one of the SLR type cameras and has been a lot of fun. It gives me a lot to work with as I start into this new hobby of mine. Here is a cute picture of Keighlee that I took tonight.


She is such a cute little girl. She was attacking me I think. That or she just wants to eat the camera. I'm sure that I am going to post more pictures as time goes on. Anyway, look at that cute little almost 8 month old. Well have a good night.

Good Morning!!!

Well it is finally Friday. This has been one of those up-down weeks where life takes you and throws you around a little. Being Friday things should go smoothly. Even though it is 7:15am and I'm already at work. Just means I'm leaving early today.

I found out this week that I got the position of team lead over my team. It is funny how the wheel turns. I work on a team, leave it, come back to another team and then apply and get the lead position for the team I started on. It is kind of funny. It should be a lot of fun and we are a month or so out from releasing a pretty big application. Other than that life at work is life at work.

Life at home is going well. I'm doing a diet thing, which has helped me drop a few pounds and start exercising a little bit more. I've had 1 hamburger all year, which for me is amazing. I have had chicken sandwiches from Wendy's but only one hamburger. It was an Apollo burger from Apollo Burger. It was a good hamburger. The kids are all doing really well. Keighlee is starting to get around a little, though backwards is her favorite direction. It's cute. She's also trying to pull herself up on things now and that's not always working. She's going to be an early walker. Other than that, life is going about as normal as it can. I did get a new toy yesterday, which I will blog about another day.

Testing

Moving to heynerd.us.

The Christmas Box House

Tonight I had the opportunity to do some service at the Christmas Box House. It was a lot of fun. I played Yahtzee and Hangman with one of the kids there. I came home and was sad though. It is awesome that there is a place like the Christmas Box House, but at the same time it is really sad. I came home and my oldest daughter was crying because her cousin left without giving her a hug. Minor issue to me but a big deal to her. All she needed was a big hug from her daddy and to cry a little bit on my shoulder. I gave her a big hug and let her know it was ok, and that we'd see her cousin again. Then Bree came up and gave me a big hug and I started to cry. There were kids in the Christmas Box House that were pretty young. There was one that if you looked at her just right she looked almost exactly like Bree. It made me sad. It was a great opportunity as I said before and I decided that I will have a hard time doing it again because it tugs the heart strings. Well Keighlee is being a little snot about going to sleep so I think I'm going to go steal her from Chels and put her to sleep. Thanks for reading.

Time to Post for the Day

I'm sitting here at work and working on an application that is being somewhat of a pain. I'm working with Spring, Java, and Tomcat and when you change a Java class file, you have to restart the Tomcat instance on the machine. It takes a couple minutes for it to restart and populate all the information that we have it populating for the app. So I just restarted the server and decided I'd write something. Just for the heck of it. Well I'm done rambling now.

Feeling Good

I've started playing basketball on Tuesdays and Thursdays and it's a lot of fun. Well by started, I mean that I've played two days, but it's fun so I plan on playing more often. Last Thursday was the first day and I beat myself up. We played for so long and so hard that I was in pain the rest of the day. It also gave me a headache that didn't go away really until yesterday. I went and played today, we played for a a little over an hour, I didn't run as hard and I'm not as sore today. I actually feel really good.

That's it. The end for this post.

No Pain, No Gain

Today I'm feeling pretty good. I've started a little diet and trying to do more exercise. I didn't do it as a New Year's Resolution because they don't usually last very long. The diet is going well. I'm getting into the exercise thing and I'm a little sore. I worked out on Wednesday, I'm still a little sore from that. I ran on the treadmill on Tuesday for 15 minutes. I actually ran for the 15 minutes, which is a big step for me. Yesterday, Thursday, I played basketball for an hour and a half and minus a headache, I'm feeling pretty good. After the first week of the diet I lost 8 pounds and this week I'm doing pretty good too. I think I'm around 3 pounds down, but you aren't supposed to stand on the scale except for weigh-in days. Oh well. It's my diet and I'll do what I want. Today we are planning on going to the gym to lift again and I'll probably run again either today or tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Who started this whole Christmas thing?

Got this in my e-mail today and instead of hitting the forward button, I hit the blog button. I hope you all enjoy this:


A woman was out Christmas shopping with her two children. After many hours
of looking at row after row of toys and everything else imaginable; and
after hours of hearing both her children asking for everything they saw on
those many shelves, she finally made it to the elevator with her two kids.
She was feeling what so many of us feel during the holiday season time of
the year - overwhelming pressure to go to every party, every housewarming,
taste all the holiday food and
treats, getting that perfect gift for every single person on our shopping
list, making sure we don't forget anyone on our card list, and the pressure
of making sure we respond to everyone who sent us a card. Finally the
elevator doors opened, and it was already crowded. She pushed her way in and
dragged her two kids in with her and all the bags of stuff. When the doors
closed, she couldn't take it anymore and she stated, "Whoever started this
whole Christmas thing should be found, strung up and killed."

From the back of the car, everyone heard a quiet, calm voice respond, "Don't
worry, we already crucified Him."

For the rest of the trip down in the elevator, it was so quiet you could
have heard a pin drop.

This year, don't forget to keep "the One who started this whole Christmas
thing" in your every thought, deed, purchase and words. If we all did it,
just think of how different this whole world would be.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son; that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
(John 3:16)

Thoughts of Sugar Plums...

I love Christmas. The time is getting closer now as we are only 5 days away from one of the most exciting days of the year. While I have watched people stress throughout this year and even more so now, I'm glad that I have been able to keep a level head and a cool demeanor.... for the most part.

I have watched Christmas shows that I haven't seen in years. I have listened to music that celebrates the season and the birth of the Savior. It has been great.

Tonight is "date-night" for Alythea and I and we are going to the Voice Male Concert at Abravanel Hall. I figured something out last night. Of all the dates Alythea and I have been on, this is the 1st concert we have ever been to together.

We have seen concerts together, sort of... There were times where we were both working at the E-Center during a concert or event. I think my stint with the E-Center and my experience with concerts have caused the lack of desire and we never had the urge to go. There have been some concerts that we wanted to see, but never enough to get tickets or schedule the time to go.

So anyway, Merry Christmas and we hope that this season bring joy, love and family to everyone.

Geocaching Bag

So when we went geocaching the Saturday after Thanksgiving, I was told that I needed a bag for it. Well I got one. Here's the story...

For Christmas every year my work does Christmas gifts. It's pretty cool. Well the last couple years I've ordered a gift that hasn't come or was shipped back for some reason. This year I ordered a DVD player, it was just a cheap on, but it was something I could have put in my car for when we go on long trips. So it didn't come in and I was sort of upset. Two years in a row I'm getting the short end of the stick. Of course I have ended up with something both years, hence the new Geocaching Bag. I got this card called a "Thanks" card. You go to this website and order your gift online and they ship it to you. I went on line and there were only a few cool things. They had a lob wedge, a box of Nike golf balls, things you'd find under 25 bucks. I found this really cool hip bag that I think will work perfectly for Geocaching. We'll have to get it filled and go from there. I'll let you know how it works.

Geocaching and A Great Song

So at lunch today I tried to run over and do a quick cache. Didn't work because of the snow on the ground. However, there were some deer just hanging out in the thicket that we were looking in. It was pretty cool. I have my Garmin at work and everyonce in a while I'm going to go caching. I have a friend here that has one too so we are going to go on lunches and find a few here and there. It'll be fun.

A great song... Kenny Rogers is one of the best story singers, my own term, I think there is. He tells a great story in his songs. The Greatest, The Gambler, well a new song of his, called The Last Ten Years is about what the last ten years has brought us. It's a good song. It has a subtitle because every time he sings the chorus it's different minus the line, "We even lost Superman" and the last time he says "Gonna miss you. Chris..." It's a pretty good song to cover the last ten years in memories and important figures in our world. Here's the lyrics


Oh, the last ten years, it's been quite trip
Over thirty-six-hundred spins around without a cosmic slip
But within the realm of our atmosphere
We're 'bout as out of whack as we've ever been in a million years
We watched the Y2K scare in a panic
An' we watched as time proved Nostrodamus wrong
An' we watched as Mother Nature shook the planet
An' cellular replaced the telephone
We lost Charlie Brown, Ray Charles an' Johnny Cash
We even lost Superman, mhm.

Well, the last ten years, look at the hills we've climbed
The best golfer's black, the best rapper's white an' it's about damn time
But we best beware, there's a brand new fight, you see
An' I hate to say we might be our own worst enemy
We watched Oklahoma sifting through the damage
An' we watched a US President get caught
We watched shareholders watch their savings vanish
We all cried when we watched those towers fall
We lost Minnie Pearl, Ron Reagan and Sam I Am
We even lost Superman, mhm.

Expensive gas an' free downloads
The dot-com boom, an' reality shows
What's gonna happen next is anybody's guess
Satellite radio and hybrid cars
Hand-held computers an' a trip to Mars
It's all become a part of who we are
In the last ten years.

In the last ten years
We lost George Harrison, John Paul and June Carter-Cash
Hell, we even lost Superman
Gonna miss you. Chris...


You can download it from iTunes.

Just Thinking...

I know this is a shock, but I was just thinking...about some stuff that I wanted to get off my chest. Nothing important really, just the little things that bother me about the sporting world. Yes, this bothers me, don't know why but it does. What's wrong with the world of sports you ask, well everything about it is unfair. Think about it, the Jazz have the best record in the NBA and they get very little attention, except here in Utah, pardon the favortism. They have beat some good teams. Minus the ugly loss to Kobe and the Lakers, they have had a pretty good season. Where's the love. It's because they are from Utah. Oh well, people don't know what they are missing.

The other thing in the world of sports that is really stupid that people are whining about is the idea of a Ohio State/Florida match up in the National Title game instead of Ohio State/Michigan. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people complain about stuff they have no control over. I understand making your voice heard, but make it heard and stop complaining. If your voice isn't going to change things, is it really helping to make your voice heard. I don't know, I'm a pretty passive person and really don't care I guess. I don't know. Anyway, back to the BCS and what not. It, the BCS, is a broken piece and should definitely be looked into, but until the powers that be find it in themselves to get off their duffs and do something to fix it, it's the best we have. I think it's funny that the people are complaining that the BCS is dumb because it didn't pick Michigan over Florida in the #2 spot so we could see a rematch of Michigan and Ohio State. They argue that if we had a playoff system it would match the best teams. I'd like to point out that not always are the top seeds the ones that win the playoff. Look at the unlikely winners of the Colts/Titans game were last Sunday (10/3 Colts lost on a final second 60 yard field goal by the Titans). This isn't a perfect sports society and never will be, period. Stop complaining and let's all enjoy some good sports.

If you read this and are saying to yourself, "Why did I just waste my time?". Here's the answer, I'm complaining about something I can't fix, my voice has been heard, and now I'm done. Have a great day.

Christmas Time

I really like Christmas. I mean, a LOT. Its not because I get presents, but is because of the season. First, its a b-day celebration for Jesus. What a wonderful thing to celebrate, the birth of the savior. Second, it celebrates what humanity is all about. The giving, caring, sharing, being together are all part of the season. You sing Christmas carols, drink egg nog, have family parties and generally just have an opportunity to be happy.

I do see that sometimes it is a stressful time of year because of what has happened to Christmas. Having little to no money for gifts or seeing others with lots of "stuff" and it not being enough for them. I sometimes get caught up in the idea of "buying" Christmas, but that is not what its about. I remember being a kid and the magic of the season. It was so special. Christmas songs, Christmas movies, and looking at the lights on the tree, all part of the magic of the season. As I see people get caught up in the $$ of Christmas, I remember a story from my father's youth that has become a family classic and will probably be an immortalized story within the family.

Years ago, when my father and his siblings were kids, they were a poor family. Unfortunately they lived in one of the richer parts of town. How and why, I don't think I'll ever know but they were definately out of place. Grandma was a divorced mother and during those times, it wasn't very common and was frowned upon. Talk about piling troubles on a family.

When Christmas time came, money was lean so presents were scarce. Grandma made I.O.U.'s for Christmas. These were little things like helping to do one of their chores or cleaning their room or something that was performed to help out the recipient of the I.O.U.

Now the kids, having received this, didn't understand the repurcussions of this gift. They went outside to see all the neighborhood kids playing with their nice, new, shiny toys and were upset.

Years later, they understood one basic fact from that Christmas. Christmas wasn't about toys and things but was about giving of one's self. Sharing with others who you are. Giving them time is more important than a shiney, tangible item. Love and charity are what Christmas is all about.

I've had Christmas' where were able to spend abundantly and other Christmas' where you had very little and had to get creative. Of all the Christmas' that I remember the most, the one's that stand out are not the times where we received a lot of gifts, but the times where we spent watching Christmas movies together, or singing (badly I might add) along with the Christmas albums.

I hope I am able to instill that into my own children as they grow up. I hope they will find more enjoyment in the season than in the gifts.

Merry Christmas, and in the immortal words of Tiny Tim, "God bless us, everyone!"

Beating the Tag

Chels is sitting next to me writing a blog because she was tagged. So since I know she is going to tag me, I'll just go ahead and do my list at the same time. It's a Christmas Tag...

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Egg Nog, Hot Chocolate is good but I have to be in the right mood for it. Otherwise it gets really cold and gross. Out of 5 cups of hot chocolate, I drink about 2 of them.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wrap. That way we can watch the money we spent on the wrapping paper go right out with the trash.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Color. It makes it more festive looking. White lights are all over the place. Colored lights are cool.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Who needs it. Kissy, kissy, kissy.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of the Thanksgiving weekend. So around Emily's birthday. ;)

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Spiral ham...duh!

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: The power was out one year. We woke up to no lights on the tree, but we started a fire in the fire place and opened the presents by the light of the fire. It was nice because with every present the flames got bigger when we'd throw the paper in the fire. See what I mean about the money. Oh and every one since my kids have been old enough to get excited.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? What truth about Santa. He's real. I will not stop believing.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? The kids open some pj's. We also have a Christmas party at my grandparents house and we open gifts there.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Lights first, then ornaments. No order really to the ornaments. As a matter of fact the kids are doing the ornaments now and Chels and I just go around and space it out a little. Star on last of course.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Dread it. Lived in Utah my whole life and there have been some good snow storms, not like Minnesota I'm guessing, and I don't like snow. If I lived in Minnesota I'd hate them too. I'm not a cold weather fan.

12. Can you ice skate? Yep, not good, but I don't fall down much.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? My favorite gift, hmmmmmmm. I'd have to say that it was probably my Nintendo when I was young. You remember when the original Nintendo came out. I can't think of many gifts.

14. What's the most important thing about the holidays for you? The family. The fact that it is to celebrate the birth of Christ.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Same as my all year round dessert, Angel Food Cake.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? I'd have to say the Santa letters. We changed Chels' family tradition a little. Here's how it went, and then how we changed it. The first snow fall after Thanksgiving, Chels and her brothers and sister would write their letters to Santa and he would come pick them up and leave a little gift. We do the same thing, but we do it after we finish decorating the house for Christmas. He comes and makes sure the decorations are fit for the season and festive enough.

17. What tops your tree? A star, that Jarik put on this year.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Giving. I like to give meaningful gifts.

19. What is your favorite Christmas song! Carol of the Bells.

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? Depends on the flavor. I know you could argue that real candy canes are only in peppermint or whatever flavor, but I like the cherry ones. They are the best.

21. What is your favorite holiday movie? I have a few. The Santa Clause 1 and 2 and Miracle on 34th Street. I also like A Christmas Carol and A Christmas Story. They are all pretty good.

22. Do you go all out with Christmas lights outside or just enjoy riding around seeing them on ther homes? Both, but not too close to Christmas for the riding around, it gets too crowded. "Whey don't these people just stay home?" Guess who said that.

23. Have you been Naughty or Nice? Nice, yeah, nice. *wink, wink

24. Do you shop on Black Friday and if so what is your most memorable experience? A little. But we don't get up early to do it. That's just stupid. Sleep in people, it's a day off.



Add a question to the bottom of this list asking something that YOU would like to know. Post it in your blog (or put your answers below) for others enjoy this tag!

25. Do you like to listen to Christmas music? Yep, on my mission we would start listening to after Halloween because they don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Ireland. And we get sick of the music that was approved. Since that was all I listened too, approved music. *wink, wink

26. When do you take down your Christmas decorations? Usually New Years day. Or thereabouts.

Pretty Fun Weekend...Common Theme

So the Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone without too much weight gained. We are now in full Christmas mode. Thanksgiving was good. Total of 4 dinners, with the last one being last night with my wife and kids. It was nice. Lots of turkey and stuff. The day after Thanksgiving, while the rest of the world is shopping, I am busily setting up Christmas decorations. I like to decorate, it is fun. Usually I take the Friday and Saturday after to do it, but our Saturday was booked. So I did the outside lights on Friday and the indoor stuff on Sunday. Looks nice.

Saturday we went Geocaching in Spanish Fork. When I say we, I mean me, Chels, kids, B, Aly, Mason, Nikki, Jayna, and Harold. I got my Garmin Legend not too long ago and now I know how to use it a little bit better. It's pretty cool. It was fun, we found 9 caches on Saturday. Then things started going south. Here's where the common theme comes in. I'm a sports fan, my favorite teams include the 49ers (NFL), Jazz (NBA), and Utes (College). This weekend all of them lost. The Jazz got their butts kicked and the Utes and Niners lost on last minute drives. What a bummer of a weekend.

Besides the big loss to the Cougars though, Saturday ended pretty good with a fun game of the Amazing Race, Darden style. Our friends the Darden's put on a party where we were in teams and did a "Amazing Race" style race. It was fun. Long, hard, but fun. Well that's my weekend in a nutshell. Have a great day!