This is how we do things at Centennial...

... we store our unused, extra couches outside during winter...

Work

I just worked 16 hours on 1 hour of sleep. I am supremely tired now.

TOE JAM!

So this semester I am taking a Biology 100 class.  However, by some of the assignments, you would not guess that this is a general education class!  For example, we have to do a big project complete with proposal, peer reviews, major sources, the experiment, research papers, etc....  So for this, I decided to do my project on....  wait for it.... toe jam!   I started my proposal off with "How clean are you really?"  We also had to include a sentence in there about why our experiment is original and creative and I put down that mine was original and creative because we get to measure toe jam!

The point of the experiment is to determine if it really matters what kind of bar soap you use in showering, and if so, what kind.  According to the FDA, there are three types of soap out there: "true" soap, cosmetic soap, and drug soap.  "True" soap being soap that just cleans without any extra ingredients, detergents, cleansers, etc... added in.  Cosmetic soap being soap that cleanses, moisturizes, beautifies, etc... with drug soap being soaps that are recommended by determatologists, acne soaps, etc...  I set my experiment up to have 3 control groups with 3 people in each group.  Each group will shower with one of the soaps and take four samples of bacteria throughout the two weeks.  There will be a sample taken before they start showering with the soap, 3 days in, 7 days in, and at the end of the 2 weeks.  Basically, they will just shower with the soap and when I give them a petri dish, they will scrap between their toes and wipe it on the dish.  I was able to get the hook-up with the petri dishes (meaning I didn't have to pay for them of the auger!  Bonus!!!  because I needed 12 of them.) and the guy that gave them to me, Chris, told me that I could use that lab and the resources there to incubate and refrigerate the samples too!  I was pretty happy about this.

One of my Biology teachers had told me to go talk to one of the Molecular Biology teachers and he'd tell me what I needed to know to conduct the experiment and where to get the petri dishes and auger.  After class, I went up there but none of the teachers or TA's were up there.  Then I saw one of my old roommates working and when she asked what I was doing up there and I told her, we talked with the head lab student, Chris, who hooked me up with everything.  I was just expecting to get some questions answered that day about how to do everything but instead came away with petri dishes in addition to getting my questions answered!  Score!

Random Pictures

Here are some random pictures from last month:

We were having a watermelon seed spitting contest.  The object/ desired goal to get the seeds into was the sink.  We had some pretty crazy moves going on with the contest: twirling, whirling, upside down, mass ejection of seeds, jumping, etc...

As you can tell, we didn't have a lot of success.  We got watermelon seeds all over the place!  We were still finding them over a week later in random places in the kitchen.  The Dirty sign is for our dishwasher but highly appropriate in indicating the state of our floor.  I took some video of the contest too.  Once I get it edited and down to a smaller size, I'll probably post it.

This next picture is of my roommate, Brynn Secrist and her fiance, Matt Adamson.  I have known Brynn for about 12 years or so.  We met about a year or so after my parents moved to Colorado.  And after all this time, we are still friends and we decided to live together this year because it would be fun and we already knew that we liked each other.

They were eating ice-cream and also feeding it to each other.  Matt kept giving Brynn huge bites of ice-cream and so Brynn was trying to get him back by giving him tons of ice-cream.  He was trying to stop her and was saying something about how strong she was in getting the spoon up to his mouth even though he was trying to stop her.  And Brynn said, "Of course I'm strong!  I feed old people for a living!"  It was pretty funny but it might have been one of those things you might have had to been there for.

Ward Camp-out!

I love camping!  And once again because of school, work, and life in general, it has been too long since I went camping last.  What was the motivating factor this time?  My ward was having a camp-out.  I was able to get off work a little bit early but by the time I left to get up there, it was already dark.  And since I also left at 3:30 in the morning, it was dark too.  So I didn't get to see a lot of scenery or anything, mainly just lights out in the darkness but oh well.

We started off with dinner and then there were skits performed by all the FHE groups.  Some of them were pretty good and others left you wondering, "what in the world were you thinking?"  We all watched Kung Fu Panda in one of the cabins, stood around the fire talking and roasting marshmallows and starbursts, and a dutch oven cook-off.  I also played catch phrase with a twist: if it ended on you, you had to perform a dare... no truth involved here, all dare.  Some of them were gross, others interesting, and others just fun.  For example, I had to eat a piece of a twig.  It was pretty fun.

I loved the opportunity it presented in getting to know other members of the ward better outside of church and FHE settings.  Plus I got to go camping!  And even though I had to leave at 3:30 in the morning, did I go to sleep early?  Nope, I went to bed at about 2:30 or so.  It quite possibly could have been even later too.  When my alarm went off in the morning, it didn't even register that it was mine going off.  All I could think was that somebody's phone kept ringing and wouldn't stop.

All in all, I had a blast and I love camping!  I have included some pictures of the Heber Valley Camp from their website.

We had to drive all the way up this mountain and it was switchback and switchback but worth it for the view at the top!











This is one of the cabins we stayed in.  I know that it isn't real camping if you stay in a cabin but with all the people we had, tents weren't really feasible.  It was still fun though!  And even though, there wasn't snow anywhere else, there was snow by the cabins and the pavilion.

As Slow as a Snail

One day as I was walking to school, I ran across a snail. The snail and I (meaning mainly me) decided to do a photo shoot. This is what came out of that photo shoot.

A Wall of T.P.

This phenomenon occurred during the first week of school in the Orem Wal-Mart.

There was so much toilet paper! It just went on and on and on... I thought it was kind of interesting how much toilet paper Wal-Mart put out expecting students to buy.

A Century

Last Saturday, I completed my first century! I have been wanting to do a century for a while now and I decided that I was just going to do it and not put it off any longer. I looked around and the next century was the Heber Valley Century (http://web.bike2bike.biz/), so I signed up for it. My goals for the ride were: to finish, to finish in 10 hours or less (giving myself a generous time frame), to not finish last, and to not walk at all on the course. Saturday morning comes and I have to be up in Heber by 7:30 am. The atmosphere in the beginning as we were all getting ready was a lot of fun. Most of us had to move our cars a few times as they told us to park in the wrong place and there was going to be a softball tournament there while we were gone.

We started by heading out to Soldier Hollow, and then Midway, over Jordanelle Pass, Francis, Oakley, Rockport and out to Coalville. After Coalville, we turned around and headed back to Oakley, Francis, back over Jordanelle Pass, and ended in Heber. This is a map of the route:

It does not look like it would be that hard but almost all of it was made up of hills after hills after hills.... Because of how many hills (not too mention Jordanelle Pass:4 miles at an 8% grade!) there were, it took me a while to complete the century but complete it I did. I met all of my goals that I had set and I biked it all! The only walking I did was at the rest stops, and at the beginning and end. It was kind of cool at the lunch break hearing all of our cleats making noise on the cement while we walked around.

I was so filthy when I was done! I had dirt, grease, tire marks, chain marks, dried sweat, etc... all over me, especially on my legs. I took a picture of my legs at the end but the picture doesn't do enough justice as to how filthy my legs were. I also had a random burn spot on my right upper thigh even though I know I sprayed that spot with sunscreen. I was a little burned around the edges on my back too. Evidently, I didn't get the sunscreen all the way to the edges when I was spraying my back.

Overall, I am really glad that I did it and met all my goals. In a few more years, I might do the Heber Valley Century again. I was talking to some of the other riders and they were telling me about some of the other centuries that are out there that are pretty fun too.

A view of the mountains and a tidbit of some of the fall colors.
Me after the century. I was so filthy and my face was slightly burned too.
This is about 1/3 or so of the way done when we were way out in the boonies and were about to hit the dirt road that we all had to ride along for awhile.

Not Your Ordinary Vending Machine

These are pretty fun! My sister, Jena and I went to one located in Milwaukee. The stuff that they have in them are interesting, fun, and random. I got a pair of earrings, a mask made of mud, and a fish.

A lot of airports have these now. They are vending machines that you can buy ipods, headphones, etc... from. Out of the airports I have been in, I have seen only seen a few so far. But who knows, one of these could be coming to an airport near you!

I have to admit that this vending machine is probably one of my favorites simply because I love books! I saw one of these the last time I was in Seattle. I was out at the convention center by the Space Needle wandering around an Arabian Festival when I saw the machine. There were actually two of them and they had lots of books, some games, cards, and 2 rows of candy. It was pretty cool! I even purchased a book from the book vending machine and now I can say that I have bought a book from a vending machine. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think!

Mountains in the Sand

These are from when I visited my sister, Jena, in Wisconsin back at the beginning of July. We went to the beach, a lighthouse in the middle of Milwaukee, Summerfest twice to see Guster and Flogging Molly, purchased art from an Art-o-Mat, and many more really cool things.

Guster

Lobster, anyone?

Evidently Milwakuee REALLY REALLY needs to be saved so they have taken to putting really big crosses on boats out in the harbor.

Mountains in the Sand

Mountains in the Sand 2

The lighthouse.

Flogging Molly.

Lake George

While I was in Minnesota, I also went to the beach with two of my converts, Pam and Lori Fredrick. I taught Pam and Lori in my 4th area, Andover. Sister Sheena Verduzco and I had a blast teaching them and they are like another family to us. I love them to pieces!

Their cute dog.

Lori playing with their dog.

Lake front.

Two loons.

Minnesota

At the end of June, I had the opportunity to visit Minnesota for a few days before going to visit my sister in Wisconsin. It was so good to be back! However, the same day that I landed in Minnesota and was making phone calls to go visit people, I found out that one of my converts died. . . the day before. It was quite unexpected and even after an autopsy, they are still not entirely sure why he died. This picture is of Greg (the man who died) and his wife, Pat.

My companion, Sister Sheena Verduzco, and I, loved this couple like you would any other people you were teaching. However, the hoops they put us through. . . but I do love them.

This next family is one of the very first Hmong families that I got to know in my first area, Brooklyn Park. My trainer, Sister Susan Lo, is Hmong and so we did some Hmong work in addition to English work. I love the Vang family to death! They are so much fun and their kids are super cute! Kia would always try and make me cry from eating spicy, hot foods but it hasn't happened yet.

Fish Anyone?

Barking Sand . . .

Barking sand. . . who knew?

I am currently visiting my sister, Jena, in Wisconsin for a few days. On Friday, we went to the beach and drove a little bit more up north towards Sheboygan. We went to this nice section of Lake Michigan that is located in Kohler-Andrae State Park. The water was surprisingly warm, except a few spots where the current was coming in. The sand was actual sand with a few small shells thrown in and easy to walk on. We had already walked a ways down the beach, walked through the nature center, and were walking back towards the beach when we discovered that something was barking at us.

Upon further investigation, we discovered that the barking was coming from the direction of our feet. It sounded kind of like a pack of hounds off in the distance on the hunt. Only dry sand barks, not wet sand. And thus, we observed that sand could bark.

San Francisco

While I was in California for Susan's wedding, I took the opportunity to explore San Francisco some more. I love the diversity of San Francisco and how because of that things are always changing. Anyways, when I was there last May, I did a lot of the usual touristy things then like visiting Alcatraz, Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf, Coit Tower, Muir Woods, etc. . . So this time, I decided to just wander around a bit and in general, just explore the city itself more. I was not able to get to most of the city that I had wanted to explore because of time constraints but it was still a lot of fun. I also went down to Ghiradelli Square for a few minutes. I did not have time to really go inside and see everything but maybe next time. I went into an art gallery that was right next to the square to see some of Salvador Dali's work. They had a sign up and so I decided to pop in for a few minutes. I rode the cable cars again. If you are not in a hurry then the cable cars are for you but if you are in a hurry, definitely do not take the cable car. They make a lot of stops and even when they are going, they still have a lot of constraints that they travel under but they are a lot of fun.

Over the months since November, I have had the opportunity to get to know one of the tax partners in PwC's San Francisco office pretty well. He knows that I am interested in the area and so when during one of our last conversations he found out that I was going to be in San Francisco for a few days, he offered to give me a tour of their office! How sweet is that?! It was not anything official or anything like that but still, I had an office visit at one of the big four accounting firms and I am not even in the accounting program yet (I just have to finish writing my essay now that we have grades back from this semester). Some people would kill for kind of an opportunity (even though it was not an official office visit geared towards getting me an internship or job). Anyways, he introduced me around the office, explained how things operated, and showed me around the different floors of the office. While we were talking, I was able to ask a bunch of questions. I felt like I asked a decent amount of questions that were good but not too few where he could perceive it as me not really being interested after all or too many questions and having him think, "Oh my goodness. Will this girl shut up already!"

Overall, I really feel like I made a very positive impression on everyone that I met and that the whole visit went very well. Plus, I was able to make new contacts within that office and strengthen the ones that I already have there. Walking out of there, I just felt so happy and pleased with how well the visit went. Success!

Hanging of the cable car. Entrance to China Town.

Transamerica Building. Coit Tower.

The beginning of the crooked part on Lombard Street.

A view of Alcatraz.

Ode to George

 He was a tank. . . Need I say more?

  On the day that I got back to Provo from California, I was involved in a car accident.  I made it back to Provo around 12:30pm, had to be at work by 1:30pm, and got in a car accident by around 10:30pm.  (Maybe it had something to do with things being done on the half hour that day?)  I had left work late and was heading home.  I was heading south on University Avenue and was approaching the intersection at Bulldog Blvd.  As I was approaching, the light had just barely turned yellow and so I thought that I had time.  But then another car started to turn left (they were heading north on University and turning west onto Bulldog).  As soon as I saw them start to go, I hit my brakes and turned to the left in an effort to avoid hitting the other car but to no avail . . . we still collided.  

  Effectively, the insurance adjuster from Allstate said that George was pretty much totaled, which kind of sucks since that that is/was the car I was driving, thereby leaving me without a vehicle, and Dad and I have put a lot of work into George recently.  I wonder what they said about the other car.  I hit their passenger side on the lower half of both doors and pushed them in far enough that you could see the edge of the car frame.  Interesting if you consider that I was only going 35 mph previous to me slamming on the brakes, so I really was not going that fast.  Needless to say, they could not open either of the doors on the passenger side of their car.  Fortunately, I was able to drive George home afterwards and their insurance is paying for me to have a rental car so I can get to and from work, among other places.

 

Giants

  While I was in California, I took the opportunity to drive up north to Humboldt Redwoods National Park.  It was most definitely worth the drive.  If nothing else, the drive through Sonoma was gorgeous!  Once I got up there, I drove through a tree and along the Avenue of the  Giants.  I was able to see several of the more famous redwood trees like the Chandelier Tree, the Living Chimney Tree, the Eternal Tree House, the Immortal tree (survived lightning, loggers axe, floods, and a forest fire), the Giant Tree, and the Tall Tree.  I drove through the Chandelier Tree, walked inside the Chimney Tree and the Eternal Tree House, hugged the Giant Tree, and walked on the Tall Tree (it fell down a few years ago or so).  It was just pretty and very green.  Walking along the trails definitely made you feel as if you were an ant (or something else small) among giants.  But yet, it was so serene and peaceful walking along the trails and being enclosed on all sides by the redwoods.

  Since it was April, the park service had not put out the seasonal bridges yet.  This presented a problem when I went to go find the Giant tree and see the Flat Iron tree as they were across a rather large stream/ small river, only the Tall tree was on the same side I was on.  Luckily though, not too far down the stream/river were two fallen trees.  I was able to cross safely and get to the other side.  I was not going to have come all that way and be so close to seeing the widest redwood tree (at 53.2 feet back in 1991) and be stopped by the lack of a bridge!

  All in all, Humboldt Redwoods National Park was most definitely worth the 4.5 hour or so drive to get up there from San Francisco.  And now I can say that I have walked (and driven) along the Avenue of the Giants and that I have stood among giants.

 

A view of the vineyards in Sonoma.

  

  Getting ready to drive through the Chandelier Tree.

            
   Hugging the Giant Tree.  However, this is not the first redwood that I have hugged.  I hugged a redwood tree last May when I visited Muir Woods above San Francisco.  Both times I have hugged a redwood, I have been wearing my "hug a tree" shirt.  And no, I am not about to take up a career in tree hugging either.
                   

                                                            A view of the Tall tree.