Monday, June 30, 2008

Sunday, June 29, 2008

VIsit from the Balint family!



Had a blast-from-our-recent-past today....

One of the couples from Hungary that we've really gotten to know over the last 7 years, and been pretty close to, stopped in to see us on their way to Vegas. Jozsef and Julika Balint. They are officially our first visitors from Hungary since we've been in the house.

It was really great to see them and visit for a bit. They admired the scenery and the backyard and we spent a little time getting caught up on life in Hungary.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Puppy buffet!


Can't help it. While I was wrapping up that last post, the puppies decided to tag team Ashton on the floor for a delicious mid-day snack....

New Vizsla Puppy

Well--back home from Colorado. Gave me a great chance to test the commute time should ( if luck happens to run my my way) I I actually get an offer. WOuldn't be too painful--1.5 hour flight from SLC to Colorado Springs, then a 25 minute drive to Pueblo. All in all, if I plan the flights right, I could be from Nephi to job in 4 hours.

But that's another story. I wish I felt better about the interviews. They got progressively better as the day went on, but who knows? There were some other strong finalists there with really impressive logistics backgrounds. In any case, I'll know in a few days.

On to happier news--we picked up our VIzsla puppy this morning--yes this makes two. This little guy is similar to Midnight, in that he has a purebred vizsla mom and a lab dad. Apparently breeding those two types together produces an uncommonly talented pointer/hunting dog who is also playful and good with kids. We haven't yet picked out his name. But now we are back to having two dogs, both within a week of age of each other.

Pics:


Here he is! One hour after getting here, he's already taking a break in the cool of a backyard bush shade.... The name is still a tossup. One popular version making the rounds this morning is "Jack Bauer". Hmmmmm.




Death Match: Two puppy enter--one puppy leave...



These two don't mess around. Interesting how right out of the birthing canal these little guys already have the genetic disposition to go for the throat when play-fighting. Nothing more serious than some initial nipping and biting, and playful tuggin'. You know--just getting to know each other. Much like southern cousins meeting for the first time at the family reunion...



All differences aside, they call it a draw and jaunt out to explore the backyard together....

I think we are going to have blast watching these two grow up together. Cute little pups who will grow into good looking dogs. The kids are over the moon...

Hopefully I'll have a job soon, so we won't have to be looking at doggie du jour recipes come September :-) . Mwahaha.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Job stuff in Colorado...

Well, I just wrapped up an intensive 4 hour interview process for a management position at a Pueblo, CO distribution center. I am sitting in the Colorado Springs airport waiting for my flight home.

I think overall it went OK, but my rust (on finally being on the other side of the interview process) sure shows. Round one was EHHH. Rounds 2 & 3 were much better. I should hear back from them in a week or so. I am not holding my breath too much--of the three of us flown in to interview for this position, one of the gents had a super background for this particular position, having managed an entire warehouse already, for Intel. That and he had a masters degree. Meh. I'd love to get this offer, but truth be told I am not entirely holding my breath. Guess I'll see...

Fingers crossed!

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Young Men's Hike in the Nebo mountains

Picking up a new puppy was not the only new and interesting (OK maybe not so interesting for you, gentle reader...) we've done the last 24 hours.

I just got back from a 'grueling' 6 mile hike up one of the Nebo Canyon spurs withe the young men of the ward, two of which I claim to be raising.

We had a blast. The trail heads up concurrently with the Spring Creek, which this time of year is busily going about the business of shuttling the snowpack runoff down the canyon. The water level made the hike interesting. The trail typically sits inside the dry spring bed, so natch, with the waters coming down, a good deal of our hike was spent crawling along the side of the water, flailing at the loose shale rock and extruding roots to keep from falling in.

Andrew took great pleasure at laughing at anyone who got the slightest bit wet, so it was quite satisfying to see him do a flailing, windmill-churning back flop into the water on the way back down the mountain. Thankfully, I had already removed my camera from the backpack he was wearing, and was able to document the sopping wet aftermath.

Boys had a blast, and knocked out some compass reading requirements for a merit badge or two. The total trip time took about 4 hours. I came home relatively unscathed, but not completely dry. In crossing the creekbed, a dry downed log, serving as my pseudo bridge, snapped under my weight and gave way, buckling into the water and taking my ankle with it. Luckily this is my trick tennis ankle, and winding it around 360 degrees is my party specialty. So while I am now ever so sore and limping like the Elephant man, I managed to get off the mountain alive and in one piece. And no one had to fireman-carry me out. Or call in a rescue helicopter. Or leave me for the bears to eat.





New puppy....

Well, our "dogsickness" finally overcame us the other night, and we broke down and picked up a beautiful little black lab puppy from a family here in Nephi. Their lab had a litter of ten, of which 7 survived. We had to pick between the final two, and settled on the "runt" of the litter--a little girl we promptly named Midnight. I know, I know, points for creativity all around. She is a jet black purebred (yet unpapered) lab, and is frickin' adorable. We've had her for 24 hours now and the kids are in love. She trots after them everywhere, nipping ankles and cuddling every chance she gets. Here's a few pics...






Saturday, June 21, 2008

Naked eating Cheetos....

this be me in a while if I keep myself off the job market for too much longer...


Naked Eating Cheetos - Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, Ron White & Larry The Cable Guy

Love this comedian, Paul F. Tompkins

What did you do in the Great Summer of '08, Daddy?

Saturday morning. Prior to "headin' North" (Nephi vernacular for goin' up to Utah County) for Liam's birthday party at Chez Palmer de Springville, I decided to do the monthly camera dump. I picked a select boring few to post here. Basically from a couple weeks ago, when we thought we'd head up the Nebo Loop to explore Payson Lakes. Hey--we though-- it's June! It'll be brilliantly warm! Not. Good thing Agi helpfully pointed out that, despite it being 80 degrees in Nephi, she could still see the snowpack up range. So we packed sweaters and blankets just in case. Good call, Eubanks. It dropped 35 degrees on the drive up and was plenty chilly.

Beautiful area though! Maybe by late July it will reach 65 degrees....

Also kicked in a couple pics of Ashton enjoying the dual slipinslide I set up in the backyard....

Enjoy....


..........................Behold, the Cracka Waterpark......................







Right out of a Norman Rockwell, right?



Ali: TAKE ME HOME NOW!!!! I'M COLD!!!!!




Purty...........




Andrew overlooking Utah Lake to the North

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Global Warming Clip of the day...

Courtesy the gents at South Park.... Still the place for the best left-lampooning satire on the web. This clip is clean, for those of you who wonder--well worth viewing!!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Cool story on new Filipino singer for JOURNEY

Found this video the other day on youtube-AWESOME STORY! Also reminded why Journey was one of the best bands to listen to in the car when I wanted to stay awake on long road trips... This whole story is pretty compelling. This guy sounds just like Steve Perry, the original Journey lead singer, only BETTER.


Spreading the Gospel of Coldplay...

Took a break this morning from sending out the umpteenth resume to the umpteenth possible employer on the umpteenth jobsite (I moved well past Monster and HotJobs to include CareerBuilder, TeleportmyJob, and about a jillion other sites...) to listen to the new Coldplay album. It had been pre-ordered a couple months ago and I finally got the download notice last night. WOW. Awesome stuff. Really really strong album. these guys are perilously close to kicking U2 out of the top heavy-rotation slot on my ipod.

Sweet stuff-particularly the tracks Viva La Vida and Death and All His Friends.

If you have not yet joined the Church of Coldplay, highly recommended that you do so. Pretty sure one can maintain memberships in both. Each album has been better than the previous...



In other fun news we had our Ward's annual "Movie in the Park" night, last night. Our activity chairman runs a mobile party-planning/entertainment business, so once a year he sets up all his movie gear and snack stations in the Nephi park and treats the ward to a big screen movie experience. It was a blast--the whole ward came out with blankets and lawn chairs and watched National Treasure 2, and had nachos, popcorn, candy and soda while just kicking back and visiting with everyone. I have decided that small towns are awesome. Sure big cities have the theater, opera, 24 hour Chinese takeout/delivery and a huge section of town dedicated to drugs and hookers, but where else but a small town of 5000 people can an entire group commandeer a public park, with the cities blessing, to openly flout Hollywood copyright restrictions and put on a Dolby Digital show for the ward? SWEETNESS.

Agi and realized again what a cool place we've moved to--just sitting there in the cool dark of the evening chatting with our new neighbors, while all the neighborhood kids played together on the park equipment, and all the young men ran around shooting each other with marshmallow blowguns fashioned out of PVC pipe and duct tape. We met a new set of Catholic neighbors who came out to have fun as well (we are now no longer the newest family in the neighborhood) and we'll have fun with them talking about about becoming the fish out of water--they being the only Catholics in a sea of Mormons, and us just coming from a place where we were the only Mormons in a sea of Catholics, albeit non-practicing ones...).

Small-town life rules. Nights like last night make up for paying a little more at the grocery store or only having one Mexican restaurant to choose from instead of 10. We love it here.

On a related note--In the interest of ensuring we can stay in this awesome small town--I'd like to ask you all to kindly include us in your prayers and fast next month. I'm not one to typically ask for anything, but we could use the extra help and support your thoughts, prayers, and fasts could provide. I really need to find a job, and it is getting a little frustrating dealing with the non-success I've been finding in the past few weeks. I have come to realize I am likely not going to get anywhere on the "non-strength" of my own spiritual efforts, so please add your efforts to my own little weak ones. THANKS.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

weight update...

Just a quickie note--finished my ten day fast last night (celebrated with a decidedly unhealthy grilled cheese sandwich) and the final tally was 235! I lost a solid net 17.5 pounds in 10 days, after regaining 3 pounds in water overnight. I kinda sorta min-broke the fast Tuesday at noon, when, in having a business lunch with an old colleague, ordered a salad w/shrimp on it. So that alone probably prevented me from dropping the additional 2 pounds.

BUT HEY! 17 pounds in ten days... Fruits and veggies until Sunday night, and then I'll do another 10 day fast. I have also started my local gym membership at Nephi's one fitness center (for a small town, its pretty nice) so I'll be hitting the treadmill and weights every day as well. Agi is now on Day four of her 7-day fast, and feeling pretty good.

I have a preliminary weigh-in & physical with the National Guard on July 2nd at Camp Williams, to keep that option open while I explore this COlorado possibility with the Target DIstribution Center in Pueblo. I should be wrapping up the next ten day fast about a week before that physical, so with the exercise as well I should be in pretty good shape for it. At least that is the plan.

Speaking of the COlorado job, I had a great second phone interview yesterday and should know more by next week. Heck of a commute, if that pans out, but the pay is NICE and I'd have the option of having a three-day work week. If it doesn't pan out, I feel pretty good about going back to the Guard, freshening up my skills there, learning a new language, and going full-time. Decisions, decisions...

Saturday, June 7, 2008

musings on weight loss...

Update time...

As the title states, this will be a short entry on the my recent thoughts of weight loss. As everyone who knows me knows, ever since leaving the Utah National Guard and parking myself for good portions of the day behind a desk in 2003, I've ballooned up like crazy. Basically from 200 pounds to 250. Yecch. Now that I am home and contemplating the future (including a very possible return to the guard full-time), I am looking at ways to quickly and efficiently drop some poundage.

We live next to the Nephi City cemetery, which has 1.5 miles of wide, shaded, walking space, so a round trip from my house, through the cemetery and back, runs just over 3 miles. It makes for a nice brisk walk, and I am getting up to the point where I'll actually jog it. For now though, its a nice 45 minute power walk. Still found it to be too slow in helping me drop weight, so I am adding to it with the following:

I've read up a bit on the concept of 'fasting' for better health (spiritual, mental, and right now most importantly--for me--physical) and was intrigued. There is a plethora of info out there supporting the idea that extended fasting (I am not talking the traditional two meal, 24 hour fast that we typically do each month via our church responsibilities) is actually the best thing we can regularly do for our bodies. Basically by giving the entire digestive system a chance to rest and recover from the loads of processed crap we put into it, we emerge refreshed, invigorated, and sporting a sharp mental clarity/acuity that has been lacking.

There are 3-day, 7-day, 10-day, and even 40-day fast period "guides" that are readily available online. I read through them all and decided to really give the ten day fast a whirl.

I started Sunday night, following family dinner at the Cranes. To put it bluntly, for the last 132 hours I have subsisted on a daily diet of lemonade (made of purified water, freshly squeezed lemons, a few tablespoons of pure maple syrup, and a pinch of red cayenne pepper) and a nightly cup of herbal tea. Nothing more. No solid foods whatsoever.

Spartan, it is. I'm getting roughly 800-1000 calories a day, essentially from the maple syrup content of the lemonade, so it isn't like I have completely starved my body into some health danger.

Here's the kicker--after 5.5 complete days of these (halfway through my designated fast period) I feel FREAKING AWESOME. Seriously. Energetic yet calm, incredibly peaceful (no small feat considering the stress in my life recently) and flat out GOOD.

The hardest day was 2-3. That was the point where my body tried to kill me--saying HOLY CRAP PUT SOME FOOD IN MY BELLY! I've gone 24+ hours before with no food, so the end of day two was really the point where I'd hit my natural limit. I pushed through it though, and by mid-day 3, hunger was completely gone. I mean completely. Don't get me wrong, the SMELL of food drives me crazy, but not from hunger. I honestly feel like a have a comfortably full stomach. I read that extended fasts really trend to sharpen your senses as the body purges off all of its built in toxins. I'm not going to speak to the whole "toxin" idea, but I can say that my sense of smell is supercharged. SO the smell of food is particularly intense and inviting, but doesn't induce hunger per se.

At this point I feel like I could take this thing indefinitely. Obviously I am going to hold it to the 10 day period I mapped out, and on days 11,12,13 gradually reintroduce food back into my system, starting with chicken broth and soft fruit, and then building back into a regular diet by the end of day three (post-fast). Its a great chance to press the restart button on my
entire system, and to 'restart' by eating healthily afterward. Fresh fruit and veggies, lean cuts of meat, no junk food, soda, etc...

Now for the kicker--like I said, I am halfway through the 10 day fast--(meaning I'll stop this next Wednesday night (June 11th), and be back to a somewhat normal eating schedule by Sunday the 15th) and I have dropped --in 5 days-- 16 pounds. From 252 to 236. Agi is freaking out. She is claiming there is no way this can be healthy--that much loss in so short a time (frankly it is accelerating now). All I can say is that I feel GREAT. I am still working out in the yard, going for the occasional walk, and playing basketball with the kids. And all I am putting into my body is 8-10 glasses of maple-syrup infused lemon water, additional glasses of water, and a nightly 8 oz. herbal tea.

I have tons of energy. No headaches, no other aches, no weird or out of the ordinary body issues, nothing. And a real serene (I cringe at saying it--but 'zen-like') outlook right now. In a nutshell I feel fine. No, more than fine. Great. Outstanding. I even had a previously scheduled mini-physical checkup for a health insurance policy on day three of my fast, and I came through with flying colors--totally normal heart rate, blood pressure, etc...

So. I'll throw another entry on Wednesday after I finish with the final tallies of my ten-day fast. I had hoped to lose 10 pounds in 10 days. NOW it is looking like I could easily lose 20+. In ten days. Yowza!