We're Married!!!

As of 11:00 am yesterday, Lisa and I are officially married!!! This makes us both very happy. The Countdown to the right has now been replaced with a Countup, in case you ever wonder how long we've been married. :)

Today we already had the first adventure of our honeymoon. We are staying in Cedar City, but we decided that today we would go down to St. George and get some In-N-Out and then pick up some things we would need from Costco. We knew there was a Costco down there, but we forgot to look up where it is before leaving. We decided that we would "figure it out" when we got there. So we we stopped by In-N-Out, but there was a HUGE line. We got there during the lunch rush. So, we decided we would have other opportunities to stop by there, and we would just go to Costco, and not worry about In-N-Out for the time being.

Lisa called 411 to get the phone number to Costco, and then used that number to try to figure out where it was. She got a recording and got to the option that has the address. I wrote it down - 835 N 3050 E, St. George. So, we now had an address, but we still didn't know how to get there. On the phone there was then an option for getting directions, so she chose that option. It said, "From 3050 East, turn right." And that was it. Real helpful.... So, we set out hoping the grid system would lead us to our destination. It was a little difficult at first, since we were on a street that wasn't a number, and all the streets we passed weren't numbers. Eventually we found that we needed to turn east, and so we we headed east for a while. A little while later we found 3050 E so we headed north and figured we would run into Costco. After driving a little longer we found it, and were very happy to get our things there. As we were leaving, we decided to continue north on 3050 E since we both had a sneaking suspicion we would connect back to where started. Sure enough, not even a block later, we spotted In-N-Out. We went completely out of the way to get there. To get to Costco from that In-N-Out, Google suggests the following:



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We, however, went this way:


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What can I say? We like the scenic routes. :)

And the champion is...

My aunt Kristen got Dan and I some pretty awesome games. One of the games that she got us is Battleship. Dan and I decided to play this game the other night. Dan was telling me all about how he had played that game with Tad on their Awesome Asia Adventure...on the airplane. He made a point of letting me know that he dominated that game...so I was pretty pleased with myself when I totally blew him out of the water. :) He made up some excuse for losing, however his excuse was simply invalid and in the end, I won. :)

We also played Connect 4. For those of you who haven't seen the new version of Connect 4, allow me to explain a bit about the new improvements to the game. They have 3 different ways to play...the Classic version, which is the version most of us grew up with, Pop out, and Pop 10. Dan and I haven't played Pop 10 yet...we'll try that another day. We did play the Classic version (which Dan has some funny stories to tell you about) and the Pop Out version. I will admit...Dan did beat me a couple times in the Classic version, but I dominated in the Pop Out version. We played the Pop Out version twice and I won both times....partly due to Dan's help. :) In the Pop Out version of Connect 4, you can pop out one of your own colors on the bottom row to shift the row down. Dan decided to Pop Out one of his pieces and he lined up 4 of my pieces on the bottom row in the process. The other time, I simply beat him without his assistance.

So, the win count is as follows: Battleship - Lisa 1 & Dan 0; Connect 4 - Lisa 2 (with a disputed 3rd) & Dan 2. For a grand total of Lisa 3 (or 4...pending the outcome of the disputed game) & Dan 2. Lisa wins!!!!

The Madness

For those of you who follow sports in any degree, you know that March Madness is upon us and that the tournament is a mere 36 hours away! This excites me greatly. The NCAA Tournament is one of my most favorite things. All the upsets and surprises, all the so-called experts being so wrong in their analysis, the bracket challenge winners being the person who picked winners based on how much they liked the mascots..... It's so much fun!

Right now I have the challenge of filling out my bracket. This is a science for me, and every year I try to refine the process for improved results. I look over the bracket Sunday night when it comes out, and begin getting some initial impressions. Then, just because I love the tournament so much, I read all sorts of articles and watch all sorts of TV about it to get some more analysis for my picks. It's not until the Wednesday night before it starts that I'll actually make the picks. I have hard-fast rule of not changing picks once they've been made. Once I make the picks I am forbidden to change them, for I know that if I do, my first pick will have been the correct one. I never want to be in that situation, so I wait until I'm ready, and then make my picks.

So, with just one more day to finalize my picks, I think I pretty much know who I'm picking for what games. The hardest decision is going to come regarding my beloved BYU Cougars. I think every year I have picked them to win the first game (which of course I've been wrong on every time :( ), but with unfavorable seedings, I could never pick them past the first round. This year presents a very unique challenge. BYU should (time to knock on wood) win the first game against Florida. If they win that, then, more than likely, they will face Kansas St. in the 2nd round. The vast majority of sources I've looked at say this would be a very good matchup, and I think BYU could pull off the upset with a really good game. If that happens, they will then play the next weekend in Salt Lake City. This is tremendously favorable for them. I think they could beat any possible Sweet 16 team in Salt Lake, which would then put them in the Elite 8. Could I really in good conscience pick BYU to go to the Elite 8? Joe Lunardi of ESPN did. And could I even go as far as putting them in the Final 4? That's what Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated did. I really want to pick them to go far, but I just don't know if I have the guts to do it.

All this pondering and belaboring of picks is all part of the great fun that is March Madness. Regardless of how BYU does or how well I do with my picks, it will still be a lot of fun this next few weeks. So, tell us, how do you make your picks and who do you have in the Final 4? We should have a prize or something for anyone that can get all 4 teams. :)

Bridal Shower

On Saturday afternoon, my awesome aunts threw me a bridal shower. It was fun, and I am very grateful that they were willing to do that for me. First of all, I want to thank everyone that came. I appreciated and enjoyed seeing you there. :)

Over all the bridal shower went very well, there was only one major problem...me...due to a lack of planning I was 15 minutes late to my own bridal shower. I know, I know, I should have planned better. However, all's well that ends well, and as Mormon standard time dictates that everyone should be 15 to 20 minutes late anyways....I was nearly right on time. ;)

I think Dan's favorite gifts would be a toss up between the 2 bottles of Reese's Shell and the sandwich maker thing. :) I had to smile when I opened those because I knew that Dan would like them very much.

Less than 2 weeks left..... :)

Hearing is Everything

Here is a quick funny story from last week. Lisa and I were running some errands, and I hadn't eaten any dinner yet. I was considering stopping by some fast food place or something since none of the food at home was sounding real good. We drove past a Panda Express, and I said, "We could stop by Panda Express." Lisa responded, "Panda Express is good about once a year. Like, right before a _______." Here, Lisa said one thing, and I heard another. She said "parade." I heard "period."


Yeah........ it took my brain a second to realize that wasn't a normal sentence coming from Lisa, and I responded with, "Before what?" She clarified and "parade" made so much more sense. I told her what I had heard, and we had a good laugh about it. Moral of the story? Mishearing things can be very humorous.

Smoking Apple

So the other night, Dan and I went to this little Mom and Pop restaurant with his parents. The place is called The Smoking Apple. Every time we've driven past it, I've looked at it and wondered what kind of place it was. The name always reminded me of Snow White and the poisoned apple. Nevertheless, I was very curious about that place, as was Dan, so we gave it a shot after the very tragic BYU vs New Mexico game. :(

Dan had looked up details on this place a few days before. The reviews looked good, but Dan's mom said that she had never seen many cars there so we were wondering if it would live up to the reviews. When we got out of the car, I could smell the BBQ cooking...it smelled pretty good so I was starting get excited. It was even cooler once we got inside. The owner was there and he explained how things worked there and offered to let us try the different meats. He was a really nice guy. It was cool to be able to talk to the owner. He told us all about the food and how he cooked it and what his favorites were.

Being the creative and adventuresome group that we are, 3 of the 4 of us ordered the pulled pork sandwich. Dan's dad is the only one that branched out and tried the Philly Cheesesteak sandwich. The meat was good and I liked the BBQ sauce too! Dan and I have decided that we need to go back and try the Philly Cheesesteak sandwich sometime.

All in all, this restaurant adventure was a successful one...we may have to find another little Mom and Pop place to try out sometime. If you have any suggestions, let us know!

Shopping Cart Nazi

So, I'm actually supposed to be in bed right now. Shhhh.... Don't tell Lisa. But seeing how I'm having trouble falling asleep, I figured I would share a very short story from when we went grocery shopping at Macey's tonight.

We walk into the store and go over to get a shopping cart. As I'm pulling one out, we overhear this guy talking on his cell phone. He's bringing a cart over to the area where they all are and says in a very annoyed tone, "I'm on my 4th shopping cart...." I found it a little humorous that he was returning a shopping cart, and that somehow 3 others he had grabbed weren't good enough for him. Then as we're leaving that area, we hear him again in the same tone. "Make that 5 now!" After Lisa and I were a safe distance away, we had to laugh to each other about it. I mean, are there really that many shopping carts that are not suitable for you? Sure, I've had a cart here and there with a bad wheel or whatever, but seriously, aren't there more important things to get worked up over? I think you'll still be able to get your Wheaties and re-fried beans just fine in a less than perfect cart. Anyway, Lisa and I had a good laugh about it, and thanked each other for being laid back about those sort of things. It makes me wonder how long he was over there trying to find "the one" before he could actually get his shopping done.