Sabbatical...

Probably the best thing about working for Intel, is the sabbatical program. Every 7 years of work, you get a 2 month sabbatical, this can be added to with vacation time to take almost 4 months off work! Pretty awesome that a company so big still follows through with this. As your time of eligibility aproaches, it's pretty much all anyone talks about.

Most people travel to far away lands, spend time with friends/family, work on that home project that you've been meaning to get to, or a favorite hobby. We'll my manager is coming back from his next week, and tradition is, you "decorate" or make a mess in the person's cube for when they get back. Might not be the most productive way to get back to work after being gone for months, but can't change that now...

Well my boss has been spending most of his sabbatical up in Northern Arizona at his cabin and with his family, and has been on a few different hunting trips. He's currently still up there Elk Hunting with his bow right now. So as for decorations we decided to wallpaper his office with hunting targets/hay/leaves/camouflage, this wasn't quite enough and needed a little more... So I went online and found some pictures of a Elk and a Deer, used a software program to trace them out and cut them out using a piece of equipment to make these cardboard cut outs.

The Elk is walking through the middle of his office just past the storage cabinet, the deer is jumping out, and since he hadn't killed anything yet, all the arrows we cut out are missing. Should find out Monday if he actually got anything or not, and we might have to do some re-arranging...

PS: I'm Eligible July '11, not that I'm counting or anything...

Challenge...

So, after a lot of travel and even more drinking lately. I decided at the airport in Ft. Walton, FL with some help from a friend (my sponsor, haha), that my liver needed a break. That was a good Yuengling though. And I decided to stop drinking!

I wasn't sure if I'd put anything up on the Blog cause I hate to fail and wouldn't want to admit it if I cracked. But it's been 2 weeks now. I survived 2 hockey games, lots of drinking after games, especially after wins. A Cardinals tailgate, which drinking water while tailgating is horrible and definitely not as much fun... As well as today's Cardinals/Rams game, which in the 4th qtr the Cardinals almost gave up the lead, 3 or 4 times! If that doesn't make someone want to drink I don't know what would? And a couple of nights out with friends, who doesn't need a DD...

Pretty weird not having a beer every now and then. I saw a commercial the other day for Miller Light (I don't even like Miller Light), where the guy orders with his Iphone, got a little jealous. Reminded my of Henry's in downtown Portland, maybe that was part of it too. I've also got a bottle of Marshall Sundown Wheat, and a special Rogue beer I picked up a few weeks ago on the bottom shelf of my fridge that clink together everytime I open/close the door. So frustrating.

The exception to this is gonna be holidays and special occasions. Glass of wine at Thanksgiving/X-mas. But if I can last till New Years then I'll consider it a success...and who knows, maybe even keep it going till my b-day(March). Although hoping I don't run into John Krause anytime soon...

So far so good!

Mtn. Biking

So my co-worker Pat talked me into Mtn Biking today. I've been going during lunch or after work for short rides but nothing long. He wanted to do National Trail Coast to Coast, it's 14.6 miles one way, then you turn around and come back... Why not right.

We'll we made it about 1/3 of the way and it was already 11am, (Cardinals game at 2) so I decided to bail and take Telegraph Pass to Desert Classic, good move cause I was home by 1, and he was out until almost 4...

Here's a few pics of the views from the top, pretty awesome views of Phx, amazing looking West and seeing the Cardinals stadium, then looking right and seeing Chandler. Damn I'm a long way away from the Nest... The top one with the guys walking around. Thats the infamous waterfall, still trying to master that one, have a feeling I will be for awhile...

Update/FL Wedding

Wow.

So I haven't posted since 8/24, I know, bad! Facebook took over my life, but I'm gonna make an effort to split my time between blogging and facebooking, maybe...

So it's been a crazy, of the last 5 weekends I've been in Phx 1. First was Duane's Bachelor Party in Tulsa/Norman, OK, then my dad's wedding/10 yr high school reunion, then my 1 weekend off, then the SF Weekend - Anton's 30- B-day, saying goodbye to the SF Tsudama's(moving to Australia), Halloween, meeting up with Jenny (Becky's friend from OK) - lastly just got home from FLO-Rida, emphasis on the FLO... for Duane and Becky or EZ-B as we've nicknamed wedding at the Sandestin Resort. Yhew, that was a lot.

So there's way to much to post so I'm just gonna throw some pictures on here I collected from the wedding and start fresh... enjoy, we did!

Jumping...

What is it about jumping into something that is so exciting when your a kid? As you can tell from the number of pictures here, Jadon wouldn't stop jumping off the boat. He actually got a little mad when we told him it was time to stop and we were gonna move on. Don't get me wrong, I jumped in, but not 20 times in a row!

Be a kid again today and jump into something unexpected....

What's your best/worst jumping story?

I remember as a kid we went to visit Mazatlan, Mexico for spring break. I don't think my parents expected it to be such a college scene, but as a 10 yr old boy it was pretty cool! We went to a different pool that was seperate from the college kids, but it had a bunch of rocks in it that you could climb up and jump off of. One time, after a few of the smaller jumps, I built up the courage to go to the highest rock, it was a pretty good jump, and there were a few rocks below it that you had to clear. I pushed off a little too hard and slipped, falling through the air, I thought for sure I was gonna hit the rocks. Luckily, near miss and I swam away without a scratch.

Lesson learned : don't push too hard for the things you want or they might slip away...

What to do when there's no hockey...

Hockey season is done. We lost in the first round of the playoffs. But we finished in 2nd place for the regular season, which was an accomplishment considering we finished 2nd to last the season before. We don't start up again until after Labor Day weekend so what to do now?

Well there's Cardinals pre-season. Overall I thought they looked pretty good. We lost to the Chargers but the Cards starting D is still yet to give up any points. Offense has a few kinks but that will iron out with a few more practices... Hoping Wells gets to play this Friday against the Packers.

Boating, is another great option. So Sunday, which was also Jason's b-day was another great day on the lake. 3rd day on the lake in 2 weeks, I almost feel like I'm back in high school again.

Happy B-day to Jason... Jadon gave him a great present and wanted to swim in the water, I think he wanted to impress Camden with his jumping ability. Which impressed us all, more on that to come soon...

Hockey Playoffs

For some reason the list still has us in 3rd place, but if you look at the pts total we should be 2nd. By 1 point! We play the Alcohooligans tonight, and the Scorpions next week! So are last two games of the season are huge. The top 4 teams go into the playoffs for the league champ, so we really don't want to go in as #4 having the play the Iceholes first.

I'll update sometime Sunday...

UPDATE...

So we beat the Alcoholigans in an overtime win, so they get 1 point but not losing in regulation. We scored our 2nd point to tie the game with 2.3 seconds left! It was a sweet win. So here's the situation... I think? I'm pretty sure were tied with the Alcoholigans for 2nd place with 24 points and the Scorpions are now in 4th with 21. Since we beat the Alcoholigans, we have the tie breaker which puts them in 3rd. The Alcoholigans play the Iceholes (36 points) so they should lose next week. The Scorpions have 2 games left, 1 Friday, then 1 against us on Sat. So I think it's a pretty safe bet that we'll get at least 3rd.

Playoff's start Aug. 7th/8th, if we split those then we play again on the 14th, with the next round starting on the 15th.

Good times...

NFC Champ Camp...

Oh Yeah... I can't wait! I'm so excited for the NFL season to start, there's been very little news lately on the Cardinals or NFL at all. They're all on vacation until next Wed. when they report for training camp. The first official practice is a week from today. Thinking about making the trip, we'll see...

4th of July

Amy/Jason/Jadon had their annual 4th of July Party at the house, it was great. Jason rented a huge tent to put up in the backyard this time, it gave us a lot of shade, which was nice when we weren't in the water.

Amy made over 600 jello shots, since there only a few people eating any we still had a few left over. In fact I was over there the other day and there are still some left... Is it bad to take a jello shot at noon?

Here's a few pictures.

Mexico...day 7

That earlier post may have come out of no where for some of you... I haven't been blogging much lately. I finished Jury Duty and was getting back into work mode after ~10 weeks off, blogging took a hit.

I'm in Mexico, Amy/Jason/Jadon and I flew down last Fri, almost a week ago. To San Carlos, Mexico to stay at Jason's parents beach house. Which is pretty much the coolest place ever to go for a vacation. I highly recommend it to anyone who gets the chance!

Our day usually starts out with a little snorkeling or getting the sea-doo's/canoe launched in the ocean, then some pool time to rinse off (I've started showering at the outdoor shower by the ocean, there's shampoo and soap, so why not?). Then a little tv time, usually chosen by Jadon so it's either The Incredibles, Bolt, Cars. Then some quad riding on the beach and make our way over to The Soggy Peso (a sweet beach bar with killer margarita's, crab tostada's and guacamole), that will take us through lunch and into the early evening, although we are sometimes seen at closing time back at the Peso. Jason and I have shut it down twice now I think. Back to the beach house, a nap is in order, followed by some more ocean/pool time. Then dinner, Kate cooks up some mean food is all I have to say. Follow up dinner with some beers watching the sun set, maybe a movie after it's dark and the Peso is closed. That a pretty typical day in San Carlos. Through in an occasional movie during the day (neighbors home theater), half day boat trip, 1hr massage for <$50, trip into town for gas or beer, maybe even lunch in town. And you can make a week long vacation go by pretty quick!
Tomorrow's our last full day in Mexico, here's to trying to get all of the above in one day...


A few pics...

What else do I need to say? Unfortunately it wasn't open yet :(

One of our snorkeling friends...

Jadon calls this a geegu fish

Jason and I - just about sinking the canoe, we were full of water but I was still using the sail to push us to shore.

Yeah, the kid likes goggles and snow boots (which work pretty well in sand) , whatever fits!

Can you say Sailfish?

Trolling through the Sea of Cortez, we hooked a 7ft, 70lb sailfish! Jason started it and I finished it. We now have ~40lbs of sailfish meat and no good recipes...yet!

Rock Stars??? Really???

Do I really work for this company? I think I might be in the wrong place...

Best Hockey Game ever...

Ok, probably not in all of hockey. But for the Hot Shots this was probably our best game we've ever played. It's usually us on those lopsided victories. I'm not sure what it was but the whole team was firing on all cylinders. It was a great feeling. That and I got another goal and an assist. I scored in the first 16 seconds of the game, who does that? We got the puck from the beginning, one of the other guys on my line took a shot and the goalie dropped it and as it was sliding away from him down the center of the ice, it stopped right at the end of my stick. One of there defenders was between us so I don't think the goalie could see what was going on, and I dropped it right between his legs. Pretty sweet! It was a great start to a even better game...

Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers out there. We celebrated by going to The Farm at South Mountain, it was really good. A little warm by the time brunch rolled around but the food was great and the place seemed really cool too. Check it out here. They had probably the best Bloody Mary I've ever had, extra spicy! I think they used there home grown tomatoes to make the juice. Sweet. After Brunch we went to the Dbacks game, we only got to stay for a few innings, Jadon's not really into naps anymore and today was pushing the limit with all the excitement, it's all right I got the tickets from my dad for tomorrow, so I'll be back.

PS: Jury Duty is on phase II now...

Dillard/Shufeldt Wedding

Here are some pics from the wedding. There was a lady from the newspaper at the reception taking pictures. I'm not sure but some of the pictures look a little off center to me.

At least she got quite a few pictures of Charlie and Amanda, and the cake of course...

Jadon's B-day

What a weekend... I can't believe it's already almost over. We had a hockey game on Saturday, we won! So now were 4-2 on the season. Not bad since we finished 5-15 last season. The best part of it was I got the game winning goal with 6 minutes to go in the game! 2-1. Check out the stats here. We also took a team photo since we had the whole team there for the first time...

Sunday was Jadon's 3rd B-day party at the train park in Scottsdale. He loves trains, and cars, and green. It was a beautiful day, maybe a little warm. Jadon was loving it, all his friends around playing games and riding the train and carousel. He didn't take a nap today he was so excited! Here's a few pics I snapped.

Jadon playing Cat and Mouse, he was the Cat.

"Soccer, thats my game" - it's crazy to think he's only 3.

I spent Sunday morning out at South Mountain, Mtn. Biking with my boss and another co-worker. I figured it might be a good idea to spend some time, since I haven't seen him in about 4 weeks. Jury Duty is going good, I think were still ahead of schedule...

Little Rock, Ar-Kansas

This weekend was my cousin Charlie's wedding in Little Rock. The picture on the right was a huge billboard outside the airport. I thought it was pretty hilarous! Jadon and I were waiting at the airport while Jason dropped the rental car. Jadon had his 3rd b-day while we were there, they were supposed to go to the Zoo, but he was having too much fun playing with his cousin Luke.

The wedding was pretty amazing. My cousins wife is Amanda Dillard, grandaughter of Dillard's, so it was a huge wedding. Her dress was from Vera Wang, and the cake icing matched the lace of the dress. Not to mention the cake was 5.5 feet tall. I didn't take any pictures, but I'm sure I'll see some from the photographer in a few weeks so I'll try and post some of those. Either that or I think were gonna be in the Arkansas Post Gazette. I was an usher so we were busy bringing the 350 people into the church. And I think the reception at Little Rock CC had more people working than guests.

Dbacks game vs. Colorado Rockies

So last week, I got lucky and Jury Duty got cancelled early. Apparently one of the guys had a softball accident so they cancelled court for the day. I didn't have an issue with it because Mr. Brown had an extra Dbacks ticket for me. Wednesday's are usually day games, so I was planning to go for a little bit, but got lucky and was able to stay for the whole thing. It was a pretty good game, and luckily they finally scored in the 7th inning and won the game for Haren.

Our seats were awesome! They are the UofA season tickets, which are front row behind the Dbacks dugout. I snapped a few pictures of the game, it was pretty cool being so close to the players, all the kids would run down to try and get a game ball when they came off the field, it was pretty funny.

NASCAR

Wow...

It's been awhile since my last post. I've got some catching up to do, so I'll make this short and sweet. Last Friday, Amy/Jason/Jadon and I all went to a NASCAR race. It was the big adventure of the day for Jadon, he was super excited to go. We were telling him that we were going to see Lightning McQueen in the Piston Cup...

1 week down, 14 to go

Well we finished our first week of Jury Duty! I have to say the legal process in America is ridiculous. No wonder it's gonna take 15 weeks to get through this thing. Anyways, get to spend more time downtown, which I'm no all that familiar with, plus I got my first paycheck from the state of AZ, $32! I think I should go back to Vegas with all this new income I have.

Hot Shots lost on Saturday, I guess it should have been expected. We couldn't go the whole season without a loss, and hopefully this will get everyone fired up for the next game 4/25, but I'll be in Little Rock.

Sunday did a 20mi ride at S. Mtn. it was a great day, starting to warm up a little now, but it's still nice in the mornings. This was only the 2nd time I've done Desert Classic start to finish, I was a little worried about making it to the game, but I had plenty of time. Amy/Jason/Jadon and I went to the Dbacks vs. Dodgers game Sunday afternoon to celebrate Easter, unfortunately the Dbacks couldn't get us the win, but it was a decent game and Jadon the star of the show had fun at least until the 6th inning when the candy wore off...

Hot Shots...win again #3

Wow.

Hockey team this season is playing at a whole new level. Last season we started out 0-4, we've had 3 games this season and we've won 3 games! Thats already got half the wins we had last season from the first 3 games.

Check out the game stats here.

I haven't seen any pics yet, but I'll post some when I get them.

This afternoon, I went for a mtn. bike ride(check out the new trail posted). I was supposed to go this morning but after the win I went out with the team to celebrate and well celebrated a little too much. I just can't say no to Irish Car Bombs. So I had to pass on the early morning ride and went out by myself this afternoon. S. Mtn wasn't too busy so the trails were clear.

Not a bad weekend...

Jury Duty

Thats right ladies and gentlemen, I can't really say much. Other than I'll be a juror for 15 weeks on a captial punishment case... I'll be ready to share details at the annual 4th of July celebration, the expected end date is July 2nd! Anybody wanna meet up downtown PHX, I'll be there a lot for the next few weeks.

Hot Shots...win again

First off, thanks everyone for the b-day phone calls/txt messages and of course all the cards and gifts. My b-day celebration started on Thur; my dad, Ellen, her daughter Lexi, A/J/J and I all went to dinner and a Phx Coyotes hockey game. I'd never been to a NHL game, it was a lot of fun. Way better than on tv. I think any sporting event is better in person, just a personal opinion. We all stayed at Amy's that night and woke up to banana bread muffins with candles and another happy b-day from Jadon, that could loves to sing happy b-day. I was planning on taking the day off but unfortunaetly some work stuff came up and I got forced into it, what can you do? Then Kate and Rashid came into town Fri and we watched the UofA game, or the beginning at least, another cake and more candles and happy b-day song again! I met up with some friends from work/Matt and Kamie and had a Guinness at Murphy's Law, an Irish Pub in DT Chandler. I'm still not drinking too much after Vegas. But I did fall off the wagon for my b-day!

Saturday = yard day, I was hoping to go to Tempe Arts Festival but had too much stuff to do in the backyard. Sprinkler issues and the yard guy was gonna charge me $400, I'll do it myself... I had my first hockey game of the season at 4pm (missed last week due to Vegas), this week we played a really good team that had gone to the Championship last season. Without going into full detail we won (2-0); I got a goal, and a 2 min penalty (I really didn't think I hit the guy that hard) it is hockey! They ended up coming back and tying it in the end, so it went to a shoot out, our goalie rocks and he blocked all 3 shots! Afterwards we celebrated at Teakwoods.

This was right before my penalty, wish we got a pic of the guy on his ass. I'm on the far left.

Celebrating after the game at Teakwoods (Mark - Defense and Jill - Forward/coaches wife)

Sunday morning, I woke up and went for a Mtn. bike ride, check out the trail map on the side. It was a pretty long ride today. I got seperated from the two guys I was out there with, but somehow we all ended up meeting up a trail crossing, wierd. I'm pretty beat now, so just gonna relax, maybe take Mia to the dog park...

PS: Best new app for Iphone = Remote. I can control Itunes on my computer using my phone - AWESOME...

VEGAS...oh my.

Oh, yeah! This last weekend was the annual trek to Vegas for March Madness. This year was a little different, instead of meeting up at a big ballroom to watch the games we got a cabana and hung out in there and watched the game, swam in the pool, and most of all drank... Did a little gambling, after the super bowl I'm trying to watch the budget, I think I came home about even, or down a bit. My liver has never hurt so bad though, I think my body was about to shut down. We kept drinking those alchoholic slurpies, (brain freeze - creamsicle with everclear) I swear as soon as it hits your lips your out!

I almost forgot (good thing I put a event on my calendar) that I had Jury Duty that I needed to call Tue afternoon to find out if I had to appear on Wed. We'll I appeared, and then some. The good news is that I got to go home around noon today, the bad news. I was selected for a capital punishment case and I have to go back next week for an interview with the judge and attorneys. There expecting the case to go 15 weeks! Thats right, I said 15 weeks. That would be 4 months out of work, wow. More on that later.

Hockey game this Sat. at 4pm. It's our 2nd game this season and I think we've improved a lot since our inaugural season, so it should be a good game!


PS: I've still got my elite eight in the March Madness race, and i have the same final four as Obama...

Park City - Bachelor Party/Ski Trip

So it's taken me a week to put this post together. Taking vacation is great, but coming back to work after being gone isn't so much fun. Even only 2 days off still seems to throw everything into a tailspin. Anyways here it is...

My cousin Charlie from Atlanta is getting married in April in Little Rock, and he had his Bachelor Party in Park City, Utah last weekend. Some may ask why Park City, well it was centrally located to just about everyone, easy to get to (flights into SLC are pretty cheap), and Park City has more of a downtown life than most ski resorts that only offer skiing. The 2 weeks before the trip it has been really warm there so we were a little worried about the snow, but the night before I flew in, it dumped 12 inches. They definitely needed it, and while we got a little snow off and on while we were there, the conditions were pretty good. But we had an awesome time. Even if they do only serve 3.2% alcohol beers...

Here's a few pictures from the trip... Click on the picture to get a larger image. The bottom picture was taken quickly during a late night wrestling match, later on the ninja's came out, but you'll have to call for that story.