Argggg

I've been working on a paper for my Technical Writing class for the past few days. It's kind of a fun project, but I'm getting a little tired of the tedium. I've got most of the content down, so now I'm going back to make sure that I meet all the requirements. And I'm stumped. Here's the requirements for the Front matter: (remember, this is a technical writing class)


So, for the four pages, this is what I think it wants me to do:

	Count	Number	List in TOC
Title Page	i	No	No
Letter	ii	No	Yes
TOC	iii	Yes	No
Preface	iv	Yes	Yes

The one I don't understand is the Letter... why do I not number it, but list it in the Table of Contents?

Argg.... English majors... :)

What a fun week

This past week has been so fun!

Monday
Celebrated my birthday with my family at home. We made homemade ice cream and it was just as good as I remember it.

Tuesday
Celebrated Meleah's (my niece) birthday. She's one! We tried to teach her to say "hawk" using some cool flash cards she got as a present.


Wednesday
Celebrated my birthday again at my apartment thanks to Judy's banana cream pie! We also played pickup sticks:


Thursday
Ward intramural kickball team took 2nd in the tournament.





Had my very first mint julep at Thirsty Thursdays at the Ashley's. I took the experience to heart and sat on the porch sipping the mint julep. Can't say I'm a fan though–my mom noted that it's probably popular as a source of alcohol, and that since ours was without... maybe. Also, had a really good blender-burning chocolate smoothie. I think the sucker had 5 different kinds of chocolate in it.

Friday
Hostile Work Environment Day at work. During this annual celebration, employees can vent their frustrations by blasting coworkers with Nerf weapons. This is my brother before he went terrorizing:



Also, we watched Rear Window outside on the grassy knoll Friday night. I liked the movie. I liked that it was intense without the unnecessary gore or over-the-top, horror violence (I don't like horror movies). Some may say it was weak... I liked it just fine.

Saturday
We hiked to the top of Y mountain! It was a beautiful hike. We ate strawberries along the way. And this is the first time I made it all the way to the Y without stopping. Here are some of the flowers:








Here's Martha flying:


Here's my hair flying:


Here's Ammon after he ripped two apples in half:

Here we are at the top (I think that's the Pacific Ocean in the back):


Here's where Elaina almost died from a rabid, prehistoric fern-dwelling, Brown Wolf Recluse Black Widow Spider-Snake:


Here's those ubiquitous, nest-making caterpillars:



And here we are at the bottom:


Then we played some water basketball in the pool to cool off (didn't actually cool off -- the game was a little intense).

Then we celebrated Tiffany's birthday with cake.

Then we saw Kung Fu Panda! What a fantastic movie! I haven't seen such a well-done movie for a long time. The animation was fantastic; the fight scenes were original (especially the dumpling fight); and it was funny! I recommend it.

Then we saw the fireworks at Orem's Summerfest. People had been staking out their spots for several hours so that they could get a good view of the works... We just took a spot right next to the fireworks on the road.

Then... I went home and slept a good sleep....

Life is good.

It's My Birthday!

It's my birthday today! I've now circled the sun 24 times (give or take any astronomical-calendarical discrepancies). So, to celebrate my birthday I'm going make a list of 24 things -- just like what I've seen done on other people's blogs.

Here are the best 24 years I've lived in:

1. 1984
2. 1985
3. 1986
4. 1987
5. 1988
6. 1989
7. 1990
8. 1991
9. 1992
10. 1993
11. 1994
12. 1995
13. 1996
14. 1997
15. 1998
16. 1999
17. 2000
18. 2001
19. 2002
20. 2003
21. 2004
22. 2005
23. 2006
24. 2007

Happy birthday to me! :)

Boring Things

I haven't written in a while... but I've been taking pictures.... so here's what I've been up to since the RKelli wedding.

I've been under two waterfalls. Here's Bridal Veil Falls -- the other was Stewart Falls.

Are named waterfalls plural or singular?

I got a new computer to use at work. It's a beautiful new iMac. I have it hooked up to another external monitor that I had been using with my laptop -- so I have a ridiculous amount of screen in front of me. Every time people come behind my desk, almost without exception, they exclaim, "Wow... that's a really nice screen." I'm lucky for sure.



And lastly, something about me: I like boring things. I really do. I sometimes tire of our American life (I say "American" because not all "modern" lives are the same): constantly doing things; constantly stimulating our senses; never letting the earth hold any sort of sway in life.

Today I walked to Harmon's for lunch -- for the Matt Value Meal (corn dog, big croissant, string cheese, mnms, pint of OJ, banana, can of Pringles -- all for $4.50). I've driven to Harmon's many times -- it's a trivial drive, though it consists of too many left turns. But I've never walked. And as I walked today past all the old-style houses... some with unkempt lawns, others with very kempt lawns, some with wooden fences, some with none, some with kids swinging or playing... and a whole lot of birds singing... I remembered how wonderful life can be when we're not rushing from place to place or worrying so much about everything. All this time driving to Harmon's for lunch, I've been skipping something great -- I'm glad I caught it today.

Around the corner from the oldish neighborhood and set off by a small field, there's a much larger and much newer house. It's a beautiful home -- it seems like it has a room for everything. It's not any larger than many of today's homes, but juxtaposed with the old neighborhood, it seems a little gaudy. And it reminds me of a thought I've thought many times before:

I am much happier living patiently and contentedly with imperfect things than I am living with exactly what I think I want. I could come up with reasons for having every single room in the larger house. And when compared with the smaller houses, if I could afford the larger, it would seem foolish to take the smaller. But so many times, life is just better when I don't get everything I want. There, that's how I wanted to say it:

Life is so much better when I don't get everything I want. It's nice to want for at least some things.