Flag Friday - Final Four

This weeks pennant comes to you from New Orleans, Louisiana. My parents brought this one home to me after going to the 1993 Final Four at the New Orleans Superdome. The final game of this tournament is remembered as one of the best ever (when Chris Webber tried to call a timeout at the end of the game when the Wolverines had none left - which resulted in a technical foul). I don't remember the games, but I remember my beautiful pennant.

Flag Friday - All-Star Weekend

Before there was an Energy Solutions Arena, there was the Delta Center. Before the Delta Center got old, it was fairly new. It was at this time that the Jazz hosted the All-Star Weekend. It was kind of a big deal. Somehow, along with this pennant, I found myself with a big bag of pins from All-Star Weekend that I was giving away for years afterward. Strange.

Hard Questions Answered

You've all probably forgotten when I solicited your questions, but just as promised, following are the answers to the 5-year mailbag.

JTENMAN asks: What do we have to do to get on your blog roll?

Well, typically I only update my blogroll every 2 years - and even then it is with people that I like... ;) But, I'll let this one slide. Consider yourself added.

Anonymous asks: Do you pay a full tithe?

Yes.

Trever and Heather ask (It was actually probably only Heather, but how can I know for sure?): I want to know if you met your goal in high school of going out with 100 different girls (it may have been only 50)?


Hmmmm. How to answer this one without making the whole place feel awkward... First off, my goal was to go on at least 100 dates with at least 50 different girls during High School. I did go on 100 dates, but I was a few girls shy of 50. Now if those dozen girls that turned me down hadn't, then I would have made it.

Funny story though - Just a couple of weeks ago my younger sister Rachelle got really excited because she found my notebook where I kept track of all my dates and who I went on them with. I used stars to signify the number of dates that I had gone on with a particular person - but she (and others in my family) thought that the stars signified the number of times that I kissed the girl on each date. If only my life had been so interesting...

David and Amy ask: Wow, 5 years! I want to know what happened to the Lurpmobile...is it still around or long gone?


You know, I'm not really sure what happened to the original Lurp Truck. If my memory serves me correctly, my older sister and I were driving up to a concert at Deer Valley that one of us had won tickets to. At the top of Parley's Canyon the car crapped out and gave up the ghost. Apparently, the oil needs to changed (or at the very least refilled) every so often so I think that the car was scrapped. Yours truly did not take care of the poor Lurp Truck - or maybe it was punishment for attempting to go to a concert on a Sunday. Oops, lesson learned.

Rachelle asks: Happy 5 years blogging. You certainly started before the blogging craze! I have to go think of a really good question for you.

Apparently, no questions came to mind?

Ben asks: If you were Whit, which of the 3 QB's do you go with as the starter for 2009, and why? How would you rank all 3? (I know this'll at least get a good paragraph out of ya)

This is a tough question (and I contemplated giving the question its own blog post), but here is a short answer about how I think things will turn out.

The freshman Jordan Wynn redshirts and leaves Brian Johnson and (oops) Corbin Louks and Terrance Cain to fight for the starting job. I think that Louks gets the nod simply because of his game experience but that Cain still sees playing time (much like Louks did last year). Louks keeps the starting job, but Cain comes in when the coaches want a wrinkle to throw at the other team. Either way it's a good situation to be in.

Ben (different from Ben above) asks: I'd like to see a tribute post to MJ with a picture of you wearing your MJ shirt.

I took care of the MJ tribute post a few days ago. I'm sure glad I don't have to broach that depressing subject again.

And, here's a couple of good questions for you to post on: 1. What is one thing that have you done over the past 5 years that you are ashamed of?

Now you didn't ask for the thing that I am most ashamed of, but this just might be it. After the Utes beat Pittsburgh in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl they were honored at halftime of a Utah basketball game and the glorious Rocky Anderson (loved in SLC, hated throughout the rest of the state) presented them with the key to the city. Just days before, Rocky had given his State of the City which dissed on Davis County (you don't mess with the DC) and reaffirmed his despise of the Legacy Parkway among other things. I booed him and got a little carried away... People started yelling at me to shut-up and sit down and I'm sure I embarrassed Alison and my Dad... I learned a valuable lesson that day (and why am I blushing about this?). Funny thing is, by the end of his 2nd term, I didn't hate him.

2. If you could choose one commandment to break, which would it be?

This is an interesting question and I decided that I will limit my choices to the 10 commandments. I have no desire to break any commandments that cause harm to another person, which narrows it down a bit. The first commandment to go would probably be keeping the Sabbath day holy. It sure would be nice to have 2 Saturday-type days in every week, so that would probably be the first to go. After that it's a slippery slope...

T.Irwin mentions: seeing as how the 24th is my bday, I vote that you should just say that you created your blog in honor of me :D Just cuz.

Did I mention that my cousin Tina was the inspiration behind starting my blog? Well she was.

The truth is that I had been enjoying reading Tina's twin sister Sandy's blog for quite a while before I decided to start one myself (Sandy started her blog in 07/02). So the truth is nearer to her than she probably expected...

Thanks everybody for humoring me. Maybe I'll make it a blogiversary tradition!

Flag Friday - Yellowstone

Obviously, this one is from one of the times that we visited Yellowstone when I was younger. It's been a while since I've been there - and it's free this weekend.

Flag Friday - Six Flags

I'm pretty sure this pennant came from Six Flags AstroWorld in Houston. The park has since been closed down - but I thought that it was a pretty good amusement park.

Michael Jackson

As I sit here watching the Michael Jackson Memorial Service that I recorded from earlier, I figure it is a pretty good time to write his eugulogy. As most of my good friends know, I've always been a fan of MJ (as I affectionately call him). My friends and I would always listen to his music as we cruised around in the Lurp Truck. I'm not sure what my favorite song of his is, but my favorite line of any song is found in "The Girl is Mine," a duet by Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney. The best line of the song, "I think I told you, I'm a lover not a fighter" is found at the 3:02 mark in the following video:



A high school friend of mine, Dave Marshall, and I found 4 sweet Michael Jackson shirts at the DI. I used to wear them all the time. I spent an hour looking for a photo of myself in one of the shirts when Alison reminded me that I proposed to her wearing one. That's a true fan:
And on our honeymoon we made a quick stop at his star (once again I'm wearing his shirt):
And lastly, I'm wearing my MJ shirt in this happy partial-family photo:

One of the best tribute posts that I've seen in the last couple weeks was actually posted on the woot.com blog - 10 Michael Jackson Video Clips You Won't See On The Nightly News. It's a good read/watch.

Alison was just sent this interesting clip and I thought that I'd better include it:


Rest in Peace - the King of Pop!

Flag Friday - Salt Lake 2002

This one is interesting because it is one of the only pennants that I have where I wasn't there for the actual event/place. In addition, in order to photograph the pennant for the blog, I actually had to remove the tags. This poor pennant has gotten no love.