oliver in love

On Tuesday Oliver had the chance to meet Roxie, a golden doodle. Although Reggie will forever remain Oliver's favorite boy-toy, we're happy he's moved on to the female dogs! Adam and I are considering getting a Goldendoodle (Golden retriever-poodle mix) and went to meet Roxie to see what they are like. Roxie was extremely playful with Oliver and they had a fun time. We know making a video just about our dog looks a little pathetic but oh well, we think it's funny :) Enjoy!

Dipped, Gripped, and Flipped. Yet another longboarding story

I will start with yesterday. While on my way home I came upon the famed Old Main Hill. I no longer have the courage to bomb old main, but I still have enough ego that I can’t walk down the stairs. So now I long board onto it, then dismount and walk about halfway down and get back on (this is surely much cooler than walking down the stairs). Over the past weekend a lot of leafs have fallen from the trees and maintenance pushed most of them two third of the way down the hill. If you can imagine a leaf pile (let’s call it a Leaf Fortress) that stretched 1000 feet long but was only 15 feet wide. I had to cross it, but where? I approached it slowly and then picked a narrow section and blasted through the leafs. Have you ever seen movies where cars blast through snow piles, I’m the car and the snow are my leafs. I arrive, Hollywood picture perfect, at the bottom of Old Main. Fast forward to today. Same as before, I walk about halfway down, but this time I want a more dramatic explosion through the leafs so I gain speed early and pick a nice thick area. I hit the leafs with effortless grace. Ka-pow, leafs go everywhere. Its like a childhood autumn dream on crack. Pause- now think back to one word in my previous post: potholes! Upon arriving to the end of my blissful passage of the leaf fortress something lurked below the surface I could not see. As my front wheels dipped, my shoes gripped, and I flipped. I flew forward in the superman position hitting the ground equally across my hip, elbow and face. Quickly I jumped up and got back on my board (this was the ego in me). I looked around knowing that a lot of people saw me fall. I Quickly perused the end of the grass and again came upon a piles of leafs. In an effort to redeem myself I pointed straight into them. My front wheels dipped, my shoes gripped, and I flipped once again. I decided to walk the rest of Old Main.

Today I Fell

Today I fell. I "Bomb" old main (a big hill located on the west side of our campus, google it) on average about 10 times a week. This isn't the first time I have fallen on my long board recently, but it is the first time that I fell on old main this fall. You can't normally ride your long board in grass, but if its steep enough anything is possible.
So if you don't know the trick, it is to get some speed and try and coast over the crest to the steep stuff before you stop from the resistance of the 6" mushy grass against your 2" wheels. If you stop, you cannot restart, think: go-to-jail card in monopoly. Once your over the crest you start to gain speed and your wheels kind of rise, almost plane over the mushy ground. As you gain more speed then you have ever experienced in your life on four unmotorized wheels you throw on a diaper and try to remember where the pot holes are in accordance to the trees (tree definitely being the worse of the two). As the hill starts to level out, your speed drops, your wheels start to grab, and then you dramatically slow to a stop. This is a daily ritual for me and I was quite impressed that I had mastered it.
Well, they stopped watering old main about three weeks ago and now that "mushy" ground is becoming hard and very unresistive (new word I just created, try using it before the day is out). Needless to say it is a lot faster. what normally was a coast to the hill is more of a speeding up, and then once your on the hill its kind of like riding a rocket ship, and then when the hill levels and and you stop... well that part doesn't happen unless you take drastic actions to not end up in the road. Its all quite entertaining. so...
Today I fell. I Bombed old main, and in a foolish attempt to control my speed I tried to turn at maximum velocity. To put it in monopoly terms: I threw the playing board against the wall and right as it was about to hit the ground I jumped on it and road it like a sled, but less board riding and more Levi and sweater grinding.

... and that's just the parts that you can see. thank goodness for grass stain fighting laundry detergent

Ah, the old Spoon. Jesse and I built this long board a couple summers back from plywood and spare parts. its seen better days, but it still gets the job done. some of the bolts on one of the wheels are starting to come out. this worries me, but unfortunately not enough to do anything about it.

Fishing Off the Coast of Arizona

This weekend I found myself in the sunny hot shadows of the Arizona desert. Tara and I planned a little trip with her dad and brothers this weekend to hike the Grand Canyon. When the weather turned sour Stan (Tara’s dad) decide that we should go fishing instead. Lake Pleasant was quite pleasant.

The fish I caught was at least 24" long and and weighed at minimum 15lbs. (soud like a fish story?)

Just a little needy... or is it nuts?

I consider myself the breadwinner in this family. I work Monday through Friday while still going to school (Last semester, woo-hoo!) which leaves me very little downtime during the day. Adam is going to school and works from home a few hours a week which... leaves him with a lot of downtime during the day. Well, one would assume with all the freetime Adam has, that a small amount of it could go towards play time with Oliver because he is, well, a dog and a hyper one at that. Adam caught Oliver attempting to entertain himself since Adam was busying himself with...the history channel. (I can't say for sure that it was the history channel but its a safe bet).

Enjoy! And excuse our messy room: