L-O L-O L-O L-O-V-E LOVE

I love food. I can easily pinpoint my favorite food. And that is…CHEESE. Pretty much any cheese. Besides the rotten or foul-tasting/smelling ones (i.e. bleu cheese). But I’m up for trying any cheese, any way you want it—plain slices/cubes/grated, melted, dips, squeaky, soft cheeses—you name it I want to try it. Love it all! Believe it or not, when I was younger, I would ask for my own block of cheese for my birthday. We always had cheese in the fridge, but I wanted my very own. I can’t go a day without it. Believe me I’ve tried…there was a time I thought I may have been lactose intolerant so I decided to stay away from dairy. Yeah right. That lasted maybe a day.

My second love is cereal. So much that I could eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I used to be a pretty picky eater…not so much anymore (and it shows—thank goodness for exercise). If I didn’t like what we were having for dinner, I ate a bowl of cereal. And could have eaten it all day, but my mom restricted me somewhat. Hardly a day goes by without cereal in the AM. I love other breakfast foods, but not for breakfast. Nothing beats a big bowl of cold cereal in the morning…along with a banana. (Gotta have that potassium. I attribute my daily banana eatage in the morning for never having a bloody nose…that’s right Not once. Never. At least not to my knowledge.)

And I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for my real TRUE love. Well that/it/he hasn’t come along. Maybe one day. Maybe. And maybe just maybe he’ll take first place. We’ll see.

Zzzzzzzzzz

Ok so lately I have THE WORST sleeping habits.

For one I don't go to bed til 1, 2...even 3 am. Terrible. But I do make the cut-off 3am.

For two, I can't sleep in anymore. At all. My body is too used to the work week I guess. I don't set my alarm Sat/Sun but I still wake up around 8am. Lame. Maybe if I laid in bed for awhile longer I would fall back asleep--since clearly I do not get enough sleep each night. But I can't lie in bed awake. I get too antsy. Things to do. People to see. Places to go. You get my drift.

For three, as a result I am addicted to napping--anytime, anywhere. Actually I love multiple naps. Even if it's only 10 minutes and I wake up feeling like death--my eyeballs feeling like bowling balls. But still so worth it.

But seriously...

Time to change things. I'm hoping this post will give me motivation to change my terrible habits. Here's to getting at least 6 hrs sleep a night...it's a start.

GOOD night!

*I am so against a blog post without at least one pic...I'll come up with something later. Clearly not going to get 6 hours of sleep tonight but I'll try tomorrow. Really I will.

On a Bicycle Built for Two

Today is a great blogging day...sick in bed.

On my day off yesterday, my friend (Kel) and I rented a tandem bike from BYU and headed up the canyon. Riding a tandem bike is always an adventure…ALWAYS.

I wanted to try riding in the back (I just learned this position is called the "stoker"). I usually take the lead (aka “captain”) because you have steering control. I have tried the back several times, but usually have a "freak-out" moment because I have no control--I want to move the handle bars left and right, but can’t. So we start out on Campus Drive--where the whole world is--where the sidewalks are crowded. Bad idea. Terrible place to attempt the stoker position. Let’s just say I’m sure I made someone’s day…or many. I put my feet up on the pedals. We wobbled forward a few inches and I immediately put my feet down and kept stepping trying to gain balance while Kel was continuing to pedal. I was screaming, she was screaming...basically creating a huge scene and I'm sure some comic relief. Both laughing hysterically (Kel saying that I had better stop or she was going to wet her pants…she’s going to kill me), I had to move to captain's position. But I am proud to say that once we got through the crowded sidewalks, and onto the Provo trail, I moved back to the stoker position…AND…SUCCESS!

Unfortunately…

The trip came to an end early. For the longest time we thought the tire was wobbly. In fact Kel and I conversed back and forth for over an hour about what could be wrong with the bike. Why we didn't get off the bike and check it out at this point? I don't know. I guess we were just having too much fun. But then it got to the point where I thought the whole wheel was going to come off. I had these visions of us flying off the bike and face planting it, or something terrible like that. The whole time I was thinking "we should have taken the helmets, we should have taken the helmets." That's right. We weren't wearing helmets. Not smart. Anyway, we finally decided to stop and get off the bike. And what did we find? A completely flat tire. Upon returning the bike, they inspected it and said it was partly their fault because the spokes were out of whack??? Thank you Jon for rescuing us! We owe you big time!

Reasons one should go on a tandem bike ride:

• · Sick of being unnoticed? Forgotten? Do it…everyone will stare and even smile…especially if you put bright red gloves on
• · Are you sad?...you’ll laugh…non-stop…hysterically…I don’t know why but it happens every time
• · What one change could you make to revitalize your health, relationships, and sense of well being?...Believe it or not, the answer could be a tandem bicycle. It will open up a lifetime of fun, closeness and shared memories.
• · Are you too competitive? Tandeming is the answer - it's the one activity allowing optimal workouts for both of you. Instead of working out alone, holding back or competing head-to-head, you're a team with a common goal. And because tandeming is fun (some would even say romantic), it's quality time worth repeating.
• · Need a date idea? What better way to get to know someone than riding with them on a completely ridiculous and presumably extremely complicated face-to-face tandem bike? This bike is the result of a year's worth of hard work by a Taiwanese inventor. It does include some nice features like being able to rotate the seats so it can be ridden back-to-back when the first date goes awry.
• · …and there’s the notion that you should try everything once (you’ll get hooked believe me)

Now that's what I call B-A-U-tiful

I absolutely adore Stewart Falls. And this last trip end of September was by far my favorite! I have never seen so many colors up there. We hiked it early afternoon on a weekday so there was really no one there…besides a few friendly femme/gay guys (I am guessing the latter—99% sure). They were so so friendly and insisted on taking a few (ok it ended up being far more than a few) pics for us.

I hike it every year—multiple times—and it never gets old. Never. If you’ve never hiked it before, it’s a shame. And you must go there soon. It’s an easy 2-mile in 2-mile out (obviously) hike. You won’t regret it. Chances are you’ll be hooked and make it a tradition as I have done.

*Oh and by the way, for any of you who don't know where it's at...up the Provo Canyon past Sundance. The trailhead starts just past Aspen Grove.

Isn't this enough to make you wanna go?

It's a...BIRD!

I had the privilege of going with my uncle Ed to fly falcons out in Cedar Valley one early (Did I mention EARLY?...6:45 to be exact) Saturday (Did I mention EARLY and SATURDAY in the same sentence?) morning. But it was so worth it. Once in a lifetime opportunity.

He brought two falcons. Walker and….dang it…I can’t remember the other bird’s name. ..probably because I favored Walker. He flew the best. Not kidding. It’s amazing to watch. Walker made his rounds soaring upward maybe to 700 ft (that was a complete guess). Then Ed released a live quail (aka prey). That falcon dove down so fast I almost missed it. Caught it’s prey mid-air and then landed. Ok my description is terrible. You just have to see it yourself. If you’re wondering why I don’t have any pics of this action…I couldn’t take my eyes off the bird. It was hard to keep track of the bird in the first place due to the sun peaking over the mountain. If I ever get the privilege to go again maybe I’ll try to get some video footage. Afterwards I did get some pics with them though.

A few other “bird flyers” (that is my choice title for them…or maybe “bird enthusiasts”…ok I’m not creative…at all) also showed up 15 minutes after we arrived. So they helped us fly our falcons and then we did the same. Ed knew them—“Bird flyers” are pretty much their own community. Some fly their birds in competitions. My uncle just does it for fun. He flies his birds 3 or 4 times a week. In fact the other guy (whom I found out knows my dad and his siblings from high school—it’s a small world) used a massive (and I mean massive—I estimate about 5’x5’) helium balloon to fly his bird. Now you’re wondering what the heck I’m talking about. So he attaches the prey to the balloon, then hoists the balloon about 700 feet in the air (they can actually hoist it to about 1500 ft), and then let’s the falcon go. The falcon circles his way up to catch the prey, and then the balloon is lowered. I know, you never knew such a thing existed…I knew nothing about this either, for lack of better term, “bird world”. Fascinating huh. Ok maybe this is all so boring to you. But that’s because you haven’t seen it for yourself. I hope you get the chance one day.

They're beautiful...pics just don't do justice