Zion National Park

Alison and I finally had the chance to use our National Parks pass again on President's Day. We purchased it over the summer when we took our big trip to the four corners area. This is the 5th National Park that we have visited since we purchased the pass (and we've got plans to visit many more before the pass expires)...
Having made innumerable trips to southern Utah throughout my lifetime (my grandparents own a home in La Verkin that we often visit) Zion is easily the National Park that I have visited most. This excursion was a quick one and it was a beautiful day. We tried to hike to the emerald pools but we wimped out because the trail was so icy and we were sliding all over. We got to where we could see them though. I was surprised that Ada consented to be carried in our hiking backpack. She wasn't loving it, asking to get down again and again but between fruit snacks and candy we were able to make it.
The second trail that we went on was the Riverside Walk near the Temple of Sinawava. Ada walked most of this trail on her own and we patiently allowed her to go her own pace, begging for handfuls of dirty snow the whole time. She loved seeing a small herd of deer near the end of the trail. It's so fun to spend time in nature in some of the most beautiful places on earth.

More Snow?!

A few tidbits from the last week:

• The few days before today were just beautiful. Today it snowed heavily from 2:00-8:00 and driving home from work on the interstate my undercarriage was dragging along the snow in the middle of the lane. Another good reason for me to try and lose a few pounds. We've had at least 3 storms dropping 8-12" of snow and many more dropping fewer inches.
  
• I've had 3 job interviews this week.
  
• I'm excited to have another girl (if you didn't read that on Al's blog, we found out Monday that we are having a girl). Hopefully Ada and Baby Who Shall Not Yet Be Named will enjoy playing with each other.
  
• I've had a miserable cold the last few days. I think that I have a pretty high pain threshold (I stayed at school all day after I broke my arm in 4th grade in 1st recess) but I'm a huge wuss, pansy, wimp, etc. when it comes to body aches and chest/gut pain.
• I often wonder if Ada isn't a prodigy.
  
• I saw this article the other day about the coldest places in the world. I lived in Russia (and it was cold) but I was in a comparatively warm part of Russia. Send this article to anybody complaining of the cold (unless they live in Yakutsk).
  
• I drive through 23 lights going to work and 24 lights coming home. If they're not timed very well it can take a long time...
• We went to dinner yesterday at Romano's Macaroni Grill for Valentine's Day. They've got good bread.
  

Good Day for Ballin'

Tonight was a good night for basketball teams from Utah. First off, the Utes came away with (arguably) the best win from the Jim Boylen era, taking down the UNLV Rebels. The Rebels were the #1 team in the conference (holding the tiebreaker over BYU) and had beaten the Utes 5 straight times. Utah has struggled against teams that they should have beaten (most recently Wyoming at home) and has shown much of the same inconsistencies that plagued them last year. They have shown a huge improvement in their defense though - leading the league in many defensive stats. They are giving up almost 20 points less than last year and holding teams to 12% worse shooting (and an amazing 18% worse from beyond the arc).

This win was not only a statement win for the Utes but a welcomed win from Cougar fans as well. BYU (having beaten TCU this evening as well) now has sole possession of the top spot in the conference. That obviously won't last as the Utes have to play in Happy Valley on the 20th. But, nonetheless, you're welcome.

Now onto the Jazz. The Jazz played the Denver Nuggets tonight in a dirty division game. Both teams were called for numerous fouls and a couple of players fouled out on the Jazz, while Carmelo Anthony fouled out on the Nuggets. I had to turn away from the game for a bit because I was getting so worked up over it. Boozer had a horrible night, but Deron Williams and Kyle Korver more than picked up the slack. The game was played in Denver, decided in overtime and ended up being their 10th straight win (the last time that they won 10 straight games was almost 9 years ago!). Like I said, a good night for Utah basketball teams.

Candidate Notes

I had no plans of posting this but while listening to Radio from Hell this morning they were talking about the elections and I realized that I have a lot to say. I tried to keep this short - but once I got going it was hard to stop. Lets agree right now to agree to disagree - but I'd love to know why you support who you support. This is an important day for the nation.

Republicans:

Ron Paul
I really like Ron Paul. I like that he wants to make the government smaller, but I disagree with his proposed methods. He is against the federal "War on Drugs", hates NATO and the UN (and I actually like NATO), and wants the US to pull our troops off of foreign lands (including Iraq, S. Korea, the Phillippines and Germany). I think that he takes the idea of hard money (the gold standard) too seriously but I love his stance on fiscal conservatism. I think automatic weapons (such as assault rifles) should be taken off the streets, he disagrees. Ron Paul has been notoriously anti-net-neutrality and has only seemed to soften his stance recently (which is a total deal breaker for me). I don't like how a newsletter published for more than a decade under Ron Paul's name was very often bigoted towards blacks, gays and Jews. While Paul didn't write the articles he took moral responsibility for their printing. Among the federal departments that Paul wants to get rid of are the IRS and the Department of Education. While I dislike the IRS as much as anyone I appreciate the police protection, fire protection, roads, parks, cultural events, schools, public transportation, government welfare programs, etc. that the money brought in by the IRS through taxation provides. I like 50% of Ron Paul's ideas. Unfortunately, the other 50% are too far off base for me to consider him as a candidate.

John McCain
I don't hate McCain nearly as much as many people I know. I like his military background. In my opinion, many of the best presidents have come from military families and the leadership experience that is obtained must be invaluable. While he is older than I would like, I don't think that it is fair to hold that against him, because I have watched numerous old men in leadership positions and if nothing else, their increased wisdom has helped them. He's obviously not the smartest in the group (he graduated fifth from the bottom in his class at the Naval Academy!). After McCain was shot down in Vietnam and had been there a while, the Vietnamese offered to release him (because his father was such a high-ranking Naval Officer) but he refused until everybody captured before him was released - and ended up being a POW for 5 years longer than he would have been. McCain has had numerous affairs and is now married to his second wife. He has always had fishy relationships with big business and people with money. One of the things that I like most about McCain is his ability to cross the political barrier in order to get things done. Many of the bills that he has sponsored have been co-sponsored by high-level democratic Senators allowing compromise to take place in the Senate. McCain did not support Bush's infamous tax cuts for the rich (originally), wanting to give them instead to those who needed them most. He's often not a very republican Republican (if that makes any sense) and has even been labeled as a liberal (but a moderate in my view). While I think that he is a power-hungry dirty old man, I don't think that he is as bad as many are making him out to be.

Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney is a Mormon. Many people here (i.e. Utah) like him. I think that he played his cards well in coming to President Hinckley's funeral. It was a very quiet visit and did not seem to be calculated for political gain. Nobody in the running can match his business experience and he is arguably the smartest of the group as well. Being exceptionally rich has helped in that he's donated tens of millions (~$35) to his own campaign. Romney took a $379 million deficit in the Olympics and turned it into a $100 million profit. Romney has a history of pandering to the crowd. He was pro-choice while running against Kennedy in 1994 but has since decided to be pro-life (although he promised the residents of Massachusetts that he would not touch the abortion laws while Governor). As Governor of Massachusetts he faced a budget deficit of $3 billion. He left the state with a $700 million surplus and was able to cut taxes. I really like the health care plan that has been implemented in Massachusetts. It still allows the consumer to choose their care but has penalties for those who don't (and can afford it). His views align fairly closely with mine.

Mike Huckabee
I've actually liked Mike Huckabee for a long time. He appeared on The Colbert Report to talk about his incredible weight loss (110 pounds) and healthy lifestyle that he was advocating. He is an ordained Baptist Minister and his religion is an integral part of his campaign and life. While Governor, he came under fire for commuting the sentences of numerous convicts. My biggest issue with Huckabee is that he has a hard time separating his religion from his campaign (and I'm not so sure that he wants to). I think that he would bring far too much religion into the oval office if he were elected. He is definitely the most conservative candidate in the race.

Democrats

Hillary Clinton
I have no doubt that Hillary is qualified to be President. She played a large role as first lady in the creation of the state children's health insurance program (S-CHIP). She is a very polarizing figure and is probably the candidate least likely to unite (rather than continue to divide) the American public. Up until her last year of college she was a pretty staunch Republican. Clinton also has ties to many tiers of big business and receives a lot of her campaign money from them. She played a huge role in the Whitewater controversy having worked at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock. There seems to almost be a trail of bad decisions. She is obviously very forgiving; otherwise there is no way that she would have stayed with Bill this long. Clinton is a very well-liked Senator enjoying approval ratings from 64-74% in her second term. She has been a poor debater and she and her husband have often been accused of boiling the democratic nomination down to race. She is a very liberal Senator and has not shown any tendency to protect American's 2nd Amendment rights. Hillary Clinton is a candidate that most people either love or hate.

Barack Obama
Obama is only the fifth African-American Senator in US history (and the only one currently serving). He seems to be a fairly honest candidate, not hiding the fact that he toyed with drugs during his teenage years. During his political career he has focused on ethics reforms sponsoring bills controlling the lobbyists' power (eliminating gifts of travel) and on health care reform. Obama is certainly the least experienced candidate running for office and was only elected to the US Senate in 2004, enjoying the largest margin of victory in Illinois history. In my opinion, Obama has done a fantastic job of surrounding himself with qualified advisors, which is crucial to success as a young Senator (or future President). I believe that Obama is one of the few candidates that could possibly help unite the the fractured American public. For too long the Presidents have been from so far one side or another that I think he has the chance to unite. Obama seems to be very technology savvy. He has always been committed to net neutrality, which is one of the most important issues for me. Obama has always been a foe of the Iraq War and has pushed for major air pollution caps and climate control strategies. He has been one of the few politicians to speak out against the genocide in Darfur. He is the least wealthy of all candidates - possibly helping him to relate to the common citizen better than the others. Obama has proven his knack for reaching out to people across many cultural, political and racial barriers.

Superbowl XLII

Ugly logo notwithstanding, the Super Bowl will still be held tomorrow. While I'm not promising a candy bar to anybody this year, the option is still there and I'm still interested in everybody's predictions (although with the game starting in less than 24 hours I don't expect this post to be read by many). I don't know that I'll actually be cheering for either of the teams. I despise Eli Manning and the Pats are the Yankees (or the Red Sox) of the NFL. I'd be okay seeing them get their 18th win. They certainly deserve it, but I don't think that it's going to come easy. The Giants were arguably the best against the Patriots during the regular season (I think the Ravens deserved to beat them more) and this should be a pretty good game. Of course there's a chance that the Pats will blow them out, while there's probably a slimmer chance that the Giants will win. They've had three impressive wins here in the postseason, so anything can happen.

I've been more into the NFL this year than ever before. I was in a Fantasy Football league with Alison, my dad, brother/brothers in law and one friend. I started out doing very well but was no match for Alison and Jordan (my brother) at the end. Jordan had both Tom Brady and Randy Moss in this their record-setting year and was only beatable the few weeks that the Pats played mediocre games (all of which they still won). I had Carson Palmer, T.J. Houshmanzadeh and Ocho Cinco (Chad Johnson), all from the Bengals - and the Bengals did not have a very good year. The final standings are below. My team was the Salt Lake Sweet Tarts and Alison's team was the Pocatello Powder Puffs.

Go Jazz Go

If the playoffs had started yesterday morning then the Jazz would not have made them. They were the 9th team in the west (and only the top 8 go to the playoffs). After beating the Spurs last night, if the playoffs were to start today, the Jazz would have a 4th seed. A 5 spot jump in one night, not bad...

The Jazz have been playing very well. Since going 4-11 in December, the Jazz have gone 11-2 in their last 13 games. Andre Kirilenko is playing lights out, Boozer & Williams are playing like all-stars and Okur and Korver are finally hitting their threes. The last few months of the season should be pretty exciting.

A Hero

Most of you have probably heard (it's the top news story on every big news site) that President Hinckley passed away earlier tonight. I'm sure that for the majority of the Church members of my generation, he was our favorite prophet. He was never afraid to meet or be interviewed by anyone and really moved the Church into the public eye. Both Alison and I agree that it feels like you are losing a friend - although both of us have only been in his presence a couple of times.

President Hinckley visited Moscow, Russia just a couple of weeks before I came home. I entered the MTC on 13 of September but my choices for returning home were early August (which would have allowed me to attend my sister's wedding and start school a semester earlier) or early October. I chose the latter and long after my decision was made I found out that President Hinckley would be visiting the members in Moscow. I was in a city that was a 12 hour train ride from Moscow, but we were able to take a day trip to Moscow with some members to attend his visit. It was one of the most special experiences of my mission.

While the Church is in the public eye so much with Mitt Romney's campaign, it will be a special event as the leadership of the Church shows how smoothly the transfer of power goes. No colored smoke or uncertainty as to when and who a new prophet will be. God be with you Hinckley Family.

I Voted!

Up until last Friday, I was a registered Republican. In Utah, to participate in the Republican Primary, you must be registered with that party. To participate in the Democratic Primary, you must be either a registered Democrat or unaffiliated. Another quirk of the system here is that the winner of the Republican primary gets the votes of all of the Republican delegates from the state. The winner of the Democratic primary, on the other hand, only gets a portion of the delegates' votes (assuming that there are other candidates that received at least 15% of the primary vote.) This is a big part of the reason why the Republican candidates have largely ignored Utah and the Democrats are running TV ads in the state (for the first time ever according to ksl.com)

I like Mitt Romney. I'm not sure if he's my #1 candidate or not. He's going to win in Utah, no problem (He received 90% of the Republican Mormon vote in Nevada, and I expect the numbers will be similar here - and remember, most Utah Republicans are Mormon). He is my favorite candidate for a strong economy (see Massachusetts and the 2002 Winter Olympics) and Health care reform (once again, see Massachusetts). I would vote for him for these reasons, but not because he's a Mormon. While many of the people here profess that they aren't voting for him just because he's a Mormon, I don't believe all of them. I'd like to believe that he's getting the votes solely on his record and positions (which he changes more often than I think is reasonable - we call it "pandering to the crowd"...) and not on his beliefs. I guess its only fair though, he's losing out on a lot of votes because he IS Mormon, so maybe people should also vote for him because he IS Mormon. Like I said though, he's got Utah in the bag (I wasn't really planning on going off on Mitt here, maybe I'll give the lowdown on what I think about the rest of the candidates in another post - before Super Tuesday of course).

With all of that in mind, last Friday I made the trek to the County Clerk's office. Up until January 18, 2008 I had been a registered Republican in the state of Utah (and I even volunteered at the State Republican Convention in 2003). I stopped by the Clerk's office to change my party affiliation. I wanted my vote to matter. The odds are fairly good that our next President will be Democrat (thanks to President Bush for Iraq, ballooning the deficit and tax cuts for the rich) and the race between the top three Democrats is shaping up to be a close one. I wanted my vote to go towards a candidate that could use it and that would appreciate it more.

So I voted for Barack Obama. Now there will be no waiting in line at the polls and no more waffling on who to vote for, because the deed is done (and I still got a sticker that I am saving to wear on February 5th. I don't know if I would ever vote if they didn't give you the sticker. Although I do miss the old stickers with the flag on them...).

18 Monther

Ada turned 18 months today. We posted a bit about her and a couple of videos on our space. Check them out! (ok. as a preview treat, here's one of the videos, it's of Ada saying her colors earlier tonight):

Longest. Book. Ever.

Well I'm pretty proud of myself. I just finished the longest book that I have ever read, War and Peace. I usually read a couple of books a month, but this one took me 6 months to read. Granted, I didn't hardly read the book at all during the fall semester, but it still took me a long time to finish it. The book was 1691 pages long and consisted of 15 "books", 2 epilogues and 365 chapters. According to one of the translated versions on amazon.com the book has 597,773 words! That's more than 100% of all books on Amazon. As always, I've posted a review of this book on my book review blog. Read it here.