Jake's first day at Renaissance Academy. Dude, where are your shoes? 

First day of school for the 9th grader. No wonder Robin likes this cute kid. 

Jake has always LOVED his pogo stick. Last year I blogged about his record. Yesterday, he pogo sticked all the way from his friends house. He wants to do a complete mile! 

Mormons

A long time friend of mine, Andrzej sent me this e-mail this morning. He currently lives just outside of Perth, Australia. I wanted to post and remember it.

"I have a dear friend, who is becoming a consecrated catholic nun, her and a couple of other girls are living in a house, a catholic community, working part time and studying theology, personalism, family counselling, spirituality etc. Apparently they have neighbours who are Mormons, also living in a kind of community, and they spend much time together listening to each other. From what she said there is such a massive amount of respect from them the Mormons towards the catholic community, and in Clares exact words refering to the mormons " they are such beautiful spiritual people that I just listen to them and try learn from them". It made me think that in this world of divisions due to religion, with religion now being indistinguishable from terrorism and warmongering, its good to see an example of people who regard love of God and love of neighbour more important than anything else, and with their own individual form of spirituality, one a mormon another a catholic, each know what it is, that is more important."

Jake with Grizzlies coach Jason Christie 

Jake with Allie Mac Kay of KUTV2. 

ULCER 2006

Well, yesterday was the big ULCER ride. I've been looking forward to this ride for about a year. It was by far my longest ride ever and to put it mildly, IT WAS LONG. I picked up my packet a couple of days early and saw many of the other people that I would be riding with. For the most part, as it turned out, they were mostly posers.

I tried to get a a good night's rest so that I could get up by 6 and be there before 7. The ride started and finished at American Fork High School. Of course, it took me a few minutes and a call to 411 to get the address (even though I've been there a dozen times for Jr. Jazz games). I must have been a bit nervous.

As I was getting ready I ran in to a good friend, Jeff Thomas. He's been riding for a number of years. He introduced me to a bunch of his friends and invited me to ride with them. Cool.

I loaded up with Gatorade, a few gel packets, and energy bars and I was off. Since this wasn't really a race, you could start at your pleasure. We started about 7:30. It was pretty cool. There were hundreds of riders. For the first 50 miles or so, I don't believe I got passed. Jeff and his group were really cool and helped me with all of the proper etiquette. I followed closely in a paceline for the first time. I was amazed at the difference. We stopped at the 25 mile station and I had a banana, refilled my bottles with Gatorade, and was able to take a much needed pee.

I wasn't paying attention and lost the group after that first stop and tried to catch up. I ended up being only a few minutes behind them as I arrived at the second stop at the half way point. The major bummer about the entire ride was that my wireless bike computer was NOT working. I screwed around with it at the second stop and finally game up. Oh well. On to the next stop. I ended up stopping only about 8 miles ahead. I phoned Marcella and let her know how it was going. I told her that I would call her in Springville (with only 25 miles to go).

Well, I never ended up stopping. I followed a couple of different groups and ended up going the remaining 40+ miles without a stop. I did fine until about mile 85 or so. I didn't have any problems the first half but I'll tell you, 104 miles is a long way. At the start of the race, my friend Jeff and the other guys were talking about the LOTOJA ride. That is a 206 mile race from Logan to Jackson. I thought "Hey, that would be fun". But after finishing yesterday's ride, I'll have to do a bunch more riding before attempting something like that.

Anyhow, I thought it was quite the accomplishment. 100+ miles in about 5.5 hours. I didn't actually time it and I'm not sure if you're suppose to include rest stops and such. Back at the high school, I drank a bunch of Gatorade, had a sandwich, fruit, and a bunch of popsicles.

I went home and tried to nap but really didn't. I was tired, a bit sunburned but pretty dang happy to be done. I'm pretty sure that I'll do the ride next year and hopefully do a bit better.

I took my bike into the shop a few days ago for a tune up. They also suggested that I have a new chain put on. I really noticed the difference and the bike couldn't have performed much better. I wonder if I'll ever get a nice/lighter bike. I really like the one I have. I guess if I really want to be competitive and race, I'll have to consider getting a better bike. For now, I'm pretty happy.

Today I woke up, a bit sore on the bum but feeling pretty good. I have to take Jake to the Oval at 6:00 am tomorrow for a hockey/TV thing. I'm not sure what kind of training I should be doing this week but I should do a bit of running and biking to get ready for my first tri on Saturday. The main thing is I need to make sure that I get plenty of rest.

With that, I'm going to bed.

Wednesday

Originally, I had titled this entry as "Today was a good day". It was a good day but there still is a disturbing issue. So here was the good part. This week I've been "filling in" as one of the assistant coaches for Jakey's football team. Although I played football in high school, I am CERTAINLY no football coach. In fact, with pretty much any sport, I don't have any formal coaching training. Nevertheless, I am quite enjoying it. Most of the time I've been working with the linemen. Teaching them (or at least pretending to teach) them proper hand and foot movements. Let me tell you, this isn't Texas or Florida but Northern Utah County takes its football pretty dang seriously. Today my post-practice comment, "There's no crying in football!".

Next, I had the opportunity to check my blood pressure today. 123 over 64 with a pulse of 51. Pretty darn good if you ask me. It would be cool to have my pulse under 50. I just had the thought about Lance Armstrong and found this:

What is your resting pulse rate? "I don't take it, but I guess it would be around 40. I have a little box on my handlebars that tells me time, speed, watts, heart rate, cadence, distance. I can measure everything in average mode, or maximum mode, and I can download it at the end of a run and send it to my coach. My highest-ever heart rate was 207 beats per minute, 15 years ago. Today I can hit the high 190s, but only hold it for a minute or so. My fastest-ever speed was 75mph, freewheeling down a hill in the Pyrenees."

That is simply incredible. I don't think my heart rate has ever been above 170. Speaking of which, I have my first century ride coming up this Saturday. It's called the ULCER 100. I picked up my registration packet this afternoon. I'll be wearing #120. Looking at the race map, it appears that this year the route will NOT go completely around Utah Lake. This year it goes along the east side down to Goshen and then back again. Hopefully, I'll be able to write about the race. Wish me good luck. I was able to get my bike into the local shop for a good tune up and cleaning. It sure got dirty up at Sandpoint.

Lastly, we had our first playoff game for summer hockey tonight. I took Jake so that he could free skate. The Oval ice has been down much of the summer but now it is open again. If you care to see how pathetic we've been this summer, you can check things out here. Anyhow, I decided to play at my original position (left defense). For the past couple of years I've been playing right wing and really enjoying it. It sure was fun playing a bit rougher being on defense. The best part was I had a nice slapshot from just inside the blue line and scored. Pretty nice! Did I mention I broke my right pinky toe on Sunday? It is all black and blue and it hurt being in the skate but I had a good time on the ice tonight.

So, like I said, a pretty good day. HOWEVER, Marcella and I are increasingly concerned about her migraines. We thought that she was getting better but the past couple of weeks have been a return to what she was going through back in February and March. She was pretty much in bed since yesterday. I was able to go to the pharmacy this morning and get her a variety of medicines. Earlier this week she saw yet another neurologist. This one seems to be pretty good. She now goes to see a cardiologist next week to see if she has a condition called PFO. I found a few good articles here, and here, and here and here. So the next step is to see if she qualifies for this study. I'll keep her progress updated here. So she has been in lots of pain and I really feel bad for her. Hopefully, we can figure this out and she can return to a more normal life.

Check your bra

Due to enhanced security measures there are new regulations that you must be aware of. My favorite: "We encourage everyone to pack gel-filled bras in their checked baggage." That means you, Dolly Parton".

Welcome to Sandpoint! I was reading the news online and so I was a bit late in taking this picture. I'm up here all week long so hopefully I can get caught up. Cheers! 

The "sassy" girls of Canterbury 

Not to be outdone, Olivia "decorates" her door with her own style. 

While Mom was preparing her lesson on Sunday, the boys went crazy making signs for their door. 

Golf? You've got to be kidding!

Okay, I do NOT golf. I never have. I've seen parts of Happy Gilmore and it's been years since I watched Caddyshack. It's somewhat of a shame, however, because my mom's husband, Wolf, is an excellent golfer. This year for Father's Day, we paid him a visit and he gave me a set of Titleist clubs. Sweet! So they sat in my car for a couple of weeks and I even showed a few people. A couple of days ago my brother-in-law, Blaine (NO BLOG AVAILABLE) invited me to go golfing this morning. I got Jake up at 6 this morning (no small feat) and we drove to some course I've never been to. We had a great time. I pretty much SUCK but we had a good time. I had a couple of nice hits/shots (whatever you call them). I forgot to snap some photos on the course but I did get a few at the driving range. Look out, Tiger!!!!

Grandpa and grandsons. 

Happy Father's Day 

My three contacts

Okay, I know that I STILL haven't written about the cruise, my trip to Vicksburg, or last week's trip to Zion National Park. HOWEVER, this week was a pretty interesting, stressful, depressing, awful, ugly week at work. On Wednesday afternoon I cracked (big time). I'm not going to go into details but let's say it was bad enough. SO....., after talking to a good friend/counselor, she told me that I needed to write down the names of my three contacts. The first two were pretty easy but I had a hard time with the third. Now, I certainly don't want to offend anyone or make anyone feel bad but the criteria was if I called you would you NO MATTER WHAT, drop everything and answer my call.

#1 - my wife, Marcella Davis
#2 - my sister, Jennifer Anderson
#3 - my friend, Clark Henderson

What's funny is that I'm pretty sure that none of these three people will ever read this or know about this but that's okay. I know that I could call them. The last thing I'm supposed to do is sign it. So let it be.

R. Jeffrey Davis

p.s. just remember, it's only a job.
p.s.s. work your job or hate your money

CNN and Dr. James Dobson

Today I read a commentary by Dr. James Dobson on CNN. Although I don't always agree with him I do on this particular issue. What I found funny is that if you try to leave/send your comments to the article (at the bottom of the page), the link comes up as "Page Not Found". I guess Dobson shouldn't have criticized the "mainstream media" i.e. CNN.

I hate dentists

Well, actually, it's more the dental hygienists that I dislike. I guess that it is a necessary fact of life that you have to pay them a visit (literally) a couple of times a year. Luckily for me I got a pat on the back and walked out of there 30 minutes later still with no cavities. Thank goodness for 1) fluorinated water and 2) parents that didn't feed me too much junk as a kid.

Keep your eye on this one

The creators of South Park Trey Parker and Matt Stone are working on a Broadway musical - about Mormons. Could be quite scary.

Other bloggers....

I wanted to point out a few good posts that I've read the past couple of days. Such good stuff. Norm just got back from his "European vacation". Give it a read. He is a big history nut and he got to visit Normandy DURING the D-Day celebration.

On Kevin's Clariticity, you can read about the new change with the Coinstar machines. You now have the option of getting iTunes cards or Amazon cards instead of cash. The best part? No 9% fee.! Also, if you are wondering what to get your Pops for Father's day, look no further.

However, the best post goes to a guy I've never met. Several months ago I started reading this guy's blog about "Becoming Ironman". I tell you, this guy is a blogger. You may not find his stuff interesting but I love reading it. Today I read his post about getting a haircut recently. If you want a good laugh, give it a read. I was ROFLMAO.

Too little time too much to do.

Do you ever feel like that there just isn't enough time in the day? Just when I had a few minutes, I start IMing my father, watching TV, and reading everyone else's blog. First of all, I still have to write about our trip. Hopefully, this weekend. This week I've been in Orlando. Again! I've been here several times already this year. Short notice so paying the $1300 fare automatically got me upgraded. I worked with a new company on Wednesday. Looks like we could do more work together in the future. I found a pretty good seafood place (Fish Bones). It is right next door to the place I stay (Marriott of course). Last night I had a very tasty Sea Bass dish topped with the chocolate cake for desert. Tonight I stumbled on a tasty sushi place (Sushi House). I usually am not swayed by "Best Sushi" and crap like that but if you're down here, do go for a visit. I highly recommend the "Happy Sumo", and the "Graduation Roll". Both are award winners. Well, I need to do another post so TTFN.

Coming to the Caribbean

Well, our trip finally arrived. After a very busy month, we are now on our trip. We left SLC yesterday morning. Our friends, Tim and Di, are traveling with us. Thank goodness for Medallion status as we had nice seats the entire trip over. We first flew to Atlanta where are stay there was very uneventful. Crappy food. Don't bother eating at Great Wraps in the A concourse. Nothing great about them at all. Our flight to San Juan took just under 3 hours. We were on one of the newer planes with the personal entertainment systems. I watched a cool program on climbing that JJ would have loved. Then I started playing this trivia game. It was fun because you play against the other passengers. Tim and Di and I were all playing (Marcella was either sleeping or reading her book). I won one game but Wendy (some chick in row 32) pretty much kicked our butts. We got in around 10 pm. We got in a taxi to take us to our hotel. I knew that it was close since it was an airport hotel. The driver didn't know where it was so he had to ask directions. As it turned out the hotel was AT the airport. So the driver took us OUT of the airport and BACK in and dropped us off in front from a whopping $10 plus tip. What a rip. Oh well. Live and learn. We dropped off our bags and walked over to Wendy's for a late night bite to eat.

Tim was up at the crack of dawn. I needed a bit more sleep. I got up around 7:30 and went for a run. Already pretty hot and very muggy. After running completely AROUND the airport, I jogged over to the beach where I met up with Tim. I got him to turn around and go to the beach. We dropped our shorts and went for a swim (this only after our adventure in trying to go through one of the hotels to get to the beach access. WHAT A PAIN!). The water on Isle Verde beach was quite nice although the water was quite salty (DUH!). After the swim we ran back. We did get stopped by a policeman because Tim was running sans shirt. Now after a nice breakfast of juice, bananas, and cereal, we are ready for the next part of our adventure. We don't have to get on the ship until tonight. So we'll probably spend the afternoon walking around Old San Juan.

Later

Golden opportunity

Well, since I still have a few minutes I guess I can write about our trip to Golden last week. Marcella and I went out there for the MODFLOW conference (work related). We decided to go out a day early so that we could spend time with Tony (Marcella's father). It was kind of funny that we were in Colorado and Joyce (Tony's wife) was back in Highland spending time with the grandchildren. We were driving a fake Hummer (as Marcella liked to call it). We drove down to Colo Sprgs on the 2 lane interstate. We were completely amazed that after all of these years the highways are STILL completely inadequate. We drove around Manitou Springs where Marcella grew up. We even drove up Ruxton. We haven't been there for several years. Nothing much has changed. The Chavez sign over the bridge leading to the house is still there. It is really sad that all of these years have passed without any relationship between Marcella and the "person that gave birth to her". After driving around we went to Mall for a while (practically out in Kansas) and then had dinner at this dive of a Mexican place in downtown Colo Sprgs.

The next day we met one of Marcella's longtime friends Wendy and her new husband Jerry for brunch at the Table Mountain Inn. Pretty good food but we had a great time chatting and laughing for the next 4 hours.

The conference was pretty good. We know most of the people at the conference and it is good to see them and catch up with them. There were a number of people that we know through either e-mail or over the phone and we finally were able to meet them face to face. Norm and his whole group of guys were there also.

One of the best things about where we were staying is that we had access to The Pointe Fitness center. It was less than a mile away. I'm telling you, if I had a gym this close to my house that was a nice as this one, I would join. There is nothing like this where we live. Norm, Mike, Alan, and I would go around 6 in the morning. I would ride the bike for 1/2 hour or so and then we would play racketball or basketball or something. Very fun.

I was glad that Marcella was able to come and help me with the conference. She is getting quite familar with all of our stuff. She can pretty much answer most of the commonly asked questions. We couldn't stay long in Colorado as we had to get back in order to get ready for the cruise.

Vicksburg

Okay, 5 months later I'm finally writing about my trip to Vicksburg. My partner, Royd, and I went there for some coastal modeling trianing. It was interesting to be on the other side of the training. Usually I am the one doing the training. I haven't been back to Vicksburg for many years. You see, the happening town of Vicksburg is home to the Waterways Experiment Station. The folks here have been quite instrumental in the development of the our software. It was good to see some of my good friends like Cary and Rob. I was able to run the streets of Vicksburg each morning. That was pretty fun (and interesting). Vicksburg, for those Civil War buffs, is the site of one of the great, final, battles. I usually ran along the street that had all of the markets showing the location of the battle lines.

One afternoon, Royd and I had some free time so we decided to go to the Vicksburg National Military Park. For all of the times that I have traveled there, I'm surprised that I've never taken the time to visit this park. It was very interesting. Here is a picture of the Illinois state memorial



There are several state memorials scattered throughout the park.









There are also fields upon fields of graves. Most of these are fallen Confederate soldiers. It is all pretty amazing.















Another cool thing we saw was the restored USS Cairo Gunboat. This was one of 7 ironclad gunboats that was used during the Civil War. The boat was sunk in about 36 feet of water and there it remained until about 40 years ago when it was recovered and the restoration began. Most of the ship is now on display. It was interesting.

Reno??? Really???

Yes, I've been doing some work for a client there over the past couple of months. It is nice when I go there because I stay in their home. They treat me really well and I get a good run in each morning. Reno is much like northern Utah County. What more can I say?

Like a bowling ball???

Today on KSL.com there was an article about the Visitor Center at Dinosaur Monument and how it was deteriorating due to the type of soil beneath the building. I did find this sentance quite interesting:

" In the West, bentonite clay soils are notable for causing pioneer cabins to collapse over time and buckling hard-surface roads. The clay expands considerably when wet and turns so pasty it can cling to shoes like a bowling ball."

Now, I'm a Civil Engineer and I don't remember being taught that. Maybe someone can help me with that.

South Pacific. JJ worked hard for a couple of months to put on 5 performances of the hit musical. He loved his part mainly because he got to use a megaphone. Good job! 

Moab - Last Day

When I was a teenager, I went with my family to the Needles part of Canyonlands. It is a bit out of the way so we've never been back. I decided that this time we'd return. We had a great time. We stopped at Newspaper Rock. We had lunch in a big sandstone pothole area where the boys spent more than an hour chucking rocks at Gatorade bottle. The main think at Needles is Elephant Hill. If you are into 4x4 adventure then you have probably tried doing EH. It is pretty technical. Since we were not in Jeeps we just walked to the top and watched a group coming back. What a rush. The bad part of the day was the LONG ride home. We all had a great time. Next time I think we are going to Colorado for Spring Break.

No jumping! 

Moab - Day 3

Today was 4-wheel drive day. We have a favorite drive that goes from Canyonlands all the way down to Moab. The trail is called Shaffer Trail. It is beautiful. We stopped at one area to play hide and seek, throw rocks, and catch some sun. We stopped later on at a big overlook down on the Colorado River (to throw rocks).

Sassy Girls!

Delicate Arch (please don't climb on it) 

Moab - Day 2

Okay, so I'm a slacker. I've got to finish the Moab trip. It was nice that every morning I could get up and run. I would run about 3-4 miles. It was fun. Today was the Delicate Arch hike. I was looking forward to it since last month when we came down with the Scouts it was super windy and Jake didn't quite make it to the arch. Everyone did great. We all had our hydration packs. What a beautiful site. We hiked around the arch for more than an hour. Jakey discovered "A view rarely seen". After our morning hike we had lunch at Devil's Garden. This is where the infamous "challenge" is. JJ is such a great climber. Well, one thing's for sure. If I wait to tell about something it turns out pretty short (and boring IMO).

Almost caught

It was a beautiful day this morning. Driving to work, sunroof open, XM blaring at almost full blast.
Stupid tractor pulls out in front of me. Slow down to 30. Not fun. So when the double lane hits just before the freeway onramp, the TL goes off. Before I was halfway up the ramp I was going 90+. Got on the freeway and noticed a motorcycle WAY back there. I slow down as I see him speed up. He got close enough that I realized that it was UHP. So my FUN drive ended up being a normal 70 mph drive into work. The radio was still blasting, and the sunroof still open but not quite as fun as it could have been. Oh well. At least no ticket. I better get that radar detector NLJ told me about.

Tax the Fat People

I just LOVE reading KSL comments. Today there was an article about whether you would rather lose your job or lose 75 pounds. I thought the article was rather un-news worthy but again, the comments ROCK.

We interrupt this broadcast.....

I know that I'm in the middle of Moab trip but this was just too hilarious to pass up. Many of you know that I like to ride my new bike (had a good ride this morning in fact). Well some bonehead city councilman in Utah thinks that it is a really good idea to put a tax on cyclists. Who put this guy in office? As always the KSL comments are very entertaining. I love reading the comments MORE than the actual news item itself. Right now there are only 7 comments but I'm sure there will soon be more. Now, back to my story telling

The Gang! Much better than being in the car for sure. 

The Windows 

Moab - Day 1

Because the Davis' are soooo good at getting up early and getting going, we didn't make it to Moab until late in the afternoon. We checked into the cabin and then headed for Arches. We decided to go somewhere simple. We went to the Windows section where we hiked the both Window arches and Turret Arch. We finished off the night at Double Arch. This is JJ's favorite. We had dinner at an all you can eat pizza place (Zaks). Okay food. Tired!

Spring break - Moab, UT

For several years, the Davis family would spend Spring Break in Moab. If you are not familiar with this part of the world, you really need to make a trip. For the first few years we would camp. It was fun trying to stuff our Honda Accord with all of our camping equipment. Then we got our first SUV and we still were always stuffing it with every piece of camping equipment. The last year we went we stayed in a small cabin located in town. This allowed us to leave things like the tent, chairs, and sleeping pads at home. We really enjoyed the cabin experience.

Then came the building of our house and for the past 4 years we didn't make it down to Moab. This year we determined to continue the tradition. So a few months back, I searched online and determined that the 2 room cabin at the Moab KOA would be a good choice. We had invited the entire Draper family to come with us but only Tim and Bailey ended up going. In order to be comfortable we drove seperately but once in Moab we all piled in the Ascender.

The kids were out of school all week so we left on Wednesday morning (okay it was noon before we rolled out of here) and came back on Saturday night.

I'll break it up for each day.

Thou shalt not ...

Conversation between Mom and daughter:

Daughter: "Mom? You know how when you go somewhere and you take something that doesn't belong to you and you don't ask? That's stealing. Right?

Mom: "Yes, honey."

Daughter: "Mom, who stole my lamp and mirror?"

Add background: Marcella is helping a friend decorating a parade home. In the past couple of days several items from our house have been borrowed to decorate the home (including Olivia's table, lamp, and mirror). Obviously, Mom should have asked before the heist.

Recent trips

So I've been a bit busy the past couple of weeks. Last week I was in Orlando teaching a class. I was able to spend time with a couple of clients on Monday. I also was able to dine at one of my favorite sushi bars, Amura. I highly recommend it. The course kept me busy but I was able to swim and bike (albeit a stationary one) each night.

After returning to Utah, I got to see Jake play in the last hockey tourney of the season. It was a big one with teams coming from California, Idaho, and Colorado. They did okay (going 0-2-2). I was glad I was there to see him play. At the same venue, there was a small triathlon that was being held. I think it was just a Sprint one but it did get me excited.

This week I spent a couple of days in Reno working with my good friends Davd and Dave Jr. Carlson. They have a small engineering company, Aqua Hydrogeologic Consulting. I have known and worked with them for several years now. They have me stay at their home and we work in a nice office upstairs.

The rest of the week I was back home working with the Bureau of Reclamation down in Provo. I did stop by to show NLJ the new commuter car.

So, here is the best comment I heard at the airport this time. After checking in you must take your tagged luggage over to the TSA folks for further screening. Here is the conversation I overheard:

TSA guy: "Sir, is your bag unlocked?"
Clueless guy: "Huh?"
TSA guy: "Is your bag unlocked?"
Clueless guy: "What do you mean?"
TSA guy: "Is your bag unlocked?"
Clueless guy: Blank stare.

2nd time in my life

The other night I went to put the grill cover back on the barbeque, and I thought I had stepped on a sticker/thorn. I reached down to pull it off my toe and I realized that it was a bee. Scared me a bit (I hate bugs) but I'm pretty sure I squashed him. The rest of the night it was stinging pretty good. I'm not sure how much of it was mental. That was just the second time I've ever been stung. The first time was a few years ago on a trip to Kauai. We were getting ready to go whale-sightseeing and a stupid hornet/wasp stung me on the leg. Ouch.

Some of my favorite things (and feeling pretty good)

- my iPod mini playing Daniel Powter
- my Gel-Kayano Asics shoes
- my Under Amour workout gear
- my new Gap socks
- my Radius toothbruch
- my new O'gio work bag

Tonight I had a great bike ride for about 8 miles or so, did 10 minutes of rowing and then swam a mile in about 30 minutes. I felt great. Maybe I can do this triathalon thing after all.

Cars, cars, cars

Okay, I have a few minutes and so I wanted to record in the annals of time my experience with car industry. Now, one thing you may or may not know about me is that I have to study something from EVERY angle, every possibility before I sign on the dotted line. It doesn't matter what I'm buying, I have the need to know 1) that I'm getting the best and 2) I am paying the lowest price. I'm sure it drives my wife nuts some times. When she wants something, she just buys it, no worries, no hesitation.

So, a couple of months ago, my partners and I decide that we are all going to get new cars. How exciting! How TIME CONSUMING! Now, I really don't know too much about cars. For the first 13 years of our marriage we were a single car family. When we finally had to break down and get another car I ended up getting a Dodge Neon mainly for the fact that my brother-in-law Ryan had just bought one. Pretty boring eh?

Now it was time to get a new car. A good friend of mine, Norm, bought a Volkswagen Passat. I thought that was a very nice car. Since I had no idea of anything else, I decided that is what I wanted. I drove both the 2.0T and also the 3.6 liter model. Both were nice cars. I didn't really like the dealership we went to. Sales people

I started talking to friends and family and these are the cars that I ended up taking a look at.

Acura TL

Infiniti G35X

BMW 330xi

Volvo S60

Cadillac CTS

Lincoln Zephyr

I have to say that the Lincoln and Cadillac didn’t interest me one bit. They try to be in the same class as the rest of them but they fail miserably. The interior wasn’t very nice (seemed a bit cheap), not very many features, and certainly not the power the others had.

One of my partners really wants a Volvo. I had a friend in high school that drove one. I remember coming home from Logan one year (from a basketball camp) and we drove most of the way home going 110+ mph. You can’t do that any more. Anyhow, the Volvo (at least the S60 we drove) was a bit too small. The other thing I didn’t like was that if you wanted any extra feature it was fairly pricey. Cross that off my list.

My friend Matt, owner of ScoobyTuner, told me to go drive the BMW and I would like that the best. He was right. I drove the all-wheel drive beefy engine version. It was a fun ride. Marcella loved it too. I had never been in a car where you could accelerate getting ON the freeway (going 100 mph). The problem was, I just couldn’t see myself driving this car. Too me, it has an image that just isn’t me. Cross that one out.

That left the Infiniti and the Acura. I really liked both. The G35x was faster but I didn’t like the interior as much. In fact, I was really bothered by the interior. The buttons for the power seats were in a goofy spot, the control panels were lit with outdated orange lights. The rest of the controls were not easy to figure. But I liked the drive. I liked the style of the car. I could drive one.

Everything that I didn’t like about the Infiniti, I loved about the Acura. Honda really knows how to make cars. Sure it wasn’t as powerful as the G35x. But heck, it gets about 6-7 mpg better. That’s a plus. And is rear-wheel drive THAT much better? If you talk to the BMW people or Infiniti, they will tell you it does. Well, I figured since I wasn’t actually a professional car driver, the front wheel drive would work just fine for me.

The Acura has an outstanding transmission. By far the smoothest of all of the cars. The seats are VERY comfortable. Easy to manage controls. My favorite part has got to be the stereo system. The Acura comes standard surround sound DVD audio. If you haven’t heard of this OR heard this you are in for a treat. Truly remarkable sound. It comes with a 3 month subscription to XM satellite radio. I’m learning to enjoy that. If I’m the only one in the car, the music is loud. It reminds me when I was a teenager and when my parents were gone, I would pull the big speakers out and face them a couple of feet apart. Then I would turn up the music and lie in between the speakers. Nice, eh? Give DVD audio a test (whether in a car or at home). You’ll love it.

I got my car from Mike Hale Acura. There are two Acura dealerships in Utah. I also worked with the one in Vegas and the one in Boise. The price wasn’t good enough for me to get it out of state. I felt in the end that the MH folks gave me a fair deal. Of course I read tons of pages on-line. Consumer Reports, Edmunds, and
a number of others. I read on-line forums. Anything that I could to see what kind of deals other people were getting. I think you could safely say, that for a couple of weeks I was pretty obsessed with getting a new Acura.

Well, I was going to write more but I figure this is long enough. It was fun shopping for cars. I felt like I was in control, I was calling the shots. The salespeople didn’t bother me. I felt like they had to work for my business.

Anyhow, it’s been a couple of weeks now. I enjoy driving to work and back. I have washed it once but the weather has been pretty crappy lately.

Wanna ride?

Jeffren Chavis - Mormonise Me

A friend (and recent newbie to the blog world), Sean showed me this website that generates Mormon names. Quite funny.

My new commuter car. 

Tell me, is there anything more spectacular? 

Dad and Gimpy. JJ is the epitome of a Boy Scout. Now if we could just get him to do his Eagle project. 

Here's the Sknny Guy (notice that there is still a bit of snow in the park as well as on the mountains in the background) 

One of my favorite arches, Double Arch. 

Golden Arches

No, I'm not talking about McFat. Last weekend, we took the scouts (11 year olds - 13 year olds) down to Moab for a couple of days. We camped at a group site at Dead Horse Point. It had a pavilion, running water and flush toilets. Nice. We did a couple of nice hikes, both in Arches National Park. The first one, took us to Landscape Arch (one of the longest arches in the world), to Wall Arch, Partition Arch, Navajo Arch, and then to Double O Arch. It's about 4 miles round trip and there was lots of climbing. I love Arches and so do my boys. It was a good experience for many of the scouts. Later that night during the campfire, the Scoutmaster talked about "A Scout is Brave". I had to give the spiritual thought and I spent a few minutes talking about patience. Our troop has really changed over the past couple of years. When JJ first started there were 3 other scouts. We had 21 scouts on this campout. It was great. Each troop was in charge of their own meals and the leaders (yes there were 7 of us) did our own thing.

The next day we did the Delicate Arch hike. This is about a 3 mile hike and it was beautiful. I'll post pictures. We are so lucky to have this in our own backyard. It is always fun to meet people not only from other states but also from all over the world. I talked to people from Germany, England, New Zealand, and Australia.

We are going back down in a few weeks as a family. For several years we went down for Spring Break but building our house and getting our yard in and all of that crap has kept us from enjoying one of our favorite places. I look forward to returning and I'll post the highlights of our adventures then.

Multitasking kids

As I sit here checking e-mail, reading my subscribed blogs, and checking the latest news, I ran across this article about the generation of kids that we are raising. I was just going to include the article but what good does it do unless I add my personal two cents worth. Life just seems to go faster and faster. We all seem to get caught up in this multitasking environment. I would say that I'm just as guilty as the children that I'm raising. I always have to have the TV on, my computer on, my iPod on. Geez, what a geek I am. I remember just a few years ago telling my wife how cool the interent and e-mail was. "PULEESE", she would say. But she surfs and checks e-mail just like the rest of us (okay, maybe not 24/7 like me). So, what do I do for my kids? I spend as much time as possible with them. I talk to them all the time. I take an interest in everything they do. I give them computer time but I limit their time. I spend time with them. Tonight we watched The RM. Yes we've seen it many, many times but we enjoy watching it together. We played Skip-bo. The kids are really into that game these days. The boys had fun playing a few rounds of chess with the chess set I brought back from Korea. I certainly have no intention of giving up my phone, iPod, laptop, and other gadgets but I also have no intention of becoming any less a part of my children's lives. Well, enough of the going on. Night-night

Mitt Romney, the Mormon

Several months ago I started following this Elect Romney in 2008 blog. Today I read an interesting post from the Daily Kos. I've never heard of this site before but I did find it interesting. For me it is pretty difficult to sift throught the left vs. the right crap that we are always pelted with. Anyhow, give it a read and let me know what you think.

Happy 40th Clark! We had a surprise party for him last Friday. He's the first of the gang that turns 40 this year. Clark is a dear friend and is who we named our son, Jake after 

I want my MTV

A good friend of mine, Norm Jones, has recently left his position at BYU to form a new company, CleanMedia. In truth, he did NOT leave the University. He simply started this website as a means of informing parents and guardians about the harmful influences in today's media. He has spent considerable time and effort in putting this material together. Take a look and you might learn something. You also can drop him an e-mail (njones AT cleanmedia.org) and give him a pat on the back.

"If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things"