Doggie Days

Tweed, our dog, would like to welcome you to my latest blog post.

This dog is honestly the epitome of energy and fun. Just look at him! 

I started taking the dogs on daily morning runs, and not just jogs but runs that really help me as well. We sprint up our hill to the top, then run back and forth time after time until I can't go anymore. At the beginning Tweed is so excited I am holding him up by his leash and he is on his hind legs rearing to go. But at the end of the runs, I always have the last laugh...I'm the one pulling them home when they have had enough. 

But honestly, I think my taking them on runs had increased their affection for me...I mean...just look at the way Cappy looks at me...

"Yeah Carson....you really ARE the best friend a dog could have..."

"But seriously.... can I go outside???"

 "Of course you can puppy!!! Because I love you!!"

But eventually throughout the day they get so tired, they can't resist lounging around and taking a nap or six. They sleep all the time so the next day they can have enough energy for me to dominate them again. And I must say, it isn't getting any easier for them the better shape I get into!

Tweed always has energy to gnaw on a bone!

"Carson. Get that out of my face so I can sleep."

"Finally, he's gone..."

I had to take this picture of Tweed from afar because if you get anywhere close to him when he is sleeping...

"OH HEYYYY CARSON!"

Haha, all joking aside, this is my favorite place in the world right now. Nautilus field. Nautilus was an exercise equipment manufacturer that built their headquarters here, but they went out of business and now HP the computer bought out the facilities. They tore down the basketball court and the baseball field, but they left this magnificent turf soccer field. I love it here. A bunch of friends and I come here probably 3-4 times a week to kick the ball around and share good times. 

Another discovery I made this week? 

This exists...

Shredded Wheat as big as my face!! I always thought they never got bigger than the size above mini wheats...but you could fit like 20 mini wheats in each one of these puppies. 

Enjoy your Sunday...day....

I'm READY for Summer

People who don't live in Washington don't understand what it is like waiting for the season of Summer to arrive here. Here are a few words to describe this wait;


Um....


- Agonizing
- Painful
- Tortuous
- Excruciating

But...good news. This weekend it is supposed to break 80 yes 80 degrees here.
You don't understand...that is like the Mojave desert for us, who have suffered TD after TD as I call it (Washingtonspeak TD = Torrential Downpour).

So, I plan to play a lot of soccer, it's how I love to enjoy the weather. I plan to be outside lots, and just flat out embrace it with open arms.

What spurred this desire for the two months out of our year that it is sunny and nice? Well..looking at old pictures of course!

The Mojave Desert? Naaah, thats Florence, Oregon.

The sun will come out...tomorrow...er the day after tomorrow...

 I'm geared up and ready for all sorts of Summer activinys!

Makes you wanna dive right in, huh?

Unfortunately, as Robert Frost says, "Nothing Gold Can Stay". So until the sun stays for good, I'll most likely be making this exasperated face.

Certain things you gotta have with milk...

So I am an avid dairy consumer. That's no secret to those who know me. I absolutely love milk. It is just one of those things that I wouldn't be able to function without. I realized today that when I am eating certain foods, I always, ALWAYS pour a glass of milk with it. Here is a list I compiled as I thought to myself;

- Top Ramen <-- Two summers ago I ate a lot of Top Ramen and always poured a huge glass of milk with it every single time
- Potato Chips
- Oreo Cookies
- Fried Chicken <-- Last night's dinner
- Donuts (Okay, I understand that a lot of the sweeter ones are self explanatory)
- My Dad's Sunday fish dinners <-- If I don't have milk with it, It's not as good
- Mexican food
- Oh...the rice that goes with the Sunday Fish dinners especially
- Barbecue baked beans
- Beef Stew
- Ice Cream makes me want milk more
- Pot roast
- Green Bean Casserole
- Stuffing
- Mashed Potatos
- Quesadilla
- Banana Nutella Sandwiches
- Peanut butter and Honey sandwiches

I also realized a long time ago that if you chew Orbit sweet mint gum and drink milk, it tastes like ice cream in the aftertaste!

So anyways, there you have it. There are definitely more things to this list, but I was just brainstorming. Milk is my favorite drink besides water, and it probably the reason that I have been running bone strong since 2001 when I broke my collarbone in 4th grade playing freeze tag.

Sorry, this is a lame blog post so far, but hey, what can you do when you think of something that you like.

In other news, my Nana from Seattle and sister who is at BYU still came down to the 'Couve to visit over the Memorial Day weekend. We had great fun! We listened to Brigitta sing loud and proud in her "Lean on Me" choir solo, watched Brigitta destroy the competition in track, went to Chipotle for some great burritos (Sorry Nana, but you will just have to come back here if you want another Chipotle burrito! No exceptions!). Also, I went into Starbucks for the first time in my entire life...(I just realized that) to get a pastry with the family. Apparently I have somehow avoided the million and a half starbucks there are in the Pacific Northwest. Tiana and I stayed up late watching some episodes of the mentalist season 1 that I hadn't seen in forever, I played Fifa with Tripper, basketball with Brigitta and amazingly Justin my hombre was here for two days over the weekend and I got to visit with him and eat some delicious desserts that his Marms made on Sunday. She is an amazing dessert chef that is for sure. Yesterday we went on a 5 mile loop hike to see 5 different waterfalls that were absolutely gorgeous, stunning, and amazing at Silver Falls state park in Oregon. I basically lost my camera in one of my jackets for the entire weekend which really stunk except for taking this awesome picture of Brigitta. She got elected to go to districts in 5...yes 5 different events...apparently you are only allowed to do 4. She is quite the athlete!

The hike was awesome, and my friend Tripper and sister Tiana each got a ton of pictures. I will hopefully get some of them soon to show everyone!

But luckily here is a picture on the internet of one of the falls that we saw, South falls. You actually get to hike behind it on that little path you can see! The entire hike was just glorious, and since it has rained pretty much non stop here since last year (exaggeration) the falls were flowing like a monsoon in Vietnam.

Sadly, the festivities are over. I don't get to sleep on the couch downstairs anymore (I loved it while it lasted Nana! My bed just isn't as comfortable!), Tiana flew home today, and its back to life here in Vancouver. Still...exciting! I learn a little bit of Portuguese every day too. So that will help when I leave to hit the field in two months and two weeks and COUNTING!!!

Powerwashing

So basically, I haven't blogged in a really long time haha. I've been really busy doing lots of random things to earn money. But the good thing is that I am earning money! Things like washing my Dad's office windows, cleaning off his roof, rebuilding our gardens, and POWERWASHING.

Powerwashing isn't something to be taken lightly. If you don't have the guts to get mud and moss ALL OVER YOU, I would just stay away. It isn't for everyone, but frankly...I kind of enjoy it. After painting our back deck yesterday morning, I filled the afternoon hours in the beautiful sunshine by powerwashing half of our driveway.

Weapon of choice: DeWalt Powerwasher. Flying the colors of the promised land: America.

I probably should have taken a before picture, but the difference is really quite astounding. It looks really good out there...

Unfortunately...most of the mud was then on my legs. Now that is one good sock tan if I say so myself!! I had to powerwash my shoes just to clean them.

I Love This.

Epic win.

Driving back from college, and I get a text update from ESPN at the end of the 3rd quarter of game 4 between the Blazers and Dallas. 

ESPN NBA - END OF 3RD - DAL 67 POR 49...

Great...this game is over. Nobody ever comes back in the 4th by that much down especially in the playoffs....

Then I got some texts from a few friends...

"Dude...Blazers up with 40 seconds left...BEST COMEBACK EVER..."

No....not possible...

5 minutes later...

ESPN NBA - FINAL - POR 84 DAL 82

Are you kidding me? 

This is why I love the NBA, especially the Portland Trail Blazers. And the guy at Slab Pizza in Provo guaranteed a win because he was wearing his lucky hat. 

Go Blazers. 

(*I am still shocked I missed one of the best games in Blazer history because I was driving somewhere in Idaho, but this highlight film does the final quarter justice I think.) 

Brandon Roy, you are a MONSTER.

I haven't blogged in awhile, but I assure you I will get to it sooner or later. I got a pretty funny story to tell.

My Dad is the MAN

I got a blank text from my Dad today, a few minutes ago actually, while I was studying. I said...

"Blank text?"

Waited a few minutes...

"Good job (responding to an earlier text sent this morning)....sorry, I am at Verizon...thought my phone was broken...but I just didn't hold down the power up button...now I feel stupid."

Dad, don't worry. You were born in a different time. When I am your age, I probably won't know how to turn on the power button to my kids portable hovercraft that drives him to school automatically on auto-pilot. Its all in the cycle of life.

Needless to say, I have the best Dad ever.

Happy Finals!

I've done great thus far! Hopefully the streak continues!

Just took a little library break...

Don't judge. Just keeping my sanity. 

Doh!

Um, so for the past 3 days I have thought that my speakers on my desk were blown because I was playing my music too loud. Whenever I would hook up my computer to play something, there would be this buzzing sound from inside the speaker. This usually indicates that it is blown. But today, I plugged it in and heard it again, but this time I noticed a roll of duct tape over the top of the speaker, and inside the roll was an orbit gum wrapper, conveniently placed over the vent where some air comes out from the sound and out of my view. After a little sleuthing of my own I realized that by removing the gum wrapper, the buzzing sound stopped. Then the gears in my head started moving, and I realized that my speakers were indeed intact, and the sound was coming from the gum wrapper instead of the internal components. 

Wow. 

It just goes to show we can all be code breakers if we put our mind to it. 

Song of the day: (Hunter and I literally listened to it like 15 times)

Golf: A Double Edges Sword

Trip and I, Freshman year of high school at the Hillsboro Air Show.

Once a few years ago my best friend Tripper and I were going to the driving range to hit some golf balls into the field to work on our swings. Already an amazing golf prodigy, he was driving it up to 300 yards on certain hits against the wind. I myself usually shanked each and every one either right or left. This was extremely frustrating for me, and required lots of work to attempt to correct my swing. I am significantly better with my irons than I am with my drivers, which is why I use my 5 or 6 iron at the tee to drive the ball down the fairway instead of my driver. If I use my driver, I will probably lose my golf ball.  Anyways, we are at the golf range and we each only had about 5 balls in our bucket left. After having a small competition to see who could chip closest to the flag, I ran out of mine while Trip still had three left. I told him to grunt obnoxiously loud when he hit it, because this old man a few booths down kept looking over at him whenever he hit it. He obliged and relinquished a shrill battle cry when he smashed it 300 yards downrange, drawing questionable glares from the man down the way. With his last two balls, he did something I didn’t even expect. He just looked at me, smiled, took a few steps back, got a running start at the ball and yelled,

"HIIIIIII HOOOOOO SILLLLVVVVEEEERRRRR…………AAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!"

Right as he yelled "Away" he made contact with the ball and smashed it so hard out of there the guy was awestruck, dumbfounded even. Even I had to try hard to retain my laughter because it was so unexpected and so funny at the same time. I just acted like it was a normal day at the range.

Another experience that I remember vividly was when I was on the course at Green Mountain with Tripper, my friend Matt Hartley, and his brother. All three of them were employees there, so we got golf carts and got to play for free. It was amazing. The sun was out, and it was glorious outside. Don't get me wrong, I love golf. If I could be good at one professional sport, it would be Golf. (Not Soccer). Crazy huh? For someone as big a soccer fanatic as I am, I would rather be good at golf. Make money, walk on a BEAUTIFUL course all day, and see some great scenery. And, you get longevity, and get to play into your 70's and 80's. Well we were on the course and I was about to hit up range. They all had hit farther than I had, and Matt's brother had hit up and to my right about 60 yards. As he got to me in the golf cart, he asked if I should wait or if he should go to his ball way to my right. I said, "There is no way I can possibly hit you from here. Go for it" So he went and I swung really a lot harder than I should have. A laser beam of a shot resounded and skimmed about 10 feet off the ground headed straight for Matt's brother. He ducked into the protection of the golf cart and my seeking missile shot struck the cart's back. Trip and Matt just fell over laughing and I just stood there shaking my head. That was very unlucky but so memorable nonetheless.

I can't wait to try and hone my skills at the course further this summer, or at least pay a few visits to the driving range and try and work out my clubs some more. When I am older, Golf is definitely the sport that I am going to stick with. 

Also, driving home from our ward activity last night a song from my past came on. I couldn't help but sing along, high notes and all. Trip and I wold listen to this more than anything!