Snowboarding At Tahoe

Celeste and I tried out snowboarding for the first time last weekend. My company paid for us to go to North Star at Lake Tahoe. We met at 4am at my office so that we could get to the resort by 8am. We took lessons in the morning and went up the mountain after lunch. It was a ton of fun! We decided that snowboarding is more fun than skiing, mostly because you can do more in snowboarding. Of course, we did fall a lot and ended up with sore knees and bums. But it was worth it. And at the end of the day, we were still smiling (And I had a nice sunburn across my forehead since I had my hat on while applying sunscreen -- it made for a funny tan line). :) Can't wait 'til the company trip next year!

Salsa Routine

Celeste and I had fun choreographing a salsa routine for a church activity. Hope you enjoy it!

Thanksgiving Week

Celeste and I have been having a lot of fun as usual. We went hiking last weekend at Castle Rock State Park. The weather was perfect and the scenery was amazing. Our friend, Mandy, and her daughter went with us. Since Mandy's husband was out of town, I volunteered to carry Mandy's daughter, which was a good workout and a great contrast to my sedentary office job. We hiked a total of 5.2 miles. What most amazes me about hiking at Castle Rock State Park is that it is only about ten miles away. The great outdoors are literally in our backyard. I uploaded the track log for our hike at ActiveTrails.com and some pictures at Picasa Web.

From Castle Rock S...

On Monday, I took a flight right after work into Seattle. The cab dropped me off at my hotel at around 9:30pm. I was hungry, so decided to walk to (where I thought was) a nearby Wendy's. After about a half hour of wandering, I decided that Google Maps had led me astray (look at the map below -- according to Google, it should have been there), so I started back towards the hotel. On the way back, it started to rain. I left my umbrella in California (I don't remember the last time I had to use it), so I was relieved when I finally ran into a Subway. I ate there, then went back to my hotel.


View Larger MapI worked all day on Tuesday... later than I expected (of which my Dad is especially aware :). Then I had fun spending time with my family (one of the benefits of business traveling is that it sometimes leads to family and friends). We just sat around and talked and enjoyed one another's company. Those are some of my fondest memories with my family -- just being together. :)

On Thursday, we had a fun Thanksgiving. We cooked in the morning -- a turkey in the crock pot, raspberry green salad with sugar-coated almonds and green onions, raspberry salad dressing, and rolls (added a bit of pumpkin for moisture and flavor). We also bought pumpkin ice cream and graham crackers for a Cold Stone-style dessert. We went to our friends house for dinner. They prepared some additional food -- mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing (as always, I tried it, but didn't really like it), squash, fruit salad, and pumpkin pie for dessert. We played the Celestial Marriage game afterwards, and basically just relaxed (Celeste relaxed so much that she fell asleep). It was a really fun day.

On Friday, Celeste had to work in the morning, so I tidied up around the apartment. In the afternoon, we went to a tree farm in the Santa Cruz mountains to cut down a tree. Our friends came along with their four kids, so we had a blast walking through the acres of trees to find just the right one. The kids kept pointing at tree after tree saying "This one! This one!" We ended up cutting down a tree that was ten feet tall (it was a fixed price for any tree that we picked) and had to trim the bottom off when we got home. We'll use the extra branches to make wreathes. But we got the perfect tree. :) Thanks to my Mom for getting all of the ornaments ready for me to bring back from Seattle. We filled up our tree with all of the ornaments.

On Saturday, we spent the entire day at the Dickens Fair in San Francisco. Basically, they took an old warehouse and turned the inside into the streets of London. They incorporated scenes from Dickens' books, such as scenes from The Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist. They even had the Queen of England visiting the various parts of town -- she made an appearance at the Fezziwig's party while we were there dancing. It was really fun. My favorite part was to watch a condensed version of the Pirates of Penzance. The general gist of the story is that a boy is apprenticed to a boat of misfit pirates until his 21st birthday. As his 21st birthday approaches, he warns the pirates that once he is turned back to normal civilization, he will have no choice but to destroy the pirates. However, it turns out that he was born on February 29 (leap year) and must continue to work with the pirates, since he is technically only 5 and a quarter.

From Dickens Fair

It's crazy to think that November is almost over. The time has flown by too quickly. Christmas will be here before we know it. I can't wait...

Multi-Tasking

I was reading a copy of Costco Connection today -- an interesting magazine that Costco puts out monthly. There was an article talking about multi-tasking that I thought was pretty interesting. It reminded me of an experience that I have with a friend who multi-tasks on a regular basis. We were talking, then somebody came into the room and he started to talk to that person. Then his phone rang and he started to talk on the phone. Then he finished the phone call, did something on the computer, finished his conversation with the other person, then came back to the conversation with me. I was quite annoyed because I had to wait through all of this while my friend cycled through all of his multi-tasks.

This experience made me start thinking about my own multi-tasking habits. My biggest problem is (or was) working on homework only to get distracted by a new email or news story. One thing that I feel that I have successfully mastered is to not answer my cell phone if I'm doing something that is more important (such as eating dinner with my wife or talking to a friend face to face). Michelle M. Weil, PhD, gave three recommendations for effectively managing time in relation to multi-tasking:

1. Estimate how long tasks take: We sometimes spend more time doing things than we realize. I think we would be amazed if we timed how long we spend just checking our emails on the computer. The author suggested that we set a time limit for tasks and try our hardest to stick to those time limits.
2. Develop an "external memory": We sometimes do things because we're afraid that we'll forget to do them later. If we set a method of remembering to do things (such as a "to do" list in a notebook), then we can avoid having to multi-task now.
3. Give yourself a chance to persevere on a task until completion: If you are engrossed in a task, stick to it until you are done. If you stop, then you'll have to spend time figuring out where you were in addition to the time you'll have to spend doing the task. Get it done and move onto the next step.

BYU vs. Utah

BYU played an awesome football game over the weekend -- winning it in the final play of the game. It reminds me of some of the famous historical games, like the Miracle Bowl. It feels great to be a part of a school where "Tradition, Spirit, Honor" is the motto.