Oops! I Did It Again!

The plague of my cooking skills has returned...only temporarily.

This was supposed to be one side of another grilled cheese sandwich!

So I just buttered another piece of bread and slapped it on there in its place. Don't worry. It was still tasty, I'm just a little worried about Dinner Group this week!

Love,

Anonymous Arsenist No. 909

California Coast via CYCLE!

I was invited by my good friend Dan Ricks to go with him, his family and some friends on an adventure of a lifetime this July! We rode our bikes 365 miles from just south of San Francisco at Half Moon Bay to Santa Barbara at 70 plus miles a day in five days, camping every night all along the coast! It was so long, and so challenging, but so beautiful, and so rewarding that words cannot do justice of describing the experience. But I will attempt to describe it by means of photographs I took. Unfortunately, it was difficult to get the peloton to stop for every breathtaking scenic view because there were MANY!... but I stopped and took some pictures anyway. So here they are:

We ended our first day at Monterrey Bay and our campsite was right next to these strawberry fields... Ooooh they smelled so sweet combined with the salty air from the ocean!

The four young dudes: Jess, Dakin, Dan, and me

Here we saw these pelicans diving into the water and dolphins jumping out of the water! Seriously!

I think the lady who was walking by who we asked to take our picture said this is called "Lovers' Point" or something... It's in Monterrey, home of John Steinbeck.

This is the "Lone Cypress" found along 17-Mile Drive at Pebble Beach.

This just looks like a pirate ship should be berthed here!

Of course I had to stop and take a picture of the beautiful bridge! What can I say, I'm a Civil Engineer at heart!

We had to ride up that road... see how it curves around that mountain? We had to climb that!!

King of the Rock!

At the end of the last day, which included 92 miles... we were pooped!

"Crazy Woman Driver"

I went for a little jaunt on my bicycle on Friday and everything was going just fine and dandy... until I was about 4 blocks away from my apartment on University Avenue when from right out of nowhere a minivan comes and cuts me off to make a right turn into a business park. I was forced to slam on both brakes, all the while screaming at the top of my lungs, partially out of pure insanity/fear of getting clobbered by a vehicle 100 times my size and partially just to get the driver's attention. The van made the turn and I miraculously made my way around the rear of it without crashing. As I passed I looked at the driver to give them the stink eye for being so reckless and possibly even to give a certain hand gesture if it appeared that they did it out of contempt; however, the driver was off looking in another direction! Sure enough, it was a woman apparently lost and looking for an address.

What I believe is far worse and more dangerous than someone purposely trying to be rude, such as dear Cruella (above), is a clueless driver who has no idea of her/his surroundings and the heinous offenses they nearly commit every day. So, here's my plea to all drivers out there: don't be stupid like the crazy woman minivan driver!

Finding Hope

We all remember the calamity of 9-11-01. We probably all remember where we were and we definitely remember what we felt. This man remembers too because he was there! So, if he can find peace in relation to the events of that day, then so can we! God does live and He is mindful of even the little sparrow. He cares for us because we're His children and because He loves us!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkWc_EKLs4E

WRONG WAY!

Sometimes I think I'm taking a short cut by walking through the BYU Bookstore to get to the Wilkinson Center. Although it may be a shorter distance than walking around to the front entrance, don't be deceived! It's a LIE! I hate it when I forget this and I seem to forget it rather often! Skinny hallways and a ridiculous throng of people equals a recipe for frustration.

If you're like this California driver and don't like being stuck in traffic, take my advise: just go around to the West side of the building. Save yourself a multitude of nasty thoughts for ignorant and hecka-slow people who decided they'd just mosey along for a delightful stroll through the aisles of the bookstore. You're much better off. Trust me.

Thank you for letting me vent. And if you know of any other campus time-savers that are good to know, please feel free to vent back. I'm done now.

Reflections of a Recovering Arsenist

I can't help but notice.

It's happened too frequently of late to ignore.

My food deserves better treatment...

I usually take pride in my food preparation skills. My pancakes are always perfectly golden. My grilled cheeses turn out just right. But twice now in the last two weeks have I done something that I NEVER do... I burned my food! And when I say "burned," I don't mean a little crispy around the edges. I mean UNFIT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION! I mean by the time I'm done with it, the food looks like something you put on the BOTTOM of a grill that actually COOKS the food!

Really, they're just two isolated experiences. The first being when I was making a grilled cheese and since our stove takes forever to heat up, I walked away from it for a bit to do something else and completely forgot about it. When I came back downstairs, smoke was billowing from the stove and the one side of the sandwich was completely black! But, don't worry I still used the other half and made a "half" grilled cheese! The second was the other night when I was lazy and had a few taquitos left over so I put them in the oven to heat up. I was supposed to bake 'em for 9 minutes but by the time I got back it had been a good 45 or 50! They were rock hard all the way through. Not even the middle was edible!

Okay, so the moral of the story I think is I need to vow not to leave my food unmonitored, or just make food that actually requires my complete attention so I don't walk away. Either way, I am penitent and ready to start anew!

Ready or not, here I come Dinner Group!!!