It's Been Such A Long Time

Ya so to everyone who actually checks out my blog I am so sorry for the lack of updates. It has been a difficult couple of weeks. Mostly due to my recent battle with Swine Flu. That is right I fought and conquered the beast, but the fight took me a little over a week. It was not fun. My fever got up to 103 degrees, not the best for your health.
So I decided to write about a one of the somewhat odd things that I really enjoy. I really enjoy the smell of garden hose water. I don't have any idea why I like the smell but it is always really nice when I catch a wiff of it. Maybe it's because I used to work for a small landscaping company and my main responsibility was sprinkler system maintenance and repair. Or maybe it's because as a child i used to play in the sprinklers and throw water balloons around with my friends and family. Or maybe it is because when I was a kid i invented a game called Water Baseball where all of the bases were kiddie pools and the baselines were littered with sprinklers. We played with tennis balls and the little wooden bats that you can get at baseball games, you know the ones that are like 1 foot long. It was an awesome game. It could be a combination of all these different things but I really do like the smell of garden hose water.

Fire!!!!

Well, today something interesting happened to me. I caught on fire. Yep, that's right, I was totally engulfed in flame. Here is the story. Ben and I decided yesterday that we would have a little cook out and make some steaks. So we bought some meat and today started cooking. Unfortunately Ben did not put quite enough coals in to get it to really cook well and our steaks weren't cooking. Well, he added some more coals but that didn't work so we had to light them. He asked me for help. So ben pours a half a cup of gasoline on the coals, and I throw the match. Unfortunately I was squatting down next to the grill while doing this. Well the wind blew just right and a huge fireball erupted from the grill and completely engulfed me. Luckily it was only for a second and none of my clothes actually caught on fire. By the time I fell back out of the way the fire was gone. It did burn a whole in my favorite sweatpants though. Oh and my eyelashes are now half as long as they used to be and my hair is a little singed in the front. My face feels like I got a sunburn at the beach, nothing too bad but it is a little uncomfortable.

So that is my tale. Sorry it's been a little while since my last post. More to come, assuming I'm still alive in a week.

A song for the ages

So I was listening to my ipod the other day when a song I hadn't heard in a long time came on, The rainbow connection. For those unfortunate souls who have never heard of this song it is a classic sung by the wise and talented Kermit the Frog. Several thoughts and memories swam through my cerebrum. I loved the Muppet Show, I used to dream of being on stage with them and having a ball like they do. I remember seeing all the cool celebrities on the show performing with the muppets. There have been tons of people that have sung with Kermit, Piggie and the the gang.
Anyways it got me thinking, if I could have any puppet as a best friend who would i choose. At first it was a battle inside of me between Gonzo and Kermit. But then i started to think of other memorable puppets. Like Yoda, he'd be a cool puppet friend, I mean he can use the Force. Plus he has that oddly stated wisdom, just think of him giving you driving instructions on a road trip. "Right you must turn, heh heh." I briefly thought of the harry potter puppet pals but that thought left almost as quickly as it came. Lambchop then came to mind. She was nice and i am sure that plenty of ladyfolk would choose her as a friend but for me, i don't think she'd be a good friend for me, she probably likes chick flicks and twangy country music. My grandparents might choose Howdy Doody. He was THE puppet back in the day, nobody could touch him. But is it just me or does he look borderline scary? I mean he is a redneck of a puppet and that smile really creeps me out. Look at him! Look. Puppets abound. I thought of sesame street and all the friends i would love there, Big Bird, Oscar, Snuffleupagus (yes i had to look up how to spell that), and the cookie monster. I realized that my childhood was filled with puppets. Anyways this post started out talking about the song Rainbow Connection. It brought me back in time to my roots as a child. Hope it did something for you to.

The Origin of Muffins

So i am here at work and i am seriously craving a muffin. I like muffins. They make me happy. Though i don't like them enough to consider myself the MuffinMan, I still have this deep craving for them. So in my efforts to think of something else i decided to research the origin of muffins.
Some initial research proved fruitless. The best i could find was this from encyclopedia.com

muffin (dial.) wheat- or oat-cake; flat spongy cake eaten toasted and buttered. XVIII. of unkn. orig.

I think the unkn orig means they are of unknown origin. More research showed that muffin recipes started appearing in the 18th century. Then i found out that there are three states which have "State Muffins". Minnesota has adopted the blueberry muffin as the official state muffin. Massachusetts in 1986 adopted the Corn Muffin as the official state muffin. Then in 1987 New York took on the Apple Muffin as its official muffin of choice. Why would a state need a state muffin? Are there even 50 kinds of muffins? And shouldn't some southern state like Alabama have the corn muffin? Anyways i am going to go buy a muffin . . . . .

First Day Fall '09

Well today is the first day of classes for the fall semester. things are starting out pretty normal so far for me. Right now i am at work and have a little bit of down time. So my classes this semester are all either Engineering classes or are chemistry classes. I am getting a minor in chemistry and all of the classes needed for my minor are offered this semester. It means that i have a huge classload this semester. I am taking 17 credits worth of classes plus 15 to 20 hours of work each week. I think that all of my classes in addition to being important are going to have a lot of difficult homework. Needless to say i am not looking forward to it.
Working here at the Library south desk is interesting. I get the same three or four questions all the time. "Where is such and such building?", "Where can i rent a locker?", "My computer won't connect to the internet. Can you help me?", and "I am looking for this book or textbook do you know where to find them?". I'd say that 90 percent of all of the problems that i deal with are one of these. It is kind of funny, you can totally tell which people are freshman or freshly returned missionaries, they are so lost. It is really sad sometimes, just how desperate they seem to be. I guess i was like that once. All wide eyed and unknowing. those days were interesting. I was here at Utah State and i didn't know hardly anyone. All of my best friends had gone to BYU or the U of U. I was the only one. Luckily i met some great people who became great friends up here.

My Ear

So last night I went to Bear Lake with some friends of mine and had a lot of fun playing this weird toothpicks pool game and ultimate spoons in the pool. That was way fun. We played with waterproof cards at the shallow end of the pool and put all of the spoons at the other end. So when someone got four of a kind you had to dash to the other end of the pool. Cami, the girl who invited us, totally fell flat on her face trying to cheat and get out of the pool and dive back in to get a spoon. It looked like it hurt but all she got was a little scrap on her knee. So then we decided to do some chicken fights. Those are where one person gets on another's shoulders and you try to knock down you r opponents. Well I had Cami on my shoulders, this is because I was the biggest guy so i got the smallest girl. We won our first match and then on the second i got taken out. Ben was the base of the other team and some other guy was on his shoulders. So after struggling for a while Ben steps back a bit and then charges me. I met him straight on but the guys knee was sticking out right where my head was. So in order for it not to hit my nose I turned my head. This caused his knee to hit right in my right ear. It was like the whole right side of my head exploded. The pressure and hit absolutely took me out. I dropped Cami in the water and tried to get to the side of pool but i felt like was falling to the right the whole time. My head was spinning. It took fifteen minutes before I felt like I was on solid ground again. The whole night was bad. After Ben and I drove back home I tried getting to sleep but my ear was throbbing. It popped once while I was trying to get to bed and it felt like something was coming out of my ear. So I got a Qtip and cleaned it out and there was blood in there. That scared me. So I spent the next fifteen minutes looking up stuff on the internet to see how serious it is to bleed out your ears. Luckily it wasn't as bad as I thought. So three hours and 5 ibprofen later I finally fell asleep. Now my ear doesn't hurt as bad but it still doesn't feel good and i still feel like my head is under water.

My First Blog

So everyone seems to be getting into these things these days so i thought that i might as well join in. Shantel helped me get started and I found this cool background somewhere online, I think it's cool at least. Anyways more to follow shortly