Monterey!

Can I confess something to the world?  I'm a nerd.  (OK everyone knows that, but it gets more nerdy)  I've known Sam for about 13 years, he's from Singapore but lives in Missouri, he came over to hang out with me for a week.  Why did Josh preface this by saying he's a nerd you might be asking yourself?  Well I only knew Sam from playing computer games since about high school and had never met him in real life before.

Nerd alert!  Where is my computer and Mt. Dew?

We made our way down to Julia Pfeiffer Falls and can I just say it was AMAZING?  It is one of the most beautiful places in all of California, I would say it was one of the most beautiful places I'd ever seen but Guatemala has too many places that are on the top of my list.

Para-Dice (get it? That's my name, with para in front of it)

Pictured:Two nerds experiencing a rare encounter with a girl

Theresa Lenz was awesome enough to grace us with her presence and make our trip that much more exciting! Her and I were singing Weezer, the Beatles, Ben Folds, and many more the entire 20+ hours we spent in the car over the week of fun with Sam.  Theresa is helping me write this post, so I have to be nice to her... and we are listening and singing to Celine Dion right now.  It's all coming back its all coming back to me nooowwwwww!

Its wabbit hunting season!

When people ask me about my veganism I usually ask them if they want the 1-minute, 5-minute, or hour long version.  They were the first people to ever ask for the hour long version in the car ride home, and it probably could have gone to be more like a 2-hour discussion.  Theresa was already leaning to be a vegetarian, but that discussion helped push her over the end and now she's been going strong for over a month!

Point Lobos in Carmel

This was day one of our Journey.  Sam came on Sunday afternoon and this was Monday's adventure.

Random Family Fun!

 I admit it... Clark looks better in a speedo than me

Clark played water polo this year and rocked it.  I'm excited for him because it will be good for his future volleyball career.  The only downside is that Clarkie is always at practice and doesn't have as much time to play with his big browfer. *wah* *cry* *sob*.. I don't want cheese with my whine.. I'm vegan.

 You can't tell but I'm really excited

I was playing for a local league here in Clayton that plays at the middle school.  We had a really good team, and we dominated the entire season until the championships where we won this snazzy tee-shirt.  The competition wasn't quite as good as when I played in college, but it was fun just to be playing again.

Snuggle-Bug

Above is a picture of Ethan at about one month old.  He is adorable, and I'm updating this a few months after the picture was taken... I must admit that the first few months he wasn't fun, but now he's responding and smiling and laughing.  He still poops and sleeps and eats, but he is so much fun now! 

Grand daddy and baby sleeping.  Ethan is almost 2 months old

Working my way through college

No seriously, I have to pay my college tuition somehow.  This dance got me a free dinner from Lauren.  We went up to Ashland where Suzanna (on pole with me) lives for a wedding of Lauren's friend.  It was a quick trip, but was totally worth the drive just to hang out with LG, Kenken, Carcar & Zana.

Family Reunion and more!

I invited Kyle to my Armstrong family reunion.  When I did this I gave him fair warming about what would happen and I emphasized that if he went he would be doing something my ex-wife would not even dare do.... hang out with the Armstrongs. 

 

Pictured: Kyle attempting to explode his own head

Fortunately Kyle did not succeed and is still with us today, although if you are looking for a funny story, just ask him about his 40 hour car ride to Yellowstone with my dad.  My dad has a VW camper van and I told him this but for some reason he heard RV camper... there is a pretty big difference between the two.  To make a long story short, it almost broke down and we slept two nights in the top bunk of the van in close quarters, which made for an unforgettable adventure.

Julie & Kyle on their best behavior.. They don't want to embarrass me and my dad in front of my family

 Kyle escaping the van probably after political discussion

One thing I warned Kyle about was to not talk politics with my family who adore Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin.  But of course we talked politics with basically every member of my extended family in the few days we were with them.  Hilarity ensued for hours everyday when my family found out Kyle was a democrat and willing to stick up for himself!

The fountain of youth

 

I need to find me an old faithful.. but preferably she isn't too old.

 One of the superpowers from being vegan is you can walk up to animals and they won't attack you

Happy Birthday Carly!

We went to the Cheesecake factory for Carly's birthday... I'm not too sure if even stepping foot in a place with the word 'Cheese' in it is considered vegan.. I feel tainted.

Slackerville

OK here are some quick adventures that I have been on in the past 4 months because I have been a slacker. This post will have lots of pictures with just a sentence or two explanation.

Third time is a charm (no seriously I've seen Beatles Love 3 times)

We went through my old stomping grounds of Las Vegas on the way to St. George Utah to support Allen in his Ironman.  I had seen The Beatles Love show with Clark previously and we convinced our parents to see the best show of their lives.  It was awesome of course... I'm sure I'll be seeing this show again in my lifetime. 

He's good at hiding the pain, years of living with Breanna obviously helped him train

Allen finished in 13 hours and 49 minutes..  Also just a heads up for anyone thinking of doing an Ironman he said it was by far the hardest course he has ever run.

Who knew this much adorable could fit in one picture?

Kyle had exhausted all scientific ways to find a job, when that didn't work he dabbled in witchcraft which resulted only in the curse of being surrounded by Mormons.  Having no other alternative, he set out to Santa Cruz, no not to smoke pot and become a surfer, but something more desperate... throw his resume into the ocean.  *update four months later, and still no call back..... dang you Poseidon!*

If he would have hit and killed a baby seal with that message-in-a-bottle at least he'd have a roof over his head and food on his plate.. oh and a nice prison buddy named Bubba

This is Clark's angry face

Clark needed a 10 mile hike to complete a merit badge, so being the amazingly awesome brother that I am (who by the way is never mean to any of his family members ever)  I decided to invite Kyle and go with my lil' browfer.  It was fun, until Clark started hating me for making him go the whole 10 miles!

A budding bromance

You decide: We saved a spot for the ghost of JFK in between us, or there was tension in the bromance after our creative differences?

I decided to enlist my bestie in the creation of our new swinging chair for the backyard.  This will not be the first time I will lead Kyle into an amazing adventure, because I like to enjoy the journey and the process.  During the whole three hour ordeal Kyle kept saying we should read the instructions, but honestly... where is the fun in that?  Now every time I sit on that bench there is a story to remember, as well as the knowledge that I should never permit the elderly to sit on my swinging chair because it could collapse at any second and break a hip.

Men are dogs

I went on a date to the Exploratorium a while ago in San Francisco, and it was amazing.  Advice to any guys reading this... if you are hoping for a kiss at the end of the date, I highly recommend NOT sipping from the toilet bowl drinking fountain. 

Epic eating shot

It's like Disneyland.. I got a picture with two princesses and Dumbo! 

Carly got some AMAZING tickets just a few rows from the field for free.  I assume the athletics mascot is an elephant as smart social commentary on the state of American obesity rates.  Or maybe because in baseball   professionals can be built like elephants?

I wish nerds got women

I also got my diploma mailed to me almost 9 months after I stopped going to school.  It was a good day and the sense of accomplishment hit me.  I hung it up on the wall in my bedroom and I look at it every time I wake up.  It seems so surreal I can't even really believe it happened.

San Francisco Trip with Lisseth

We went on a tour of San Francisco with Lisseth.  Lisseth is a good family friend that my dad and Julie met when they were in Peru at my cousin J.D.'s wedding.  She had been in the states for about three months working and decided to come on a vacation to California.

Asian Town (Clark would call me racist for calling this China town)

 

We really saw the whole city and experienced it all.  We even went on a cable car ride, but it was just Lisseth and me while my dad drove behind us and took pictures while we were on the cable car.  My dad of course stopped traffic and got the cable car driver to yell at him and call him an idiot.  Lucky for me the driver had no idea I knew that crazy man in the car.

We ate at Boudin's and saw some other token sights of San Francisco.  I also learned a lot about the time Julie lived there, which seems like a really cool thing to do... maybe I should be living there...

Authentic San Francisco

That is one windy street

It's not even golden? Wtf?!

That night we decided to go to a drive-in movie because Lisseth had never been to one.  It was pretty fun, and it kind of makes me feel sad and lucky at the same time, because there just aren't very many drive-in's left and we have one so close!

New and exciting predicaments

OK, so the title is misleading because there hasn't been that much fun stuff that I have done.  Well there has been, but I haven't taken pictures which means I don't update the blog because blog w/out pictures = boring.

In the world of books, my family read Ender's Game for my selection in our family book club and they liked it, because its an awesome book that I recommend highly to everyone.

It is as nerdy as it looks. But awesome.

We also started a book club with a few people from the ward, and the first book is awesome and it's what I love about book clubs- they make you read stuff you probably would have otherwise skipped.  I am reading a book called The User's Guide to the Brain and it's really interesting.

Brains, brains the musical fruit...

I also had my Grandma, uncle Mark, and Aunt Cheryl come for a few days and we went to Stinson Beach and around there for fun.

I had a really fun time going to the Chabot planetarium, where I saw Jupiter and Mars, and thankfully not Uranus.  They have a whole Mayan movie that I unfortunately didn't get to see, but it looked cool and had some mayan language written around the place (that was unfortunately not K'ekchi).

You're weightless in space, but they make you look fat anyways.

Clayton Olympic Triathlon

Allen decided to make a triathlon for anyone that would come, which was mainly people from the ward and from his spin class.  It was an Olympic distance triathlon, which means .9 mile swim, 25 mile bike, and 6.2 mile run. 

Me during the swim... minus the speed

The swim was good, but I need to put some sport drink next to the lane, because I was surrounded by water, but had the worst cotton mouth the entire time.  I took a 5 minute sauna break afterward, which was nice.  The 60 laps took me 45 minutes.

Aid station goodies

 The bike ride was not that bad, my muscles weren't aching- I was taking it slow and not pushing too hard.  Half way during the bike ride I sware my prostate went numb, and it was not a good feeling.  Lets just say that, no joke, it stung every time I peed that entire day... I hope I never get prostate problems!  I hope this post doesn't give me the nickname 'numb nuts'.

This was right about the time my runner's high was wearing off

The run wasn't as bad as I expected it to be.  I had a relatively easy first 4 miles so I decided that I felt so good I would push it really hard for the last two.  I liked finishing strong, but I paid for it by getting 'runners upset-stomach' after I finished for a few hours.  I was told after the race the run was more like 6.5 miles than 6.2... thanks Allen ...

d

Mission accomplished!

I finished with a time of 3 hours and 45 minutes.  Not too shabby for my first triathlon ever, not to mention the fact I have only swum a few times in my life, and the highest I'd ever done was 30 laps.  I also doubled my record for biking distance.  I used to run 7 miles every other day, but I have not run 6 miles in a year and a half.

I want to give a shout out to RATM and Radiohead... I couldn't have done it without you!

See ya Theresa

My dear ol' pal Ms. Theresa Lenz is leaving me this week, which leaves my friend count back to zero.  To say goodbye we both went to San Francisco to see Jeannie Powers and have dinner.

Two cute girls/women

I have not seen Jeannie in 5 years, so it was a joyous reunion and there was much rejoicing.  She has a really nice place in San Francisco in the Mission district.  Theresa and I wanted me to come over as a surprise, because we forgot that she hates surprises (we are bad friends).  She prepared fondue for the dinner, because she didn't know I was coming.  But I figured it was such a huge event to be reunited that I had some cheese after being celibate from cheese for the past 6 months at least.  I know that no one will believe me, but after not having cheese for an extended period of time you start questioning why people like it so much, it's really not that good.

I

 "Wow, it looks like I'm having fun" 

The Jeannie quote of the night was when we took this picture, and implied that the rest of the night she wasn't having fun... it was pure comedic genius. 

Good-bye Theresa until Thanksgiving where we can eat Tofurky again!  P.S. I want to jump your bones!

Gavin the MANion

I have a confession to make- my car has been mistreated and I had to make amends.  I hadn't really used it for a few years, and I neglected it by walking or riding my bike to school and work.  To make up for my transgressions I decided to pretty her up and put some wax on her.

Leather seats?! What a hypocrite!

Gavin gave me the best birthday present ever- a car detail.  He wanted to do it a few months ago, but I decided to wait until it stopped raining a bit.  I should have just pulled out a lawn chair and watched him work, but I felt bad for him because that's what Breanna always does... So I helped out.

s

Gavin died a little inside when he cleaned my seats

Yes that nice line where he is cleaning is actual dirt that has been ground into the leather over the years.  It looks amazing now, and must have been hard for Gavin to see a car mistreated in any way, shape or form.  I think he's also trying to make friends with my car after all the childhood trauma Gavin put the car through.  For those of you who don't know, Gavin had someone run into my car the first week I bought it.  The drivers door was bashed in pretty good.

T

Notice his facial expression and rubber gloves

 Thanks Gavin, you're the best!  Maybe I'll even let you beat me in Call of Duty tonight!

Adventures in San Francisco

Chelsey Blatter needed some  help moving into her new apartment this last Saturday.  Usually my Family and I would pass up this wonderful offer and do something productive with our time like watch movies, but Chelsey is special.  Chelsey lives in San Francisco.  We jumped at the chance to go, and we were told that Chelsey's roommate owns all the furniture so it would be an easy move.

 

Chelsey was still able to fill an entire trailer with clothes

It was an awesome afternoon and I love spending time with Uncle Kevin, Auntie Lyn and Chelsey... and my family too I guess.  The day was beautiful and we got to break the law by being double parked for over 4 hours.  Breaking the law always promotes family togetherness, we should do it more often.

 

We used Breanna as our pregnant defense system against tickets

 

  Chelsey is a smart girl.  As a result, it must have slipped her mind to mention we were moving out of a 2nd story apartment into a 3rd story one.  I was planning on running/weight lifting when I got home from our adventure, but I was able to combine both of those activities into one.  Stair climbs while lifting weights, what a killer combo.

We are sweating profusely - except Lyn she's just glistening

 

In all seriousness I had an awesome day with all my great family... Be sure to call me the next time Chelsey gets evicted! (OK the end part wasn't serious... don't call me.)

Mission Accomplished! George W. Bush style

Facebook Etiquette?

I have been on facebook for a while, and have started using it with more frequency in the past year, but recently I have been more self conscious of the social norms on facebook.  To be honest, I have no idea about them and have recently consulted my resident facebook advisor Danny Armstrong.

Before I was in the singles ward I had no new friends, which meant I had no dilemma concerning new facebook friend requests.  I was always under the impression that you had to ask someone to be a facebook friend in person, then you could do it.  But I have been recently informed that you can just add people that you have only met once and maybe not even talked to for half a minute and its not totally rude.  Is this true?!

Now that I'm in a new culture (ward) with many new faces to meet, facebook has taken on an entirely new and scary turn.  I had always viewed facebook as a way to keep up with old friends but I can see it now in its entirety... and I have fully embraced the evil. The twisted reality is that Facebook is super stalkerish.  I find myself looking at peoples pages I don't even know and have never even seen in my life!

How does this translate into other parts of my life now?  When I finally meet that person should I be a total liar and ask questions I already know the answers to?  Or should my creepy side be out in the open for all to view?  Should I ask that attractive girl if the mole on her back is cancerous and advise her to get it looked at because I saw it on facebook?

I have usually had all my profile stuff available for view, because I highly doubted anyone would even be interested in my page unless I knew them in person.  I don't think I want to have a conversation with anyone I just met where that person talks about my teenage acne that they saw in my facebook pictures...

I need some serious help to this newly found problem in my life!

Kickin it old school

So this Sunday was my first time back to the singles ward and boy was it exciting.  It's fun to meet people again, something I haven't really done in a long time but I forgot just how different the singles ward culture is.  Talking about my mission is one example.  No one is really interested in my mission, and I haven't talked about it for years but everyone still asks (which is another story entirely).  I am excited about all the different activities singles wards have that family wards just seem to ignore and not have.  It's a lot easier to make friends in the singles ward than in family wards- that's for sure.

I know a handful of people, like Danny Armstrong who is a big pimp.  The majority of the ward are totally new faces to me, which is a good thing.  Lets see where this little adventure takes me... I'm excited.

Snack Attack!

Theresa and I decided to make some good stuff to eat on Friday night.  So I made my own tortilla chips out of some corn tortillas while Theresa made the guacamole.  My parents liked it so much they made me do it again for our Sunday dinner.

She wishes she could smile like me

 

We also decided to make some vegan brownies, which tasted amazing.  Between Theresa and I we ate maybe 2 1/2 brownies.  I left them out because usually my vegan stuff is VERY safe from anyone in my family.  To my surprise the next day this is what my brownie pan looked like!

Some Pirates took me booty!