Flashback Friday: Joe Montana and Jerry Rice

With this being the first week of the college football season, and the NFL regular season starting next week, I feel it appropriate to do a Friday Flashback dealing with football.

Football was a pretty big part of my childhood.

No, I didn't play organized leagues (my mom said I was too little, and she didn't want me to get broken; looking at my kiddo pictures, I think she was right), but my dad taught us the rules, took us to BYU and UofU games, and many Sundays were spent watching football after church.

My childhood front yard, aka my first football field

We played family football games in the front yard, where the walkway to the front door was a perfect 50-yard line and the distance felt like 100 yards on our stubby, little kid legs.

My dad was a San Francisco 49ers fan, so my brothers and I were 49ers fans.
And the stars of that time were none other than Joe Montana and Jerry Rice.

Ready to get down to the business of winning Super Bowls

When we played in the yard, it was always Joe Montana at quarterback and Jerry Rice at wide receiver.

I remember being so sad when Joe left for Kansas City (why, Joe? why?!) and later when Jerry headed across the SF Bay to the evil Raiders. Grr.

But at least between those two betrayals there was a period of Steve Young and Jerry Rice.

Just look how happy they are together!

Most football fans have a 'golden age' in their fandom, right? These years were definitely mine.

Thanks for the memories, Joe, Jerry, and Steve!

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Architecture + Spirituality = Places I Want to Visit

We all get the travel bug once in a while.

Sometime I'd like to visit all the sites from CNN's article on 8 religious wonders to see in the US.

Palace of Gold, West Virginia

I've been outside St Patrick's Cathedral in NYC, but not inside.

Happy to see the Salt Lake LDS Temple at #6, which I've been to and in a bunch of times.

Salt Lake Temple, Utah

So I guess I have 6.5 to visit, eh? Who's coming with me?

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A Fine Evening for Mocktails

It's good to get dolled up once in a while and have a fancy beverage.

Especially/even (depending on your view) if that fancy beverage is non-alcoholic.

I met up with some friends at a mocktail birthday party, and we had a great time.

I also was surprised to see a few old friends, including my pal Nancy, who I hadn't seen in 3 years since she moved back to Utah and ditched us DC-ers. Good to see you again!

Cheers to good friends and fine mixed mocktails!

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The USADA - Lance Armstrong's Persistent, and Sadly Successful, Bully

Dear USADA,
I hate your stupid face. At this point, I don't even care if Lance doped. His personal life wasn't perfect. Maybe he was even a jerk. But if you couldn't find one positive drug test or shred of evidence in 13 years, then you failed, not him. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? Lance made Americans care about cycling, and he's been an unparalleled force for cancer research and its awareness. All you've done is weaken my faith in your intentions and ability as a governing body.
With all my broken heart,
A cycling fan

You'll always have 7 TdF titles in my book

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How My Mom Inadvertently Converted Me into a Ryan Gosling Fan

I know a lot of moviegoers are crazy about RyGos.

For a long time, I wasn't.

I loved Remember the Titans, but more because it's a Disney sports movie and I just can't resist those (for example: Miracle, Glory Road, Ice Princess, Cool Runnings, Air Bud, and The Mighty Ducks). Honestly I didn't even remember Gosling was in it until he got famous years later.

Sure, I respected his work in The Notebook. Typical performance by a young hunk in a romantic drama. Nothing special, but he played the role exactly as he was asked to. And the on-screen chemistry between Gosling and Rachel McAdams was undeniable.

A few of his films were decent, but didn't really wow me. I think Ben Affleck or Brad Pitt or a couple other Hollywood fellas could have taken his spot and not much would have changed. For me, these include The Ides of March; Crazy, Stupid, Love; and Blue Valentine.

After I saw Drive (which I enjoyed for its chill soundtrack and testosterone-filled chases), I had a discussion with my mom about RyGos. She had previously been pretty much of the same opinion as me, but she said that he'd won her over with his performance in a somewhat less-known film. She recommended I watch it before setting my position in stone.

So I did.

Lars and the Real Girl was excellent. The story was interesting, the acting was superb, and I loved the small feel of it all. His portrayal of the title character, a man struggling with social interaction (to put it mildly), drew me in from the start and kept me going throughout. I give it two enthusiastic thumbs up.

Alright, I'll admit that thanks to Lars and my mother, I'm on board.

Keep the hits coming, Mr. Gosling.

And let's hope he makes a cameo in an upcoming Step Up iteration with these sweet dance moves.

PS: Due solely to its subject (RyGos), I predict this will be one of my most-read blogposts of the year. You know it's true.

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Flashback Friday: Happy 80th Birthday, LEGO!

This was a big one in my childhood.

My family played with LEGOs a lot.
We built the sets, and often we'd just let our imaginations run wild and make our own structures, vehicles, and random shapes.

And then they made Star Wars LEGO sets. So of course we had to get those.

Have you ever wondered about the backstory for LEGO?
I hadn't.

But here it is in case you're curious.

The LEGO story


Happy 80th birthday, LEGO!

Now who feels like making a LEGO Empire State Building with me?

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My "Go West, Young Man" "Chasing the Sun" Roadtrip

My cross-country drive didn't have the best beginning.

While finishing packing the car, I was taking the base off my TV so it'd fit easier into the car.
The wrench slipped, and I gashed my finger pretty good on the metal base.

It hurt like a bugger, and when I rinsed the blood away, I could see a little bit of bone. That's when I got light-headed and nauseous for a few moments, and decided I couldn't just treat this wound on my own. After getting my wits about me, I headed to the nearest urgent care center in Arlington.

Luckily, the cut was a clean one, and the doctor determined that butterfly bandages were sufficient, thus saving me from getting stitches.

I headed home, finished packing, ran a quick errand or two, surprised Emily at her work (her reaction was priceless), and hit the road for the ~36 hour journey from Washington, DC, to Salt Lake City, UT.

I'm not going to give a lot of commentary on the drive, because it was fairly uneventful.
Except for all the beautiful sights across this great country, of which I'll share a few examples.

Mindy Mazda looked good with three cars on her roof

The view when you're following Horace Greeley's advice to "Go West, young man"
and chasing the sun

America the Beautiful

I'd always wanted to see the Gateway Arch in St Louis, MO;
next time I want to go up inside it to the observation deck 

The view for more hours than I'd care to discuss

The highlight of Nebraska [read about it]

Breathtaking and inspirational

Don't think I'd ever seen such a small train out of the station

After driving for so long, I was very happy to arrive in the evening of my third travel day.

Feels great to be home in Utah!

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Adios to My DC Amigos

If you hadn't heard, I accepted a new position at a small company out in Utah.

Last night we had a little going away gathering, and I was happy to get to see a bunch of friends before taking off to drive across the country.

This is just a sampling of the pictures taken that night. If I posted them all, this post would be ridiculous long. Thanks to everyone for coming and making me feel so loved, and I hope to see you all again soon!

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Emily's Endowment Weekend

Going into an LDS temple is a pretty big deal, so I was excited for Emily when she told me she'd taken the temple prep courses and had a date to receive her endowment in the Washington DC LDS Temple.

(Note: If you want to learn more, here is an article about the LDS endowment.)

Emily's mom came to visit for the weekend and act as Emily's guide in the temple. I was very happy to meet her, as she's actually the first person that I've met from Emily's family.

I picked Emily and her mom up early, so we could get up to the temple to have plenty of time for Emily to buy garments and then for us to head inside and not be stressed for time.

Plus, it gave us time to snap a few pictures before, including this cute one.

After our time in the temple, we had to get a few shots with the special people who came to support Emily in this big step. She is definitely blessed with some high-quality friends.

Since her parents hadn't been able to see the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial when they last visited DC, Emily and I took her mom to check it out. Such a peaceful place, and we appreciated the design of the benches facing toward (for people on the plane) and away from the building (for those on the ground).

We were all pretty tuckered out from having woken up early, so I dropped the ladies off for a quick naptime, and then we met back up a few hours later to see the free 6 pm show at the Kennedy Center.

Emily had looked into it beforehand, and the Philadelphia Jazz Orchestra didn't disappoint. I think I enjoyed watching Emily and her mom taking in the show together as I did listening to the upbeat, expertly-played music and singing.

Feeling quite cultured, we headed down to Old Town Alexandria for some dinner and a more intimate musical setting. Before dinner, we saw my favorite DC glass-player.

After dinner, we hit up the piano bar at Bistrot Lafayette, where we were able to join in the singing and request a few numbers. If you haven't been, you haven't lived. Emily's mom was loving it so much that we felt bad making her leave with us at just before midnight.

My brother Pete and his wife Jordyn had just made the move down to the DC area from Philly, so we met up with them for lunch the next day, and I liked them getting to also meet Emily's mom.

Having finished our lunch, Pete and Jordyn needed to continue unpacking, and Emily's mom wanted to get to the airport, so we dropped her off.

Such an action-packed, entertaining weekend. I wish those kind didn't ever have to end!

(Note: Emily's mom requested that I not post pics of her. Like mother, like daughter, I suppose...)

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