I'm Rich!

I won't be nearly this rich next year. But don't you ever feel guilty for being so well-off?

I'm the 274,556,522 richest person on earth! Discover how rich you are! >>

Wish me luck on finals (I've got three on Tuesday and one on Thursday).

Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day everybody. Alison and I have committed to reduce our individual emissions this year. In a nutshell, we will no longer eat refried beans, black beans, pinto beans, green bananas or Nesquik. By cutting these gas-producing foods out of our diet, we hope to turn our house into an Eco-friendly (pleasant-smelling) place. In fact, the EPA has an individual emissions calculator on their website so you can find places to cut back as well. Check it out here.

In other news, Earth Day has been kind because:
1. The Lakers lost to the Suns
2. The Spurs lost to the Nuggets
3. The Mavericks lost to the Warriors
4. Ada turned 9-months old today. Happy 3/4 birthday Ada!
5. Although A-Rod is playing 'on a whole 'notha level', the Red Sox beat the Yankees in three straight games and today they hit four consecutive home runs.
6. I was released as the Elder's Quorum President. I served for 77 weeks (they usually shoot for about a year) and really enjoyed it. I now look forward to getting my Sunday mornings back and going to church with Alison and Ada.

Happy Earth Day!

Spend-Free April Update III

Al has posted another update about our month without money. You can read her post here.

Week in Review

This last week was a busy one. Aside from school trying to overwork me to death and having to work today in order to get a decent number of hours, there were still a couple of highlights. The first was obviously that gorgeous photo that I posted Monday. The second highlight had to be this news story from Thursday. Watch closely. You may enjoy it more than you expect (and not just because of Nadine Wimmer)...

Video: News

Always Quotable, Always Fresh, That's Me!

Spring Football

I unfortunately had to work during the spring football game. It sounds like it was a good one - see here. But whenever I think that football is big in Utah, I come across an article such as "An Overflow Crowd Watches Saban's Bama Debut." Yes, 92,000 fans showed up to watch Alabama's spring football game. That's two Rice-Eccles filled to capacity. That's almost one-and-a-half Delta Centers (I know, its the ESA...) more than even LaVell Edwards Stadium holds! I guess football really is life down there.

Bytheway, Alabama was only 6-7 last year. Yes, 92,000 people came to see a team that was under .500 last year. Unbelievable.

NBA Playoffs

The NBA Playoffs are here. For your enjoyment, Alison and I are going to attempt to predict the outcome of each series. Here are our first round predictions.

Eastern Conference

(8) Orlando magic vs. (1) Detroit Pistons

Alison: Detroit in 6



Tyler: Detriot in 4 (not even close).


(7) Washington Wizards vs. (2) Cleveland Cavaliers

Alison: Cleveland in 4



Tyler: Cleveland in 5 (Al may be right on this one. Without Arenas or Butler, the Wiz don't have a chance).

(6) New Jersey Nets vs. (3) Toronto Raptors


Alison: Toronto in 7

Tyler: New Jersey in 6 (I just feel that VC and Kidd are going to take it to the Raptors).


(5) Chicago Bulls vs. (4) Miami Heat

Alison: Chicago in 6

Tyler: Chicago in 6 (The Heat are certainly capable of winning this round, but it's been a long time since Shaq and D-Wade have had it).

Western Conference

(8) Golden State Warriors vs. (1) Dallas Mavericks

Alison: Dallas in 6

Tyler: Dallas in 5 (Golden State has won 6 of the last 7 games against the Mavs, nonetheless, I doubt Nellie's team can win this seven games series - they'll steal one or two).

(7) Los Angeles Lakers vs. (2) Phoenix Suns

Alison: Phoenix in 5

Tyler: Phoenix in 6 (Kobe vs. Bell, Kobe wins. Lakers vs. Suns, Suns win).


(6) Denver Nuggets vs. (3) San Antonio Spurs

Alison: San Antonio in 4

Tyler: San Antonio in 6 (Unfortunately, AI and Melo don't play defense).


(5) Houston Rockets vs. (4) Utah Jazz

Alison: Jazz in 6

Tyler: Jazz in 7 (My gut says Rockets in 6. I can't go on the record picking against the Jazz though. If they win today then I'll feel pretty good about their chances).

Look for the next installment before the second round!

Prince Michael

Every once in a while I'll pull out a random photo for your Monday. Here's a good one...

Spend-Free April Update II

Alison and I are continuing our battle against capitalism by hoarding all of our money. We have done really well. Ada, on the other hand, has not done well. We can't reign in her spending as easily as we can our own. She had to go to the doctor's twice this week (once for an ear infection and once for RSV-like symptoms). She also got a prescription for her ear infection. Luckily, everything seems to be getting better. She has her nine month doctor's appointment this month as well. It looks like it one thing that we just can't get away from.

In summary our monthly spending totals are:
Tyler - $0
Alison - $0
Ada - $60

Not too shabby, look for another update (on Al's blog) next week!

Ada's Big Week!

It's been a big week for Ada. If you haven't heard, Ada can now crawl. We have posted the most adorable video of her crawling down the hallway on our space. You should definitely check it out. She also had her first Easter. She attended two easter egg hunts, but didn't help find a single egg.

She also has another ear infection. This is her third in about 2 1/2 months. Maybe she should stop drinking in bed? She's had cold symptoms as well this week. Hopefully it's nothing serious, although she has kept us up a little bit this week.

It's been fun to have her a little more mobile, but now I'll have to find a way to hide (and maybe organize) all of the computer cords cluttering up our desk area. That will be a challenge.

Saddle Sore

While at my parents over the weekend, I borrowed my dad's bike. My plan was to use it to ride to school and possibly work in order to conserve gas for our "spend-free April". While it was nice to ride the bike today, I haven't ridden one in probably around seven years and there were a few complications...

First off, I had only gone a few hundred feet when I needed to go up over a curb. I had a very, very heavy backpack (not so bad when you drive a car) and I tried to pull up to jump up onto the curb and... I didn't quite make it. Down I went. It wasn't a hard crash and I landed on the dirt, but I did dirty myself, tear my pants and the contents of my backpack made themselves comfortable all over the dirt (For some reason my backpack doesn't stay closed when it's that full, so I even had to stop a few times after this to retrieve my sandwich and books from the ground). What kind of an idiot can't ride a bike? At least nobody saw, but it wasn't a good start.

It was cold today. Colder than usual and the heavy breathing in the cold air gave me a headache. It was also very windy with a north wind so I was riding into the wind. It doesn't help that I am probably about 40 pounds heavier than when I last rode a bike, needless to say, it was a bit of a struggle to propel myself to school. It's not like it's a long ride to school either, it's only a couple of miles max, but I was pretty tuckered out by the time I got there.

Coming home wasn't too bad except for one little thing (which turned out to be the most miserable of them all). The wind was at my back, I had eaten my lunch so my backpack was lighter, but my crotchal area was as sore as it gets. I tried standing while I pedaled but that felt odd with such a heavy backpack, I tried sitting on one cheek or the other, but I could only ride side-saddle for so long. Now tonight, anytime I sit or move I am reminded of today's little jaunt on the bike.

I haven't given up yet, I just need to work up to it I guess.

Dante the Dog

A few weeks ago Alison and I watched my aunt and uncles dog while they were in Puerto Vallarta for my cousin's wedding. Neither of us have been around dogs much - both of our families actually have cats. The dog, Dante, is a pretty good sized boxer. Ada was very scared the first time I let her get a good look at him. After the first time though, she was pretty comfortable with him. She especially enjoyed the walks that we went on. While the chances are slim (ok, probably nonexistent) that we will ever have a dog we had fun getting to know Dante.

Spend-Free April Update I

Alison has been so kind as to post a quick update about our goal to have a spend-free month. You can read her update here and the original post here.

Alison is...

Alison is an awesome cook. Almost every single night she conjures up a fantastic meal for us. She doesn't seem to be restrained by dish or style, she can nail them all. This is one of my favorite benefits of her being home with Ada. I think it runs in her family. Her mom and all of her sisters (except maybe one (she only makes good crepes...j/k)) are great cooks as well.

Alison is an amazing mom. I can see why she's the mom and I'm the dad. She has so much patience with Ada (and myself) that it often amazes me. Although we are both new at this (relatively anyway, Ada is 8 1/2 months old), Alison always seems to know the right thing to do with her.

Alison is very, very smart. Although she hasn't been in school for almost 4 years, she hasn't lost her edge. Today we enjoyed a brain puzzle while we were driving to and from my parents house and Alison really impressed me with her skill. She is a top-notch speller, quick at math, chemistry and seems to remember almost everything that's she's ever learned. This leads to the next one...

Alison is incredibly memorable (By this I mean that she has an incredible memory). She often reminds me of things from our marriage that I have no recollection of and her and her siblings can easily sit and reminisce about things forever. I wish that I had half the memory that she does.

Alison is really athletic. She loves to play soccer and other sports. Maybe you remember that soccer requires a lot of running. In order to run, you've got to be very athletic. I hate running. Along with being athletic, she loves to watch sports and she often knows more about what is going on in the game than I do.

Alison is sweet, kind, gentle, lovable, kissable and so on. Everybody who knows her knows that she is always willing to lend a helping hand. She is kind to everybody and is always reminding me to talk nicely about other people...

Alison is fun and funny. Whenever we are together there is laughing, and good humor all around. She laughs about funny things and when she laughs about things that I didn't originally find very funny, by the end of it all she will have convinced me of why it was funny (I'm not sure if that made sense but on we go).

Alison is a superb musician. She is an amazing pianist and it seems like she can just about play anything. She is very good singer as well. It is a blessing to have her musical abilities in our family.

Alison is hot. By this I mean not just hot but very hot. She is beautiful and I find myself lucky to have landed her. I love you Alison!

Spend-Free April

(I probably better preface this post by saying that it is not an April Fool's Day joke. This is as real as it gets.)

Alison and I are going to try as hard as we can to not spend a dime during the month of April. Automatic payments (for bills, insurance, etc.) are certainly allowed but we will keep our money to ourselves. I'm not sure if we can pull it off or not. We definitely have enough food and toilet paper (barring any unforeseen stomach bugs) here to last through the month. We should have enough gas (if we conserve - or I'll start riding the bus), and barring any medical emergencies we should reach this goal.

A few things that we can't get out of paying for include: rent, health insurance, car insurance and cell phone bills - and I believe that's it for a total of around $990. Wish us luck!