2006 - Year in Review

The year is almost over. For the Squire family it has been a good one. Here is a little bit of our year in review.

January

We started the year like any other since we had been married. Alison was working at WECC and I was working for Dickman Enterprises doing the leather protection for RC Willey. The biggest difference this year was that Alison was pregnant. I started my spring semester at school and ended up doing ok.

February

From what I recall, February wasn't a bad month. I'm sure that Alison and I had an incredible Valentine's Day. We were also able to spend a weekend with the extended Squire family in St. George over President's Day.

March

March was good because of Spring Break and the NCAAs. Alison and I went to the first and second rounds at the Huntsman Center here in Salt Lake City. She won the family tournament pools for both families but I was a close second. I also quit working for Dickman Enterprises and started working for Pacificorp.

April and May

In April I went to an IEEE conference in Boise, ID. While there I also took a tour of Micron's Boise headquarters. It's a huge facility. May found the end of finals week and I began working full-time at Pacificorp.

June, July and August

The summer was a good one. I worked most of the summer full-time and we were able to go waterskiing a couple of times. Ada Elizabeth Squire was born on July 22 at 12:55 AM. She has been a joy ever since. August found us trying to learn how to be parents.

September, October, November and December

I'm cruising now. Fall found me in school again, working part time. Alison quit her job at WECC and has been staying home with Ada full-time. The holiday season was a good one for the Squires.

Doesn't that just sound like it was a wonderful year? Hopefully this next one is just as good!

There's a New Girl in Town!

Now even Alison has caught the bug. She's started a blog of her own. You can see it at http://alisquire.blogspot.com. If she asks where you heard about it, don't tell her I told you. I'm excited to see what kind of juicy info I get from Al's Audibles. She better not share any of my secrets though...

My Book Review Blog!

I'm loving this blogging dealio so much that I've gone and done it again. I've decided to set up a place where I can write about the books I read. I've been looking for a good way to do this for a few months but I was never able to come up with anything that suited me.

I finally saw Ben and Jenn Iverson's booklist blog and thought that it was exactly what I wanted to do. So, I've used a template modeled off of what they have been doing. You can see their booklist site here. Just be forewarned, Ben and Jenn both actually know what they are talking about when they have been reviewing books. My reviews on the other hand...

So, when you get a chance, feel free to stop by http://tysquibooklist.blogspot.com and check out my newest reads. Be forewarned though, I rarely read anything during the semester.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everybody! I love this time of year. It sure gets busy leading up to it though. It's hard to get into the Christmas spirit before the semester finishes so once it does Chirstmas preparations are always on the top of the list. Alison, Ada and I had a great Chirstmas. We love spending time with family and we enjoy it when our siblings and friends are in town.

On Christmas Eve we visited Alison's grandparents and ate dinner by candlelight at the Squires. Cheryce gave me a multimeter that night (that reminds me, I need to take it off my wishlist...). We slept there because Jordan called home from Jacksonville early Christmas morning - for the record, he is doing well. From Santa I mainly got money.

One of the most exciting gifts wasn't even given to me. I did get to unwrap it though. My parents bought a Nintendo Wii for the family. It's pretty dang fun. I think that they may be a little afraid of things like this happening though.

On Christmas afternoon, we went to Alison's parents to eat dinner. We got a very interesting gift there as well. Alison's grandma's father and grandfather were involved in the founding of the Lewiston Bank. She has a lot of stock in the bank and she gave all of the married grandkids some shares of the stock. They pay dividends twice a year. The stock has split 5 times since she has owned it. Each share is worth ~$125. The dividends will be our Christmas and birthday presents for the rest of our lives. It's a pretty exciting and forward thinking gift.

You can read a rundown of Ada's first Christmas here. Alison and I are always amazed by the generosity of those around us each year. We are so grateful for the nice things that people always give to us. Hopefully everybody out there had great Christmases as well.

The Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl - Utah 25, Tulsa 13

Utah played Tulsa tonite in the Bell Helicopters Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Texas. They won 25-13. I believe that the spread was 4.5 or something in favor of Utah. This is the first bowl game that I have missed in the last three years. For some crazy reason, Fort Worth, Texas two days before Christmas just doesn't excite me all that much. Either way, it looked like Utah had more fans than I expected to be there. Good for them.

For the most part is was a pretty good football game. ESPN's covereage of the game was much better than their coverage of the Las Vegas Bowl. The standard had been set pretty low though. Tulsa's quarterback (Smith) seemed to be off his game. From what I understand, he's usually a pretty good quarterback but he wasn't in sync today (although he was 20-27 for 158 yards).

On the other hand, Brett Ratliff had a solid game (23-34 for 240 yards), Eric Weddle was his usual self (i.e. amazing) and Utah's second best player this year - Louie Sakoda - was named the Player of the Game. When was the last time that a punter/FG kicker was the player of the game in a bowl game? He's been crucial all season, leadig the Utes to being #1 in net yards per punt. That doesn't happen by accident.

The Utes incorporated a couple of interesting plays. They pulled their old hook-and-ladder play out of the bag (from the Fiesta Bowl) and scored. That play was also the play of the day on CNN. Eric Weddle played quarterback for the Utes' last drive. He ran the ball 7 times and handed off once before scoring.

It wasn't a great season by Utah's recent standards. If they could just get rid of the mid-season slides then they would be set. Next year will be tough with UCLA, Louisville and Oregon State on the docket. I can't wait!

How to Comment

Just like I promised, here is a short tutorial on how to leave comments on a post.First off, find the post that you want to comment or complain about. Click on the 'comments' link below the post and this will take you to the following screen.

Type in your comment (remember that I retain the right to reject any vulgar and unnecessary comments) and type in the letters that show up on the screen (this is to keep the spammers away). Now you can publish three ways:

1. If you have a google account (i.e. gmail, picasa, etc.) you can sign in and publish.

2. If you just want to leave the comment under your name or pseudonym, choose other or,

3. Go ahead and post it anonomously.

Once you've posted a comment, I get an e-mail and the chance to read over it and accept or reject it. I have enabled this feature to keep away any spammers and inappropriate or offensive comments. This is a family site - Happy posting!

1,000 Visitors!

Now I've reached a milestone, haven't I? 1,000 visitors to this virtual piece of real estate that I call home. A special welcome to everybody. This picture is a map of where all of the most recent visitors hail from. As you can see, there is quite a worldwide audience, although not on purpose I am certain. You can see my counter in the right pane near the bottom.

As always, everybody is welcome to leave their comments, thoughts, complaints, etc. In fact, I will post 'How to Comment' in a few minutes.

Hello Deer.

When I went outside to leave for work this morning, I saw a herd of deer just across the court. They were all eating the exposed grass on the hillside. There is usually a herd of deer that 'winter' here in the village. It's fun to see them throughout the winter. The only thing that really makes me nervous though is that they've got to cross Foothill Boulevard to get to and from the mountains. So if you're driving on Foothill, watch for deer!

They let me get to about 15 feet away. They would look up as I walked towards them but as soon as I squatted down to take my picture, they would already be eating and ignoring me. I didn't try to get any closer, although they really didn't seem to care. It's always fun to see wild animals up close in nature.

Family Christmas Photo

We sent out Christmas cards to family last week and this is the picture that we sent with them. What a cute little family!

Congratulations! I'm Time's Person of the Year!

Woohoo! You read that right. I've just been named Time's Person of the Year! You didn't realize that I was a celebrity, did you? Actually, I've guess that they've named all of us the Person of the Year. So congratulations to you too.