Ada's First Photoshoot

Ada had her first photoshoot last week. Doesn't she look great? She was a little fussy so we feel pretty lucky that we were able to get her smiling at all. She is getting to be so fun.

She also had a doctor's appointment yesterday. She now weighs 14 lbs. 10 oz. and is 25 1/2 inches long. She has definitely stopped growing as quickly as she was before. What a doll!

BYU 33, Utah 31

And what a game it was. Yesterday's game was certainly the most exciting game that I have ever been to (The "funnest game" still remains the 2004 Fiesta Bowl where utah beat Pitt 35-7). The game came down to the last play like few ever do.

Before each home game the MUSS is fed by Red Robin. This game was no exception. To get your food though, you must show your ticket. I couldn't find my ticket so I showed an old one. Then waiting in line for my food I was searching frantically for my ticket but it was gone. I called Alison and had her look around the house and outside around the apartment but it wasn't there either. I knew that I had had it in my pocket so I figured that it must have fallen out. I was planning on just going home to watch the game (darn it) when my neighbor/friend (who sits next to me) called and asked what seat I sat in. He had found my ticket while he was walking down to the game 20-30 minutes after I had. Talk about lucky. I had hoped that this luck would pan out on the field.

BYU started the game on a roar scoring a touchdown easily on their first two drives. It looked like this game was going to be a major blowout for BYU. Utah struggled moving the ball until they were forced to punt near midfield and Utah faked it and Louie Sakoda ran 18 yards for a first down. This swung the momentum Utah's way and they scored the next 24 points and gave Utah a 10 point lead.

BYU fought back, of course, and they traded touchdowns with Utah scoring their last with 79 seconds left to play. This was still too much time for BYU as they were able to march down the field and score with 3 seconds left in the game. here is the final play:


Video: Utah vs. BYU 2006

I was sitting in the MUSS (Mighty Utah Student Section) and we were going crazy when it was looking like Utah was going to win. Utah outgained and outplayed BYU and BYU was lucky to be in the position where a touchdown could win it at the end. Almost all of the stats were in Utah's favor, but BYU was just that much better.

I got to watch most of the second quarter from the field because I was a part of a Chevron gas-giveaway challenge. We stood on about the 20 yard line and cheered on colored race cars as they raced around a track on the big screen. I was the white car (of course the red car won), but it was fun to be down on the field for the big game.

Normally I have been placing the winning team's logo at the top of the post, but I have chosen not to defame my blog with the TDS logo ;). I can't wait until next year!


Free Countdown Clocks at WishAFriend.com

Go Jazz Go!

Holy Smokes! The Jazz are on fire! If you don't believe it, Just check out this weeks power rankings where the Jazz are #1 at foxsports.com, ESPN.com, CBSSportsline.com, NBCsports.com and si.com. They are the only team with 1 loss and the next closest team is the Spurs (who lost tonite) and now have 3 losses and then there are a couple of teams with 4 losses. With the Jazz's 12 wins, they are 1/4 of the way to a good playoff spot.

Tonite the Jazz battled the Lakers at the new EnergySolutions Arena in Salt Lake City (For the record, I'm not a fan of the new name because of how it sounds and not because of the company). The Jazz were down by at least 9 in the game before turning on the jets and beating the Lakers.

In the three previous games (against the Kings in Sacramento, the Suns and Raptors at home) the Jazz were down by at least 16 in the second half before winning all of them. Alison and I are having a blast watching the games. The Jazz have never really had a team that could come back consistently in the 4th quarter - until this year.

Deron Williams is playing like a seasoned veteran averaging 9.3 assists per game and Boozer is playing like an MVP candidate averaging a double-double with 22.7 points per game and 12.7 rebounds per game. Andrei Kirelenko had been out injured for the last little while (he played tonite) and rookie Paul Millsap was filling his shoes nicely. Okur, Fisher and Harpring are all contributing as well. The Jazz are simple playing fantiastic basketball.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! It's a great holiday. Today Alison and I ate dinner at the Squire's with all of my siblings (except Jordan who is in Florida). It (the dinner) was fantastic. Alison and I brought Lion House rolls. We spent most of the morning making them and letting them rise and I must say, they turned out perfectly. We spent most of the day in at their house before we left to go to Alison's grandparent's house in Fruit Heights. The rest of her family was there and we were able to visit with them for a while.

It's been a busy Thanksgiving and its tough to find a little time to think about just what I am grateful for this year. For your reading pleaseure, here is a short list of what I am thankful for in 2006:

I am thankful for Alison and Ada and for Ada being a strong and healthy baby. I am thankful for the rest of our family and that we are able to see (most) of them so often. I am thankful for the chance that I have to go to school and study and learn. I am thankful for the Church and the opportunity that it gives me to serve others around me. I am thankful for my health and that we have a nice place to live and food to eat. Basically, I'm thankful that life is good!

Happy 1/3rd Birthday Ada!

Hooray! It's Ada's 1/3rd birthday. It's even more special to me because it's also my 25 1/4th birthday. What could be more exciting. We've been partying all day long. Ada's growing every day and is just getting cuter and cuter. She had her first solid food today. A delectable dish of Gerber rice cereal - plain. It didn't look all that great to me and by the faces she was making it wasn't all that great for her either. It was fun and it will be fun to introduce her to more and more foods as time goes on.

In celebration of Ada's birthday I have included some of my favorite pictures of her from the month of November. As always you can see more pictures of her on our space at http://tysqui.spaces.live.com/ (Click on the picture to see a larger view).



This is a picture from today. I am feeding Ada her first taste of rice cereal. You can tell from her face that she is unsure whether or not she likes it. I'm sure it's an acquired taste...

When I sit at the computer doing homework, Ada will just lie on the ground and stare at me for long periods of time. It is the cutest.

This is just a picture of me holding Ada.

This is a really cute picture of Ada sucking her hand and holding up her skirt for everybody to see. We'll obviuosly have to teach her how to be an appropriate lady.

Here is Ada in a cute little pink dress.

This is a picture of me with (from the left) Shelby (~21 months old), Sophie (1 month old) and Ada ( ~3.5 months old).

Ada just recently started using her bouncer. She'll like it for a little bit, but she hasn't really learned how to 'bounce' properly in it yet. She's still learning.

She's even got a cute little clean butt - when its clean. This little baby sure has a good life.

Utah 17, Air Force 14

Utah played Air Force on Saturday in Colorado Springs. Air Force needed to win if they wanted to be able to become bowl eligible, while Utah needed to win - because they are the better team and they have been an awful team on the road. Utah looked fantastic on their first drive of the game and they easily marched down the field and scored.

There wasn't any more scoring until the 4th quarter. Both teams offenses were cold and the defenses were controlling the game. Utah used Eric Weddle as a running back more than they had all season. He had 12 carriers for 73 yards or something. I expect that we will see a lot more of him (on offense) next week during the BYU game.

This game turned out to be quite a nalibiter. Air Force tied the game up with a couple of minutes to go and Utah needed to get into field goal position. They finally did and they gave Sakoda (Their second best player - after Weddle) a chance to win the game from about 37 yards out. He nailed it with no time on the clock and Utah stole another one in Colorado Springs.

Now they have a big game in Salt Lake City next week against the undefeated (in conference) Cougars. I expect that there will be a ton of BYU fans at the game next week - individual tickets are already going for $100-$150 on eBay. I just hope that Utah doesn't embarrass themselves - although highly likely.

Utah Basketball...

The Utes played their first regular season basketball game on Friday night against SUU at the Huntsman Center. Alison, Ada and I went with my Dad to the game. Ada was simlpy amazing during the game she didn't make a peep for the first half and the first 10 minutes of the second half. She then fell asleep and only cried a little bit during the last 38 seconds because her daddy was yelling a little too loudly and startling her. It was a good game. The Utes started off both halves very well - building 10 point leads in each. They struggled to close out the halves though and SUU on the other hand struggled at the beginning of the halves and played great closing them out. Because of this, the Utes lost by 3 to the Thunderbirds of Cedar City. Not a great way to start the year...

I still think that Utah will be a pretty good team. They have a lot of new (young) faces and it may take a little time for them to learn Giacoletti's system and mesh as a team. I believe that they have a ton of talent though. Once they all learn to play to each other's strengths, the Utes should be a pretty good team.

Utah 35, CSU 22

Utah played CSU yesterday at Rice-Eccles Stadium. It was a cold and rainy game, but luckily for us there was no snow. Utah started out quick in this game building up a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. CSU almost caught up with the Utes but they were able to keep them at bay and pull away in the end. The surprise in this game had to have been the offense.

For the first time all season, Utah seemed to pull out all the stops and then play an exciting offensive game. They faked a punt, Eric Weddle ran plays from the quarterback position more than ever (and he completed a pass) and the Utes threw a few trick plays into the mix - including a sweet triple-reverse.

I will be honest, I still don't know how good (or how bad) they are. On www.foxsports.com the Utes are ranked the 80th team out of 119. i don't think that they are quite that bad, but who am I to say. These next 2 weeks should both be exciting.

Good Lovin'

I have heard through the grapevine that November 18, 2009 may be a special day. (Maybe I'll graduate then... or maybe that's when Ada jr. will come...) Either way, you'll just have to wait until then to find out.

5 Reasons I'm 'not sad' the Democrats have Control of the House and Senate

The democrats have now taken over the house and the senate. They have 51-49 in the senate and a little larger majority in the house. They do not have enough votes to override a veto by President Bush. In my opinion this is a good thing. It will now force them to make a few compromises and I sincerely hope that they will work together a little more to get things done. Here are 5 reasons that a democratic congress will be good under our republican president:

1. Donald Rumsfield will resign and there will be inquiries into pre-war intel and whether or not it was misused (Woohoo! Don Rumsfield resigned the day after the elections. He knew the people had spoken. I'm really not sure why Bush didn't let him resign earlier...).

2. The minimum wage will be raised from it's current $5.15 an hour. It's been $5.15 for more than a decade now I believe. When I was in high school, I was making this minimum wage. During that same time tuition at the U has increased more than 85%. Do you see a problem here? Chris Cannon obviously doesn't believe this because he said "Nobody in Utah is on minimum wage. If they are they need to go back to school or down to the local McDonald's and get a better job." I would never have voted for somebody so out of touch with his constituents. For the record, I know people making the minimum wage - and they obviously can't afford to go back to school because tuition is increasing many times faster than inflation and their pay rate.

3. Stem-cell research. I am of the opinion that "life does not begin in a petri dish." I believe you can be anti-abortion and pro stem-cell research.

4. A more balanced budget. President Bush inherited the largest budget surplus in the history of the US. It did not last long under his policies of "fiscal responsibility." It probably isn't too good for the economy down the road with as much borrowing as we do. I won't be sad to see tax cuts repealed that were given to the rich and the large 'republican-friendly' corporations.

5. More qualified candidates. With a democrat majority, Bush will have to appoint candidates that are actually qualified for the position. Start with the nomination of John Bolton. He is a UN basher and has never been on good terms with the UN. Bush wants him to be the United States Ambassador to the UN. That will put a really good face on United States diplomacy at the United Nations...

I think that I could find more reasons - but you get the picture. Maybe we've 'Stayed the Course' for a little longer than we should have.

Song List

I realized that I've already told everyone about the new music player on my blog - but I never mentioned what music you may be hearing. Right now there are only 5 songs and they play randomly so you may hear any song at any time. In no particular order the songs are:

1. Keane - Somewhere Only We Know
2. U2 - Original of the Species
3. Radiohead - Let Down
4. Fountains of Wayne - Stacy's Mom
5. Coldplay - Fix You

I wanted to add more songs but this player can only play mp3 format and I have most of my songs stored as wma (windows media audio). I'll have to re-rip some of them I guess.

Big Blog Changes!

I didn't have either lab that I normally have today and I also stayed home from one of my classes. This gave me 7 hours of extra time that I normally don't have on Wednesdays. With some of this extra time I made a few changes to my blog. The biggest one involved updating the type of template that I used to organize my layout. With this new template, it is now many times easier to add blocks of html code to my blog.

You can probably see the addition of an mp3 player (special thanks to www.myflashfetish.com)




as well as the scrolling marquee (from www.profiletweaks.com).







Now this blog is the place to be!

We won! We won! We won!

Yesterday was election day and for the democrats it was very successful. They regained control of the House and are on the brink of controlling the Senate (It's 50-49 right now for the democrats with one race still too close to call). This will make for an interesting 2 years. Bush will certainly have to learn how to compromise to get anything done. He's made a good start by inviting Nancy Pelosi (majority leader) and other leading democrats to either lunch of coffee on Thursday and Friday.

Local elections were not so exciting. I think that I voted about 60% Republican and 40% Democrat. Here are the results of the race that I was most interested in though

As you can see Judge Lewis was not retained. This is a very good thing. If you doubt this then please reread my post from November 6. I love elections. I especially love them when there are changes that will require those in power to move out of their comfort zones in order to make something happen.

Naughty Judge!

Tomorrow is an election day and I urge everybody to get out and vote. For the most part, I really couldn't care less who you vote for, except in one circumstance. If you are a resident of Tooele, Salt lake or Summit county, then you simply must vote against Judge Lewis. This woman has serious problems.

Judges are not elected in Utah, but they do come up for vote every six years. One of the most recent issues with her stemmed from a hunter that had to appear before her for some reason. Judge Lewis was badgering the hunter (she clearly states that she has a predjudice against hunters) and a friend of the hunter in the back of the courtroom sighed and walked out. Judge Lewis kind of went postal and had the bailiff go and get the person that left and then she threw him in the holding cell for being bored. The courtroom video is on YouTube here or you can watch it below. The quality is awful but you can clearly hear everything that is going on.



There are a lot of comments from attorneys that have had to stand before her on these posts from Voice of Utah here and here.

***Update*** I can't believe that I forgot about one of the craziest issues with her. This judge apparently cut 10 years off of a sex offenders sentence after the sentence had been handed down. I heard that she did this because the prosecuting attorney had been late to court one day. When she lightened this sentence, she did it by telling the defendants attorney and told him "keep this between you and me," ie. don't tell the prosecuting attorney about this. Here are two articles about this instance in the Deseret News: "Judge Criticized Again" "Judge Lewis Dispute Prompts State Motion" ***End Update***

Lastly, if you want to read more about this BOB (B---- On the Bench) then visit http://www.firejudgelewis.com/.

Best of luck at the polls tomorrow.

Semester Update

Now that the semester is more than halfway over (yippee!) I just thought I run through an update of my semester.

ECE 5320 - Microwave Engineering I
This class is going pretty well. I have yet to lose a point on any of the homework (I wouldn't be surprised if I were the only on in the class to do so) and I have been around average on the one test that we have taken. We have had labs every week since the beginning of October and lab reports due the following week. My lab reports have been around 9-15 pages each week (with lots of diagrams) so I spend a lot of time on those.

ECE 5201 - Semiconductor Physics I
This class is going pretty well also. I was a little below average on the test, the homework has been hard but I really enjoy the labs. The lars are taught in the microfab where we have been making some diodes, MOSFETs, BJTs, resistors and capacitors on a silicon wafer. We are almost done with the processing of these wafers.

BIOEN 1101 - Bioengineering I
This class has been easy. I rarely go to class and have yet to study but I have been doing fine on the tests. The lab is simple as well. Nice class to take...

I also spend a bit of time each week working on my Sr. Project. We have made some really good progress on that lately. I also have been testing and simulating a microchip for an EKG heart sensor that I designed last semester. The testing isn't going as well as I had hoped but I still think that I can get it working.

Just a little over one month left before finals. I actually have to register tomorrow so I need to decide what classes to take. Boy does the time fly :).

Happy Halloween!

Boy its been a busy week - That's why I'm a few days late on posting my annual Halloween message. Our Halloween was a pretty good one. On Monday (the day before Halloween) we went to the Squire party and Tuesday we were able to stay home a hand out candy to the few kids that came around Trick-or-Treating. We didn't take Ada out to trick-or-treat, instead I just made sure to hide some candy from the stash that we had to give to kids. You can see what Alison, Ada and I all dressed up as below.


As nice as the Dalmation Print suit was, I decided to spice it up a little more underneath my hat. You can see my sweet mohawk below. I had the mohawk from Monday to Wednesday but decided that I should probably cut it off for work, church, normality, etc. It was fun while it lasted.

Don't we look great?