At the end of April, Jimmy got a scooter. We say it was for graduation, but we would have bought it anyway. He loves that little orange thing so much! He drives it to work and on any errand I can think of. In these days of sweltering gas prices, who wouldn’t? He loves filling its 1+ gallon tank up every week and calculating its gas mileage (usually around 87 miles/gal) and then commenting on how much money we’re saving. Plus he just looks so cool riding it
Note: Jimmy made me assure everyone that that is NOT his helmet. That’s the loaner from the Scooter Lounge. His looks much cooler - it’s full-faced, black, and huge - kind of like Bomber Man.
My dad and sister were in town when we got it, so they got to join in the festivities. My dad’s always wanted a motorcycle - this is about as close as my mom would ever let him get!
Since Jimmy left Vocal Point, he’s been doing some random a capella shows with different groups. Mostly it’s been Voice Male, which has been oh-so-fun, but last weekend he got to do one with Moosebutter. I had never really seen one of their shows before. Definitely a strange breed - creative and wacky and . . . well, see for yourself: moosebutter.com
For an activity last week, my family all made guesses about Baby Henry, and we thought that would be a fun competition to have on our blog!
So here’s how it works: write a comment with your guess for hair color, eye color, weight, length, and day and time of birth (you could also include length of labor if you want). The person with the most right answers will get a fabulous, yet-to-be-determined prize!
To start you off, here are mine and Jimmy’s and my family’s guesses:
Jimmy:
Hair: tow-head blond (very little)
Eyes: blue
Weight: 8 lbs 6 oz
Length: 21 in
Birthday: July 3, 6:42 am
Labor: 9 hrs
Danika:
Hair: bald
Eyes: brown
Weight: 6 lbs 15 oz
Length: 20 in
Birthday: July 4, 7:15 pm
Labor: 7 hrs
Daddy Jarvis:
Hair: dirty blonde
Eyes: blue
Weight: 6 lb 12 oz
Length: 19 1/4 ” long
Birthday: July 9 at 11:00 p.m.
Mommie Jarvis:
Hair: strawberry blonde
Eyes: brown
Weight: 7 lb 2 oz
Length: 20 1/4″ long
Birthday: July 1st at 6:45 a.m.
Kelly Jarvis:
Hair: brown/ turns blonde
Eyes: brown
Weight: 7 lbs. 3 oz
Length: 22 in
Birthday: July 7 at 3:28 p.m.
Jack Jarvis:
Hair: dirty blonde
Eyes: blue
Weight: 7 lbs
Length: 21 1/2″
Birthday: July 11th at 8 pm
Sophie Jarvis:
Hair: blonde
Eyes: brown
Weight: 6 oz.
Length: 9″
Birthday: July 9th at 2 p.m.
Jimmy and I drove down to Salt Lake Friday night to pick my sister, Nicole, up (she stayed with us for the weekend!). We took advantage of being down there to have dinner somewhere new while we waited for her to get there. We’d picked out a cool Vietnamese place we wanted to try, but we didn’t write the address down, so we were just wandering around downtown looking for it. I decided we needed a phone book, and, lo and behold, we saw a phone booth with a big yellow phone book hanging out of it on our left!
Jimmy turned down a street to pull a U-ey (U-ie? youie? uwhie? how the heck do you spell that?), and as we were headed back to the phone booth, we saw 2 guys walking down the street. They gave some money to a homeless guy, which we thought was very nice. As we were approaching the phone booth, one of those guys stepped up to our phone booth . . . and started PEEING! Right on the phone book I was going to use!! It was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen in my life. This wasn’t the homeless man, it was just a random guy! We felt like we were on Seinfeld or something. Is that something people do? Is it common for unhygienic young men to pee in phone booths? Should I be afraid to touch anything downtown? Jimmy’s comment was that it gives a new meaning to the term “yellow pages.” Gross.
The plan was beautiful: drive down to Southern Utah Thursday morning, see Goblin Valley that day and camp there that night, drive over to Arches Friday and camp there, then get back sometime Saturday. We had meals planned down to the salt shakers (Lewis and Natalie even brought stuff for a gourmet Dutch oven teriyaki chicken), the flashlights, the sunscreen, we’d thought of just about everything. So much for great plans.
The drive was great - we had walkie talkies between the cars, which was too much fun - and we got to Goblin Valley without a hitch. Then we got out of the car and were knocked over by the wind - our first warning. Guarding our eyes from the stinging, flying dust, we set up the tents, holding everything down with rocks that we weren’t using at the time. The wind was really strong, so we staked them down better than ever. Those suckers weren’t going anywhere! As we were leaving to go hike, Lewis & Nat’s tent started caving in on itself from the wind - our second warning.
We hiked the Little Wildhorse Canyon trail, which was absolutely stunning! These pictures tell it all:
We were pooped and the girls had had it by the time we got back to camp. This is what we found when we got there:
The picture doesn’t do justice to the damage. The hole by Danika’s left hand is about three feet wide and not along any seam, and the pole she’s holding in her right hand is one of the main support poles for the tent and was completely destroyed in two different places by the wind. The hole next to Jimmy was made by Jimmy after we decided to scrap the tent (silly boys and their knives).
So we left our beautiful 6-man tent in the dumpster at Goblin Valley and went back to Green River to find a cheap motel to share with the Gunters and their 2 kids. It was an eventful night. Abby slept in a drawer and Hailey talked herself to sleep.
The next day, as planned, we did drive to Arches. However, we were all so tired that we decided to just do the drive-thru kind of site seeing. Still breathtaking from the road, but next time I won’t be so pregnant or something and we’ll have to get out and do some hiking.
Overall evaluation of camping trip: While the camping was lame to nonexistant, the trip was still awesomely wonderful.
So, I used to write on another blog. I set it up in 2005 and wrote a handful of posts before forgetting about it entirely. It’s still there, and I looked back at it today and found this post. It’s from the summer of 2005. I met Danika the next fall. I thought it was kind of a cool snapshot of the past. It’s interesting to see what has changed . . . and what hasn’t.
Here it is:
For the next three months, my summer will consist of copious amounts of the following:
Work - Regular (AKA - incredibly mind-numbing) work, yard work, dental work, work outs, etc.
Ultimate - I’m practicing twice a week with Cleveland’s club team, the highest level of organized disc that exists in the states. It’s absolutely kicking my trash so far, but I’ve learned a ton and am holding my own out there. This has been by far my favorite part of summer to this point.
Books on Tape - or CD, as it were. Seeing as my job consists of very little synaptic stimulation, I got permission from my supervisor to listen to books on tape while I work. I chill with my CD player and headphones pretty much all day, every day. Thus far I’ve listened to two Harry Potters: Sorceror’s Stone (8 hours) and Order of the Phoenix (27 hours), Robert Ludlum’s The Janson Directive (18 hours), Robert Jordan’s New Spring (13 hours), about 6 hours of what I thought (mistakenly) was a mystery by Nora Roberts, and I just finished Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code (16 hours) yesterday. Next in line is another Ludlum thriller and the rest of the Harry Potters, when they are available at the library. Any suggestions?
The NBA Playoffs - Last summer Trisha got me hooked on Smallville and I got her hooked on the playoffs. Since neither of my teams (Utah and Cleveland) will ever make the playoffs, my favorites this year are Miami in the East and Phoenix in the West. I’m pulling for both of the underdogs in the other two series (Seattle over San Antonio and Indiana over Detroit). I generally spend way too much time watching the games, listening to AM sports radio stations, and reading about them in the paper and on ESPN.com. There are two to three games every night, an NBA nirvana. How do you not watch?
Indians Games - If I’m not watching basketball or playing frisbee, I’m listening to Tom Hamilton and my (dismal) Indians on WTAM 1100. This is one of my favorite things to do, and I’ve been doing it every summer for 10 years now. There’s just something I love about having a game on in the background whenever I’m near a radio, much to Trisha’s chagrin (she’s an FM listener).
Movies - As long as I went to the trouble to pack up and bring home my incredibly sweet speakers, we are going to make good use of them. Star Wars, LOTR, National Treasure, The Incredibles, Bourne Supremacy, anything else we can get our hands on, here I come! Again, any suggestions?
Okay, that’s all I’ve got so far. There’s more, but my wrist hurts from this stupid mouse.
stupid mouse…
Yeehaw. I’m glad to report that the Indians are now back to being annual contenders and that both the Cavs and the Jazz made their respective Conference Finals last year (the Cavs went all the way to the Finals). And I can’t believe I thought that Nora Gordon wrote mystery novels.
For those of you who don’t know, I was in Vocal Point for a while a few years ago. As a matter of fact, the first time Danika and I saw each other was at a Vocal Point gig (funny story, remind me to blog it later). Anyway, I’m a vocal percussionist, a beatboxer. I don’t have a lot of video of us performing, but here’s one of the group from 2006.
We performed for the Homecoming Spectacular the fall after we won at ICCA (International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella).
And here I am doing a drum solo during a show in Springville, Utah. I think the flowers were there for a play they were doing in that theater.
How bad, you ask? You can come see us tomorrow night, February 12th (Danika’s birthday - 22!), at 8pm in room 144 of the RB if you really want to. Or you could just read this article written by our fearless captain, Eric Swenson.
Enjoy.
Jerks Chalk Up Second Straight Moral “W”
Eric Swenson
PROVO- The Jerks started the season off on the right foot, losing 42-55 to David Sorensen but gaining an inspiring moral victory at the same time. They were able to claim success because they came back from a 27-3 deficit to make the final score respectable.
Now they continue their winning ways, albeit with a 31-68 loss to Hashbaz that, according to Hulk Monson, would have gone the other way “if not for a couple of bad bounces.”
“We may have lost by 37,” Monson went on, “but it was a close 37. I once beat my cousin Enrique on the Playstation by 86. 86! Of course, he’s only two, and he just sort of gnaws on the controller.”
Monson wasn’t the only Jerk counting up the positives in what some may consider a blowout.
“Some people might look at that scoreboard and say that we lost tonight,” reasoned Bruce “Coriantumr” Andreason. “But they’d be wrong. We were all winners tonight because we had a super fun time.”
“Cuddly Bunny” Swenson agreed. “Would a loser wear these sweet Wranglers while he plays ball? Would a loser be going home to a five-hour Star Trek marathon? Would a loser be a Dungeons and Dragons level seven wizard? You tell me, pal,” he demanded, prepping for a double. “You tell me.”
Just as in the David Sorensen matchup, the Jerks got off to a slow start, taking over six minutes to score their first points. Against Hashbaz, however, the Jerks continued to fall further and further behind on the scoreboard, despite their psychological triumph.
Steve “The Stapler” Elzinga was the only Jerk who wasn’t pleased with the result, blaming the officials for the outcome in a profanity-laced tirade.
“Heck, I’m T.O.’d about the freakin’ refs. Some of those flippin’ calls were such dang crap! Those fetchers were the refs from H-E-double-hockey-sticks.”
Jerk Notes:
Jimbo Dunn led the Jerks with 23 CGs (cheerful grins)… “Big Shot” Ben Robbins played his first game on his artificial left leg; he has sworn off gator wrestling until the off-season… celebrities in attendance included Mitt Romney, Al Sharpton and Gary Coleman.
Well, sort of. I mean, honestly, how hard is it to get a lead role in a YouTube video? Not very hard, I promise.
Lewis and I made this video with the help of Mark (my cousin-in-law/co-worker) and Postelwait. It shows the USB External Video Card - a cool, new product we’re really trying to push. Not only is it on YouTube, it’s also being released in Europe and America today with our first ever professional press release.
If I can find the outtakes, I’ll post them later, too.
