Alene and I hiked up to Gobblers Knob last night

It's a 3 mile hike up to the top of a mountain that gives you an awesome view of part of the Salt Lake valley and the Great Salt Lake. We drove to the trailhead, which is up Big Cottonwood Canyon and started up the moutain at about 6pm. We arrived to the top at about 9pm. It was a KILLER on my baby cows (calves).

We felt really bad for one couple, who didn't look like they got out and hiked much. They ran into us with confused looks on their faces and asked how to get back down. At first we were assuming they came from where we came from because there were a few other cars at the trailhead and they were the first people we saw. We started giving them directions as to where they should go. But then I reiterated what canyon they came up and the husband said, "the one where you drive to the very top and park". I immediately knew they didn't come up Big Cottonwood and had to have come up Millcreek. They were in for a great hike back! It had to be at least 3-5 miles back to their car. Since it was getting dark and I had an extra flashlight, I gave it to them. I hope they made it back.

Anyway, here are some pictures that we took.

My latest musical tastes

Mellowdrone. Dope band from LA with a somewhat Radiohead influence in their music, but then they have their own thing going on. They have not released an album, but their stuff is album quality. You can download their music on their web site for free. They also do covers and will put those up too. So far they've done covers ranging from "Something stupid" by Frank Sinatra, "Stand by your man" by , and Again, by Faith Evans. The thing I dig is that all these songs are from different genres (Sinatra is that good old rat-pack era, Stand by your man was a country song, and Again is an R&B song). Their web site is www.mellowdrone.com. I suggest checking it out and getting the music. It really starts to grow on you.

Modest Mouse. I still can't get these guys out of my head. Their two best albums are "The Moon and Antartica", and "Lonesome Crowded West". Both have amazing music that you can just pop in the CD (or playlist on your ipod) and listen away. I've never heard anything like Modest Mouse.

The Vines. I got their album somewhere? Can't quite remember, but it was right before I got married. I listened to a lot of their music around that time and it's really reminicent of getting married. They have some amazing harmonies on their music. Another album I can just listen to straight through.

The Format. My friend Tim introduced me to these guys. Love their stuff, very chill and happy.

Foo Fighters. Their new album is dang good. Very broad range of music on it. It is a double disc and has a harder rock side, and a more chill side. I still say Dave Grohl is a genius.

Mason Jennings. Saw the dude at the Modest Mouse concert, bought his CD the next day, can't stop listening to it (all the way through). Very chill stuff. His voice is pretty monotone at times, but it's perfect with what he's doing. I'd say his stuff is pretty indy, but almost folksy, with a modern twist. You're missing out if you don't have his CD's.

Girls in a Coma. This is a band that will likely never make it big. They are playing on the road out of a van. They are asking for places to stay after their tiny concert appearances. They are desperate, but they're playing music that is important and deep to them. Their lead singer (who is the bass players little sister) has the most amazing voice. Kind of like Gwen Steffani's, but I think even better. I really hope the best for them making it big, but I doubt it will happen. I guess we'll see. Alene and I saw them in "concert" in a tiny room downtown Sugarhouse called "sugarbeets", which looks more like a small side storage closet. The energy from their concert, the music, everything was amazing and I was honored to be in their presence to hear what they played. I bought their album to show my support and really like it. They have a hidden track on it that is a live recording of a song called "break you". It's really beautiful and if I was a girl, I would call it "sexy". It's awesome.

Also, while at the concert, they did a cover of "Let me get what I want" by Morrisy. It's one of mine and Alene's favorite songs when referring to our relationship (at least, I like to think of it that way :) ). I wish I could have a copy of the cover they did.

In addition, I've been listening to my usual favorites: Weezer, Pink Floyd, Matt Sharp, and Coldplay.

Have you ever felt over-whelmed, but loving life?

That is how I feel right now, especially with school starting soon.

I'm working (if you call it working) my regular job during the day.

I've been moonlighting as a youth FB coach every evening from 6pm to 8pm, however, you could say from 5pm to 8pm, since I leave my house about 5pm to go pick up 2-5 kids that need rides to practice because their parents don't have a car.

I'm also responsible for the young men in my church ward, most of which are not active.

I have school starting tonight every Monday/Wednesday nights from 5-8:30pm.

I have to speak in church this Sunday and still can't think of a topic. In addition to that, I have to teach my Young Men's class.

Oh yeah, throw in the fact that I also have to coordinate my Young Men's to go try and solicit people for money for "Friends of Scouting" by the 17th of September and beat last year's mark of $1500, that will be a tough one.

Just a lot of stuff. I'm tired, I'm a little burned, but for some reason in my mind, I'm happy. I feel good. I look forward the most to seeing my wife and son, but I feel so bad because by the time I see them, I'm so tired.

We did a nice little camping trip this past weekend though. Went up to the Nebo loop again. Found a pretty good camp site, but the cowboys that were a good 100-200 yards away from us were hooting and hollering till the late evening. It finally took my sister in-law's husband to scream out "SHUT UP!!!" The cowboy's got quiet and let out a couple more hoots, but then settled down.

I honestly wondered what they were doing though. Seriously, they were litterally letting out "hoots" and "hollers" non-stop, like they were dancing around the fire, tossing their beer cans in it? I have no idea. They were drunk no-doubt, but were they just standing around the fire going "hoot hooooooot hooooot" and "yip yip yip yip". It was non-stop.

I guess I'm just glad I don't drink and get drunk. Who knows what I would do.

I got my paintball gun in the mail just as we were leaving for camping on Friday. I was stoked, however the CO2 tank was empty, so no shooting while out in the wild woods. I filled it when I got home and shot it on Monday. Alene and her sister (April) shot it too. I also let Caiden shoot it last night and his eyes lit up. He was hooked on it.

My buddy (who inspired me to buy it) wants to get a bunch of the Young Men's and their leaders from his ward and go paintballing this Saturday morning. I think I'll be able to make it, just need to check with the missus.

From now on, you will likely get a good weekly update on how my football team I coach is doing. I am really into them and helping make them better men and football players.

Football, Football, Football

Man, my mind has mostly been on Football the past week or so (and my family too of course).

I love coaching. However, the toughest part has to be splitting into two teams (one more experienced/talented team and one less experienced/talented team) and getting the players that have never played before, on a familiar basis with football. Kids that have never played before are generally WAY behind the others. They don't understand the object of "always staying low" while hitting, the language (being in a practice and the general-speak is like another language and they look so lost when you talk to them).

We have two kids that joined us yesterday. One is a younger kid from the 7th grade team who wasn't getting many reps with his team as a lineman, but he can play RB/LB for us. He's WAY behind though, however he has some good genes in him as his uncle is the starting LB for the 49ers. The other kid came down from the 9th grade team and has never played. He's literally about 4'10" or shorter and about 100 lbs.

These two kids I really want to reach out to and let them know I care about them. I'm worried about the coach they will be with (they are on the less talented team) as I don't know if he is patient enough to give them time to learn. I'll keep my eye on them.

Other than that, we have such a good group of kids. A few of them goof off now and then, but they all seem to get along very well. It's been a blast.

I can't seem to sleep right now. I fell asleep tonight earlier than I ever have in a long time (about 10pm or so) and I woke up at 4:30 naturally and couldn't sleep. I think since I'm used to sleeping about 6 1/2 hrs a day, that it's my body just responding to that. It's nice to be up though. It's pouring rain out and it's the middle of august. We got rained on like crazy at practice yesterday.

I can't wait for camping this coming weekend. I've gone camping more this year than I have since I lived here. I love it and thanks to Alene loving it, I get out to do it more.

I've been bummed the past week because I've been w/o my ipod. The battery failed (yes, you anti-mac people out there...go ahead and give me hell, however....) but the apple support has been very good. I sent it in, they replaced it with a new one (still w/in the one year warranty....barely) and I'll have my new one w/in a week. Not too shabby, however it comes at a time when I subscribed to a couple of daily podcasts and I have to sit at my computer to listen to them.

I ordered a paintball gun on ebay. I hope I get it before I go camping so I can test it out in the great wide-open :).

With that, I leave you with a picture from the ending bar scene of "The adventures of Hick Johnson, Space Cowboy".

Busy Busy Busy

Man, I've been so busy. Football practice for my team (8th graders) started on Saturday. We picked up again on Monday and Tuesday and will go for today, Thursday and Saturday. The following two weeks we will go from M-F, then we have a scrimmage.

We have almost 40 kids, so we are splitting into two teams. My team is the more experienced (we call it the "A" team) and we will get the pick of the better players. We have to pick this Saturday (as coaches) and then let the kids know on Monday. It's going to be tough to let some of the kids they aren't quite good enough to compete on the A team. The harder part is with the two coaches that will be coaching the B team. I think they have it in their heads that they get their pick of the players. Throw in the fact that both of their boys are good enough to be on the A team, but will play on the B team and that makes it tough. I'm expecting a Pow Wow of sorts come this Saturday after practice.

I guess we'll see.

I'm feeling a bit over-whelmed in some ways. I feel like I haven't had some quality time with my wife. I don't have practice this Friday, so I want to do something nice with her. My yard is a mess because I haven't cut the grass in about two weeks. I want to finish Caiden's fort as well. I'll try to get a lot of this done on Saturday.

One other thought on Mr. Anonymous

The first time he ever posted, he put his name down as Santiago. Pretty funny that a guy named Santiago on Cougarboard used to have a lot of serious problems enough that he was kicked off. I guess it's easy to think that while he still has access to read Cougarboard, he can't post. Throw in the fact that my blog is linked from Cougarboard and homeboy is likely being a prick for the fun of it.

If not him, I know it's someone associated with Cougarboard. Still, I'm going to hit up my "contacts" there and see if I can get a little personal information on this "Santiago" character. I'm also hitting up blogger to see if I can check out IP address'.

I've always known this Santiago dude was all talk.

Whoever he is, he tries to talk so tough, but he just sounds like a prick that hides behind internet monikers. If homeboy wanted to contact me in person, I leave it all my contact info on the internet for him to easily find me. The fact that he remains a coward is the funniest part. The fact that he calls my son a little bastard is sad. The fact that he takes joy in it is down-right depressing.


I'm grinning ear to ear though.

And he strikes again

WOW! I'm speechless at how big of a coward he is.

For those of you that don't know (because I delete his comments as soon as they are posted) some anonymous prick has been making comments on my blog and posts 3rd grade-level smack. I delete it right away because I get notified via e-mail when it happens and I check my e-mail freqently.

Anyway, I'm having fun with it because if anything else, it keeps my day lively. I actually can't wait for his next comment.

The funnest thing I get is the big smile that comes over my face when I think about how pitiful this person's life must be to get his jollies off making comments on my blog. The dude probably thinks of this stuff in two seconds, hit's the post button and it completes his day. So, if I can give one soul some sort of satisfaction to his day, I guess I'll be the fall guy.

I still say the dude has got no sack and is hiding. Come out come out wherever you are. You know where to find me. It's not hard.

I like this coward named "Anonymous"

I think there is nothing cooler than people named "anonymous" that post stupid-ass coments full of hate or something negative on my blog and don't have the balls to say who they are. I'm not afraid of anyone and I post all my public information here for people to see. I'll still continue to do it and I'll still get notified when there is a comment and I'll still delete the shit you post (whoever you are).

I just want to know if you're man enough to approach me in public and talk the way you do? I doubt it. Grow up, get a pair, and keep being a pansy that doesn't have anything better to do than mess around on some dudes blog.

Seriously, I've got the will, so keep it up. It's actually kind of fun.

Wireless internet ROCKS!

We just picked up a D-link wireless router at Office Max for $45, but it has a $25 rebate, so we only ended up paying $20!

Anyway, I was a little frustrated becuase both my Mac and Alene's Dell laptop were able to sense the wireless connection, but we still couldn't surf the next.

I went to my trusty friends of Cougarboard.com (which contains professionals ranging from Academics, to Zephyr (literally, the owner of the famous sports hat company chats with us from time to time). Somewhere in between I found a friend of mine that does tech support for qwest internet and he called me right away and had the problem fixed in about 3-5 minutes.

Before, Alene had to run this 100' Cat 5 cable from our modem to the front room to surf the net in relaxation, now she can do it out on the front porch if she wants to.

Fun stuff!