School's Out for Summer!

Blessed release! The semester is finally over! I think I will sleep in tomorrow. But not for long. I have to finish up some designs for Doctrine & Covenants Scripture Mastery over at Latter-DayVillage.com. But tonight I am taking my wife out on a date. We are going to a concert (Thanks Hannah!) and out to eat (Thanks Tucanos!) for a day-late birthday celebration. My wife is now 26 years old. When the Primary sang to her on Sunday I almost couldn't sing along, I was so glad that we are married. I love her so much!

I also love her folks! For our birthdays they are paying for half of the cost of season tickets for BYU Football this coming season. That means no more tracking down scalpers or watching home games from the neighborhood clubhouse! Rah Rah rararaaaaahhhh! Go Cougars!

High Anxiety

I nearly had an anxiety attack yesterday. And I had my date. My bout of anxiety had to do with BYU's narrow victory over U-Dub 28-27. The officiators' strict adherence to the rule book after Jake Locker scored the final touchdown and threw the ball up in the air pushed the PAT back 15 yards. Who knows if this would have happened at the normal position, but the kick was low and Jan Jorgensen got far enough through the line to get his hand on the ball to preserve the lead and the victory. Man, oh man was that close! Though it shouldn't have been. Again, BYU's own mistakes almost proved to be their undoing. Collie dropped a bunch of passes that he should have caught, Unga fumbled into the endzone at the end of a 97 yard drive, and Hall was intercepted on an underthrown pass. But they still won. On the road, against a PAC-10 team. That's nothing to sneeze at!

My date went well. We had a regional Stake conference broadcast today, so last night we had the adult session with our stake presidency. That meant the date started later than is customary. So I made dinner and brought it over to her place. I made Lasagna and ceasar salad. After that, we watched The Italian Job, the original with Michael Caine, not the new one with Mark Wahlberg. After the movie we had homemade ricotta gelato (italian ice cream) with blackberry sauce. All of the food turned out very good. We were undecided on the movie, I think we both liked the remake better.

We talked before, during, and after the meal and movie. It was interesting how much we have in common, it was almost cliche, although I didn't play it like the cliche: "You like that? Omigosh! ME TOO!" It was nice though. Like I said before, we have an understanding and appreciation for our different life paths we've taken. It was just really comfortable, like I could be more myself. I think there is certainly potential there. A second date is on the horizon for sure.

Football Season is Here!

OMIGOSH, OMIGOSH, OMIGOSH!

Kickoff is just over 48 hours away! At least for my favorite team it is, but opening games start tonight! It has been a long dry sports drought for me here at Risin' & Shoutin'. Last season I was working out in New York and very often missed watching any football, let alone BYU football. I did arrange to see the Las Vegas Bowl on my way home from the Big Apple, but I missed a lot of the other games. I did go to several BYU basketball games last winter, but by and large, my sports consumption has been particularly low over the last 12 months. Since moving back home, I've missed getting up on Saturdays and vegging out for hours of football on ESPN. We don't have cable or satellite here, we only watch DVDs around these parts. Any sports watching I've done is at other people's homes. I missed most of the Olympics, especially Michael Phelps amazing tour de force.

Vegging out watching football is not in the gameplan this season, but I will be better at least at seeing the Cougars of BYU. There are BYU fans in my ward here, and I got season tickets this year for the home games! I welcome my good friend Javich home from his mission in Arizona! I am glad that he was finally able to get the medical procedures done to allow him to serve, I know how important it was for him to go. But I am glad that he is back! We watched the games together during those dark years of '02-'04, and saw the first glimmers of redemption together in '05. But with everyone parting ways over the last couple of years, I didn't have anyone to share the success of the last two years with. But, at least for this season, it'll be the best of both worlds! Good friends to watch the games with, and a good team to watch.

GoooooooOOOOOO COUGARS!

Pseudo Play-by-Play

Byu turnover on 1st pos
Goalline stand-ucla fg good
U 3 b 0
Collie 26 he ret
Pitta 12 rec
Unga 5 run
Byu punt-ucla 11
U punt
Collie 22 rec
Pitta 8 rec
Fg byu good
U 3 b 3
U punt-byu 31
Reed 6 rec
Pitta 3 rec
Unga 5 yds 3 rd conv
Fui 6 yds
Unga 5 rec
Unga 3 yds
Byu punt byu recovers on ucla 14
Collie td xp good
U 3 b 10
Criddle pass brkup
Pop pass brkup
U punt-byu 44
Tonga 3 yds
U penalty
Unga 6 yds
Unga 9 rec
Unga 1 yd-short
Byu to downs
Ucla fg good
U 6 b 10
Collie 44 ret
Unga 13 rec
Hall 2 yds-3rd conv
Semanoff 9 rec
George 9 rec-3rd conv
U penalty 1st dn
Reed td-xp good
U 6 b 17
U punt-byu 8
Unga fumble on 4
U td-xp good
U 13 b 17
Hodgkiss 4 yrd tfl
Jorgensen 10yd sack
U punt u 44
Collie 9 rec
Byu punt u 11
Nixon 10 yard sack
U punt Y 3
Tonga 17 yds
Pitta 9 rec
Tonga 2 yds-3rd conv
Unga 7 yds
Y punt-u 32
Hodgkiss int
Semanoff 8 rec
Unga 7 yds
Tonga 1 yd
Collie 9 rec
Unga 1 yd
Hall sacked 6
Y punt-u 17
U punt-y 13
Y punt - y 46
U fg good
U 16 Y 17
Pitta 5 rec
Y punt u 29
Collie 30+ rec
George 3 rec
Collie 7 rec
Y punt down on u 2
U last second fg no good!
U 16 y 17!

Sent from my iPhone!!!!