breakfast: 3 eggs, 2 pieces canadian bacon
snack: string cheese
lunch: 3 ham wraps
snack: three celery sticks w/ 1.5 tbsp of pb

It's been a while.

Yep. It has. Anyone who reads this knows talks to me and knows that Samoa was very successful. Christmas was great. Chels is starting to have more and more contractions and we are making preparations for Charlie.

Things are going great except for the fact that it is butt cold outside and I haven't been on my bike in about two months insert gasp here.

That creates a problem. The problem is that I've been eating like I bike four days a week for two hours each time. That means that pants have been getting tighter. That also explains the disgustingly obese 220lbs reading on the scale. That is the most I've weighed since I've been married.

On Saturday, C and I went to Costco to stock up on a few South Beach essentials. I went running this morning and started the four letter d word. Since it's my blog, I'm going to use it to chronicle where I'm at.

Meals today:

Breakfast - 3 eggs (15g Fat, 212 cal), 2 pieces of Canadian bacon (.75g Fat, 30 cal)
Snack - 1 string cheese (6g Fat, 80cal)
Lunch - 2 Ham, lettuce and red pepper wraps (3g Fat, 71cal)
Snack - 30 pistachios (9g Fat, 120cal)
Dinner - Sirloin steak, mushrooms, broccoli and cauliflower (15g Fat, 378 cal)
Snack - Cottage cheese (4.4g Fat, 203 cal)
Total - 53.15g Fat, 1094 cal

Exercise:
Type - run
Distance - 2.1 miles
Calories - 339

Weight: 220lbs

Tala Fou

I sat down at my computer in the little internet cafe in Apia today expecting to get a few emails. I didn't expect to get the first one in my inbox.

I GOT AN INTERVIEW AT THE U!

I am so excited I can hardly stand it. Things in Samoa have gone quite well so far. I have been in a ton of meetings (with the Minister of Health, Red Cross people, and a local doctor) and have done some training as well.

The first training was yesterday, and it went quite well. I trained some ministry employees and ambulance drivers. Today I trained some ministry employees. Considering the fact that it's been almost four years since I left Samoa, things have gone well. I've got one more training on Saturday in Faleula, the village where I started my mission.

I also have to speak in church on Sunday. I was sitting in church last week and at the end of sacrament meeting, the bishop (who is also the man I'm staying with) announced that I would be the "special" speaker. That means I get to speak about whatever I want, and that I go last. So when the youth speaker doesn't take all of his time, I get to fill it in. In Samoan. Wish me luck.

It has been a great trip and I have really made some good progress with getting a full fledged EMS system set up. I am working with several physicians in Utah, the National University of Samoa, the Ministry of Health, the National Health Services, and some of my teachers to try and get a paramedic program set up as well as training for the rest of an EMS system. It's promising, and hopefully it will all happen over the course of the next five years. Even on Samoan time, that's pretty realistic.

Not the girl scout cookies

Come Wednesday morning, this is where I'll be. I'm leaving y'all with this crap weather and going back to my island home. I'm going to be teaching locals about first aid, CPR, some packaging/transport techniques, as well as some fundamental stuff like dehydration. I'm also going to meet (or at least try to, despite repeated attempts, communication is not their forte) with the Minister of Health, President of the National University and Red Cross people to discuss starting an EMT-B training program.

It has been quite the ride getting this all put together. I've had a lot of late nights (it's 4:54am right now) getting the training materials translated and ready to go. My contributions and time pail in comparison to the love and service I was shown while living amongst these wonderful people.

I'm super stoked. in between training and meetings, I'll be spearfishing and eating mangoes until I explode.

Pretty much the ideal day.

I woke up this morning, donned my HR belt, PI attacks, favorite jersey, geared up and pedaled to Bear Claw Poppy(>5 min from my G-ma's house). It isn't a super technical trail, but it's a gas. So much so that after riding finishing, I turned around and rode it again.

The scenery isn't as good as the Crest, but it is a desert after all. This picture is from the last time C and I rode it. Today, I rode by myself.

It's got a bunch of whoops and a few drops, but there are tons of options if that isn't your cup of tea. I was smiling to say the least.

After I got home, C and I drove to In 'N Out. I had a 3x4 animal style and fries well done/animal style (I didn't have breakfast, burned 846 calories on my ride, and quite frankly enjoyed it. In retrospect I'll just get a double double animal style next time.)

My bike is working fabulously thanks to new bearings and some hardware from Flo at Wild Rose. In fact, between getting the new higher volume rear shock (seen in picture although not my bike), new 2.3 tires and hardware for the bellcrank, it has never been better. It hooks up like a champ, which just makes me happy.

It almost seems as though this day couldn't be better. It can. I am going to take a nap right now.

Crest Pics

I just got a secondary app to the U. I hope I get in so I don't have to leave views like this. Desolation lake is gorgeous.


This is the first time I made it all the way down the cheater line of the spine. Not the best action shot, but I had fun riding it.


My wife is rad.


Boomer, Pete, Me and Chels. Gotta love the timer feature, but love the gorilla pod even more. I think we had it wrapped around the handlebars of my bike.

W rides a bike?

How did I not know this? No matter. That makes him more appealing, but only a little. What I don't get though is if you are the freaking president of the united states, and you could easily have ANY bike you wanted, why would you settle for a Trek? Of course it's a decent bike, Talas, RP23, and XTR. Full CF no doubt, but wouldn't you rather have something like this or perhaps this. I expect more from the president.

I'm a bike geek.

I, like Annette don't particularly like these tagging things. I do, also like Annette, love talking bike. In fact, on Sunday I was talking to the latest dude that my brother-in-law's sister brought over about bikes and my sister-in-law said "here he goes again, speaking a foreign language." Said dude professed to be quite the rider and actually did the Spudman way faster than me, but I thoroughly enjoyed asking him questions about his "dream bike" which he couldn't answer. It's bad I know. I digress. Here are my answers to the questions.

If you could have any one — and only one — bike in the world, what would it be?

It would have to be a mountain bike. In fact, it would be this bike, custom fit/fabricated for me of course. Carbon, titanium and 140mm of travel, a thing of beauty.

Do you already have that coveted dream bike? If so, is it everything you hoped it would be? If not, are you working toward getting it? If you’re not working toward getting it, why not?

Nope. I have a ten year plan. After medical school, residency, a new car/house for the wife (let's face it...happy wife, happy life), I will own at least two custom bikes. This will be one of them (or whatever strikes my fancy then).

If you had to choose one — and only one — bike route to do every day for the rest of your life, what would it be, and why?

That isn't a fair question. Today I'd pick the Crest to Mill D.

What kind of sick person would force another person to ride one and only one bike ride to to do for the rest of her / his life?

I've never met such an awful person. If I do, I'll be sure to push him/her down the nearest flight of stairs before he/she can subject me to such torture.

Do you ride both road and mountain bikes? If both, which do you prefer and why? If only one or the other, why are you so narrow minded?

Both. I love the hiss of my 115psi Hutchinsons and the whir of my cassette as I approach 50mph on the downhills on the road bike, but it doesn't compare to flying down the single track, smelling the pines, almost falling and being out in the mountains.


Have you ever ridden a recumbent? If so, why? If not, describe the circumstances under which you would ride a recumbent.

Nope. Can't think of any, but then again, I didn't think I'd ever sport spandex without covering it up.

Have you ever raced a triathlon? If so, have you also ever tried strangling yourself with dental floss?

I just did the Spudman, which because of some sad events was a triathlon-1. I'll probably do it next year. I had fun.

Suppose you were forced to either give up ice cream or bicycles for the rest of your life. Which would you give up, and why?

This is almost as bad as the "one trail" question. One of the reasons I bike is so that I can eat ice cream, whenever I want.

What is a question you think this questionnaire should have asked, but has not? Also, answer it.
What is your favorite bike purchase?


Without a doubt, the Rp23 on my Jamis. It makes climbing on a 5" possible for this fat kid.

You’re riding your bike in the wilderness (if you’re a roadie, you’re on a road, but otherwise the surroundings are quite wilderness-like) and you see a bear. The bear sees you. What do you do?

I'd ask the Survivor Man what to do. He'd help me fashion a spear, gun, shelter, and helicopter out of my bike in less than five minutes. The bear wouldn't stand a chance.

If you haven't read this...

You definitely should. Thanks to Annette for her post the other day, I rediscovered this gem. I stumbled across this about a year ago and then again yesterday. It's awesome. I highly recommend that you read the following entries located under "top posts".

1. How to be popular, Part 1: What to bring
2. How to be popular, Part 2: How to behave
3. How to size up the competition

I have been stuck in a class that I hate and these made it much more enjoyable. The hard part was to keep from laughing while my professor is lecturing. Don't worry, I still got 102% on my last test in this class. That's one reason why I love psychology. I can sleep, not pay attention, and spend an hour before a test to ace it.

MCAT and Applications.

I got my MCAT score back and I got a 30. 30 is not as good as I wanted, but I'm glad it wasn't any lower. My practice tests ranged from 24-36 and I split the difference exactly. 30 just so happens to be the median score for the U so start praying for me that I get in. I'd love to stay here, but I'll be applying to about 30 schools or so.

So far the application process hasn't been too bad. All I've got left for my AMCAS application is my personal statement. It has been a bugger to write.

Psychology isn't hard science

I am sitting through an awful lecture in my Infancy and Early Childhood Development. The teacher is terrible. She just compared action potentials in neurons to "little text messages" in your brain. My physiology teacher would be dying right now.

I love surprises...especially with two wheels

I was dreading my birthday this year. Not because I'm getting older or anything of the sort, but I knew that I would be spending it in a pretty lackluster fashion. I had a chemistry final the next day.

My birthday proved to be anything but that. Chels woke me up with a clue that lead to the oven and breakfast for me. +1. Then I went to the library and studied. I received several clues and $5 for study fuel. +2. She picked me up around 5pm and gave me a very clever clue that I couldn't figure out. It said something to the effect of "for your birthday we shall eat meat, we will be dining under your feet". Under my feet? She stumped me and we went to Boulevard. +3. The food was awesome. During dinner I figured that would be the extent of my birthday because it wasn't cheap. I was fine with that. Then I got a phone call with another clue. We finished dinner and drove up Millcreek canyon where my dad was waiting for us. I spied a bike wheel on the side of his truck and flipped out. I had really wanted a road bike, but I knew that it was too much money. Here she is.



I was so surprised. This has honestly been my best birthday ever. Too bad I can't ride it yet. Stupid snow.

I'm a little OCD

When it comes to things like cleaning my bike, cleaning the car, working on something which requires detail, and typos, I'm a little OCD. I just noticed a typo in my last post. I wrote McGuver-ing instead of McGuyver-ing. The funny part is that I actually thought "I've got to change that." It made me laugh.

You stole my palm pilot. You did. Admit it...

If you've never seen the movie Orange County you probably don't get that reference. Today had potential, some realized, some not. I did finish all of my letters to send out for my nonprofit stuff which was a definite bonus. After I finished that, I started spiffing up the house so that when C came home she could relax. I cleaned everything up,turned the heat up for her and then went to open all of the windows (because if you know C, you know she practically worships the sun). I pulled on the cord to raise the blinds in the front room, heard a snap, then a crash as I dodged the flying blinds. Cheap plastic crap. The long horizontal piece that keeps the blinds attached to the window well broke.

Luckily I could draw on the years of experience I gained while working at the car dealership fixing a galvanized sprinkler system with a pair of channel locks, teflon tape, $15, epoxy, vise grips, and a square nosed shovel. I got pretty good at McGuver-ing (hyphen for AK). On my mission I fixed the ward mission leader's power back to his hut with electrical tape, a light bulb and my pocket knife (ask me about that one later). Anyway, I broke out the JB Weld,which no household should be without, zip-ties, 3x5 card, and bamboo skewers. This is what I came up with.

We'll see if it will hold. After the blind fiasco was finished, I went down to start the laundry.

We live in an apartment complex and use the laundry facilities they have here, which consists of two washers and two dryers. Usually this works out pretty slick. It is relatively cheap at $2/load washed and dried, and I normally can do it whenever I want. I was going for husband of the week by having the house clean, the laundry done, and clean sheets on the bed before she got home from school. I took the laundry down at approximately 2:30pm to find that someone was using both washers. No big deal, I just set my stuff on the counter, clearly indicating my intention of doing my laundry, and saving my place in line. I took note of the time remaining on the cycle, and planned my return.

I gave them an extra 2-3min to get there and switch it over. When I returned I found that someone had the audacity to butt in line. That bothered me a little because husband of the week was now out. I decided that I would cook dinner to bring me back in the running. I went back upstairs and got working on some other things.

I went back down when the next cycle was supposed to be done, and someone had butted again. This happened an additional two times. I was pretty peeved. When I finally got my wash in the washing machine around 7:30pm, I saw the culprit, beer in one hand and cigarette in the other. He gave me some kind of lame excuse like "is that your stuff? Oh, sorry. My girlfriend told me that I had to come change loads." Yeah, keep pretending that you don't realize you snaked my spot.

I went back down when it was supposed to be done, but he just left it there, to wrinkle itself in the bottom dryer for quite a while. I went upstairs and waited a reasonable length of time before I went back down to check. Still there an hour later.

Now fuming and thinking all kinds of unkind things about the unconscionable acts perpetrated by my neighbor, I took a white garbage sack and removed the clothes from the lower dryer and set them on the counter for the negligent laundry-doer to pick up. By this point, the garbage sack was pretty charitable for me. I conjured many more, much less kind repositories in mind. I rotated my loads through so that the sheets and the darks were both in the dryer, with the whites yet to go in.

I went back down around 10:30pm (eight hours after I had started trying to do my laundry) to get the sheets so that C could go to bed, and discovered that the garbage sack was still there, but that half of my darks were missing, and from the upper dryer. What? Are people seriously that daft that they are unable to recognize their own laundry, or even remember which dryer they put it in? Apparently. Maybe this guy had part of his hippocampus removed (the part of the brain responsible for spatial memory), or maybe it was the can of "Natty light" he was drinking. I took the sheets up, made the bed and wrote a little note. I was nice and it took about all that I had. I explained that there had been a mix up and that I would like my clothes back. I left my phone number.

At 11:15pm I finally got a phone call from the dude's girlfriend. She told me that she had sent him to get it, and that when he brought it back he had no idea that it wasn't his. She told me she lives in #13 and that I could come get my stuff. I went to #13 and the lights were off. I knocked gently, and there was no answer. I called back. "#13? No, I live in #2," she said. AAARRRRGGGHHHHHH! Sweet. I just knocked on somebody's door who was sleeping. I went back down the stairs and met her. She made some kind of lame remark like "see what happens when you send the boys to do laundry?" She had the gall to include me in that statement. Happy to have my clothes, I came back upstairs. Now it's 12:16am and my whites are finally done. I'm going down to get them. They better be there, all of them.

I feel like Alexander, but worse.

Have you ever read this book? If not, you need to. It is in my top 5. Where the Wild Things Are beats it, but for days like today, it is mandatory. I set my alarm for to get up for my tri class. Today was running. I hate running. I woke up with my alarm, and proceeded to fall back to sleep, missing my bus. C was kind enough to give me a ride. I was late, and I couldn't find my class or my teacher (sometimes we run outside). I took off by myself for a pretty good run. It was just shy of a 5k and kind of nice to be by myself. I got back, showered, and got ready for class. I realized that I had left my cell phone at home, which isn't that big of a deal. There are free phones on campus in certain spots, and I could easily email C to let her know. Then I realized I left my wallet at home. No bueno. I didn't pack any food because I anticipated riding the bus home and eating after a short physics lab. No wallet = no bus ride. No wallet + no food in backpack = hungry. Physics lab wasn't short either.

After my lab, I decided I needed to walk home. That was lots of fun. At least it didn't rain to hard on me. I got home and at some lunch around 3:00pm. Then my phone rang. It was someone I am working with on my research project. He informed me that there wasn't any money in the envelope to pay the participant. That was my fault. I was supposed to put some more money in it, but I spaced it. I tried to get a hold of the lady at the psych dept. who is in charge of that, and she didn't answer phone calls or emails. The guy running the participant for me didn't have any cash and couldn't get any out of the bank. I put on my shoes and ran the 5 blocks to the bus stop, barely making it. I got on the bus starting to figure out how I could make it happen, and then my phone rang again. He found her office and got the money. At the next stop, I got off and walked the now 7 blocks home.

In Alexander's story, other people were the cause of his woe. Today, I caused my own problems which makes it that much worse. It's nice to have someone to blame, but when it's yourself it sucks.

If nothing else, I hope that you laugh at my misfortune. It will do at least some good then. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I can promise you I won't be forgetting my wallet.

What's your current favorite?

I go through phases. I've been through quite a few. It started in 4th grade with Rage Against the Machine. Then came Nirvana, Sound Garden, and let's not forget Eddie and the boys from Pearl Jam. "Don't Call Me Daughter" brings back memories. After that, it was mostly Greenday,Rancid and some Beastie Boys for the next year or so. The summer of 6th grade brought me the fateful and now virtually non-existent Less Than Jake/Jimmy Eat World demo tape from Salty Peaks freebie corner. LTJ - 1. Automatic, 2. Shindo, 3. Sugar In Your Gastank. I don't remember the Jimmy Eat World side very well. I haven't ever liked them, not even in 6th grade.

The LTJ tape introduced me to the world of Ska. That lead to a few LTJ cd's that summer with whatever money I could scrounge as an enterprising young lad. I also had some Bosstones, and Voodoo Glow Skulls. 7th grade had a mix of very confused rap (not hip hop, hip hop is definitely different than rap, rap sucks) ranging from the Mexakinz and I'm embarassed to say All Eyez On Me (I assure you it was very brief). It was mostly because of the kids I was hanging out with. I tried it out because they thought it was cool. It was kind of on and off from there with hip hop with the exception of Wyclef. I still love The Carnival. When I first got my Jeep, I had two 10" kicker subs in the back hooked up to a pioneer deck that I hard wired (no wiring harness) which was a serious mistake. It worked intermittently, and I got to the point where I could take my entire dashboard apart in a matter of minutes to assess what connections were messed up. I digress. At least my hip hop taste got better in high school with the Souls of Mischief, Jurassic 5, Tha Liks, and some third eye vision with the Hieroglyphics.

Somehow, I listened to both hip hop and a lot of punk. When I say a lot, I mean a lot. It was pretty much a weekly occurrence for us to hit DV8, Kilby Court, or some other locale for a good show. I went through my poppy punk phase with The Ataris (which if I put in now, I can't stand for more than about 2 seconds) and a little New Found Glory. Blink 182 was never a visitor to my CD player though. Way too trendy. I was a music snob extraordinaire. I had a set of ridiculous rules. For example, you absolutely do not wear the shirt you bought at last night's concert to school today. Big time no-no. Only posers did that. There was also a list of people who if I learned they liked a certain band, that band no longer made my top ten. It is pretty silly to think about now. MxPx fell prey to that last rule. About my senior year of high school and first year of college I had pretty much established what bands I did (and still do love). Hey Mercedes, Saves The Day, and Jeff Buckley have been in my top 5 for at least 5 years. (random thought. Whoever is reading this is probably pretty bored now because I am talking about something you don't care about AND I haven't included any pictures. That is besides the point that I haven't even come close after two lengthy paragraphs to addressing the question I posed. If this were on your blog, I'd read it because this sort of stuff interests me, and because it's my blog, I'm in charge.)

Coming home from the mish significantly reduced my cd collection. I can still remember how difficult that decision was to make. I decided that if I didn't feel comfortable listening to it with Chels, or with my future kids, it had to go. I took my CD case (which was custom covered by moi with red shaggy fur (picture Elmo but longer) and a Lagwagon patch) down to her house and got rid of everything unsavory that I couldn't sell. I snapped CD after CD in front of her. I made a big deal out of it, and I am sure she thought I was totally weird. I was on a self-righteous returned missionary trip. Sometimes I go through withdrawals. Nobody sings like Matt Skiba from Alkaline Trio, especially on Maybe I'll Catch Fire, but he just sings way too much about things that are a little to creepy. I'm glad I stuck to my guns.

Now I still really like fast, heavy and loud, but I have branched out quite a bit. When I collected vinyl, I really got into old jazz like Ella, Louis, Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Billie Holiday. I also really enjoy acoustic stuff. Greg Fine (if you have never heard of him, google it. He rules), Sondre Lerche (he did the Dan in Real Life soundtrack), Regina Spektor (an acquired taste), John Flor, and Madi Diaz among others. Let's not forget Radiohead. They are like Jeff Buckley in that they are pretty much sans genre. In Rainbows is killer.

What stuff are you in to currently? Do you have any suggestions for me? I'm always open to something new.