New Blog Addresses

My blog and Tamara's Blog have not moved, but they do have new web addresses. If you type http://jack.turner08.com, it will take you to my blog. It will take you directly to my blog without passing go and without collecting $200 (more's the pity.)
Likewise, http://tamara.turner08.com takes you to Tamara's blog. If someday we were to migrate our blogs to some server other than Blogger.com, then these addresses would just update and take you to our new blogs, so you wouldn't have to learn a new blog address.
The picture at left is a screenshot of my domain name management web page. It is enom.com. It always makes me think of "Nom, nom, nom" which is the onomatopœia of chewing on stuff like a monster.

Home Page Update

We've updated our Home Page! This is the only page we've updated though, so if you click the links at the upper left, you'll only see generic pages that as yet have nothing to do with us. I took the picture with my long arm. We migrated to a different server because we didn't like how restrictive Google was with the format of our Home Page. The web address hasn't changed: www.turner08.com
Check it out! : )

Coin Me

In the Air Force, we have Challenge Coins, aka RMOs (Round Metallic Objects.) If someone throws down his coin, that means he's coining everyone around him. If in public, it's only the people in his group who are present. Everyone has to pull out their coins to prove they have one. If someone doesn't have one, they have to buy drinks for the whole group. If Everyone has one, then the person who threw down the challenge buys drinks for everyone. I try to always have one. For complete rules, see http://www.coinforce.com/challenge-coin-rules.htm
These are my Air Force coins. They are in order of when I got them from left to right, then top to bottom.
1. Univerity of Utah ROTC. I was a cadet and so I bought a coin.
2. Edwards AFB. The UofU ROTC went there and we got a bunch of tours and stuff. It was way fun.
3. Iceland. My friend Wally at HomeDepot was a Navy SEAL back in the day. He was stationed in Iceland at an Air Force base doing communications. This was a poker chip he brought home from there. This is the coin that has the most sentimental value for me because recieving a coin unasked for and unexpected is a real honor. When someone does something really outstanding in the Service, sometimes they'll get coined by the person in charge, or the visiting General etc. I didn't initially like Wally as much as I should have, but we talked a lot and I grew to really respect him a lot. He's a hard worker, always has a good attitude, always friendly, despite being in pain often. When he gave me the coin I didn't know that it was meaningful, but as I've served in the Air Force, I learned and now I sometimes get almost choked up when I think of it.
4. Airman Coin. This is the coin that we recieve at the end of Basic Training to prove that we graduated. It cannot be bought. If someone were to give you his Airman Coin, it would be a flabbergasting honor. It just isn't done.
5. 323 TRS. This was my training squadron at Boot Camp.
6. Honor Flight Coin. Only 5% of Airmen earn one of these. It's another that can't be bought.
7.81st TRW. This coin is from Keesler AFB 81st Training Wing. I was there for my tech school. I may have to go back there for more tech school in a few years for upgrade training.
8.944th FW. Luke AFB 944th Fighter Wing. This is my Reserves Wing at Luke.
9. McGuire AFB. This is where I went for annual tour this year. So far, I've bought a coin for every Air Force base I've been to and every unit I've been a part of.
10. 944th Comm. Flight. This is my unit in the Reserves. This coin was designed by Sergeant Bryan. He's no longer with us. He moved to Robbins in Georgia. It doubles as a bottle opener.
11. AF Spouse. This one isn't my coin, it's the one I gave to Tamara as a wedding present. From top to bottom it says:

GRATEFUL
Presented to
TAMARA
For unselfish, faithful,
and devoted partnership.
Your support, caring, and
understanding make possible
our contribution to a
grateful
nation.
APPRECIATION

I had explained to her previous to our marriage what it means to recieve a coin, so when I gave this to her, I was pleased that it was meaningful to her.

My Happy Birthday.

Tamara is really good for birthdays. First, she suggested I go to the gym after school on my birthday, which was really great. Then when I got home, there were helium balloons in the house and lunch waiting for me on the table. It was really good.

Grammy Marian came over for cake and ice cream after that. We had a really good visit. She gave me some really nice cuff links. I wore them to the stake Cultural Arts Night last night and to church today. We're glad she's home now.

In the evening, Tamara and I went to a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater. It was a lot of fun. One of the stagehand/waitresses was really mouthy with us. I think it was just her role, but she was probably type-cast. There were three couples at our table (except one of the couples was a Daddy/Daughter date, so they barely can really be called a couple.) The other couples were there for birthdays too. Everyone got nametag/character cards to wear. I was Hugh Mungus. Tamara was Mae B. Laytr.

Tamara's mom sent a really nice card. It was shaped about like a cd case and it had a hula dancer and a eukalalee player on the front. There's a turning handle in the corner that makes the dancer dance and the player play and fun music plays. Then when you stop turning the handle, the music STOPS! It's not one of those annoying cards that just keeps playing. Tamara and I were so pleased with it.

Birds of Many Feathers

I've heard that birds of a feather flock together. If you click on this picture and look closely, you'll be able to see pigeons, morning doves and quail all together. About 3 seconds before I took the picture, they were all mixed together, but then they moved around and mostly pigeons were left for the picture.

Rumba Night

You may not be able to tell from the picture, but Tamara and I went dancing on Friday night, and that's where we were when we took the picture. It was a lot of fun. For a total of $10 per couple, we got a beginners' lesson and an intermediate lesson, and then we stayed for the open dance afterward. Admission also included some pretty good brownies and water. It was an inexpensive date, but a really good one and close to home.
Also, I have a fresh haircut in the picture. Tamara cut my hair for me and I helped with the details. :)

I See the Moon

The moon was full a couple nights ago and I was surprised to still see it in the sky this morning. It looked bigger in real life. It happens to be next to a tall antenna, probably used for HF communication.

Food Again!

I just can't help it. I make beautiful meals that have to be shared with the world!
Tamara made tacos last night, so I had taco salad for lunch. That comprises the two containers on the left. I mixed them together in my Bento canister's lid because the individual containers just weren't quite big enough. I also had carrots, green beans, tropical fruit, and pear sauce.

Turner Tree

On my way to school I queued up at a traffic signal behind this truck. I hadn't heard of this company before, but in the top right corner of the photo, you may see the photocop flasher that gratuitously gives out speeding tickets to innocent motorists following the flow of traffic on their way to school. This one didn't nab me, but the one on the other side of the street as you approach the freeway did.

ASU nappers

{It has been brought to my attention that my blog is somewhat food centric. :-) I sometimes eat here, but that's not what this post is about.}

This is the basement of the Memorial Union at ASU. There are semi-comfortable seats with matching ottomans in the quasi-darkness with a light steady background of voices and lunch noises. This makes a reasonable place for studying the backs of your eyelids in between subjects. I've experienced the aforementioned activity myself and not been too disappointed. It beats the car in the heat of summer, but the car is a very comfortable place to relax most of the year here.

Tamara was out of town for the weekend and I was busy cleaning house. I was not in the mood to cook. I had just finished cleaning the kitchen and I didn't want to make a mess, but I was starving. Solution: Leftovers. We didn't have any leftovers that I felt like eating, so I took out everything from the fridge that needed to be eaten today or thrown out, as seen in picture 1. Inspiration: Casserole. 

Actually I forgot to start taking pictures until I had already put the noodles into the pan to form the base of my casserole. Next I put in vegatable mush consisting of potato, carrot, broccoli and gravy. Next was the parmesian alfredo sauce mixed with drained chopped stewed tomatoes. So the can of tomatoes was not leftovers, but it was integral to meal, so I

 went with it. On top I broke up the crouton slices and slices of butter and then I kinda mixed up the top layers a bit and put it in the oven. A couple minutes later, I realized thin

gs might be slightly bland, so I pulled it back out and sprinkled some Mrs. Dash and garlic salt. Resume baking. 2 minutes more and the kitchen was filled with the best overpowering smell. I couldn't wait, but I did take a picture (2). At 30 minutes I put the Italian cheese on top and baked

 it a few more minutes.

This was all just semi-interesting leftovers, but it was one of the best casseroles I've ever had. I could hear my arteries clogging with every bite, but the kitchen stayed clean and I cleaned out the fridge and I was happy.

I lined the pan with tinfoil and it stayed clean too, so that's alright. Do you see?

My First Married Dinner

I mean it's the first dinner that I've made for the two of us on my own since we were married. I help with the cooking and cook for myself and do dishes all the time. So this week, when Tamara asked me to cook dinner for Wednesday and Thursday, I had no problem with it, but I was surprised and didn't know what I was going to do.
Comes Wednesday evening and my wife is hungry. So I go look in the fridge to see what I can put together for a meal. Tamara is good at shopping, so I wasn't worried at all that I could put together a meal without too much forethought.

We had pasta with cheesey red sauce, veggie wraps, an apple, and pear sauce. I removed the apple peel in checkered pattern just to make the whole meal look better. It worked pretty well. Imagine what this meal would have looked like with half an unpeeled apple sitting on the plate.

Tonight we're going to have poached eggs and toast with milk. I think I'll make fried potatoes to go with it.

I Have a Good Wife

It's our first full day at home since we've been married and things are still a little bit crazy around the apartment. I'm still in process of moving in, so I have boxes and stuff everywhere. We're trying to do laundry while finding places to put all of our wedding presents. Tamara's trying to get ready to start her graduate program early tomorrow morning, and she still found time to go to the grocery store and buy me food. Then, while I was busy working on my own stuff, she cooked me a beautiful meal. She made Salisbury steak, purple cauliflower, and red potatoes. It's on one of our new plates from our wedding. :-)

We were so glad to have a whole day to just be home together and work on things before going back out into the world doing work and school. We listened to a lot of good music together. We took a nice long nap. We did a lot of housework. It was a good day.

To see honeymoon pictures, visit the web album.

Hawaiian Edgar Joseph

Look how nice my car used to be! Actually, it is about 3 years older than pictured now, but you wouldn't be able to tell from a picture of it. The car's name is Edgar Joseph. He likes to sneak up to intersections when the light is red, hoping that the red light won't see him and will turn green before he gets there.

When I saw this Hawaiian print fabric I thought it would make fun seat covers. Unfortunately, what other people saw was not Hawaiian print. They saw flowers.

You can see all of the most interesting statistics about my fuel efficiency at http://www.fuelly.com/driver/ctrlaltjack/elantra . I think it will be really interesting to see my mileage and fuel costs over time.

If you click the picture, you'll get a close up. There is a book in the pocket behind the driver's seat. It's the Book of Mormon. I like having an extra there, but the pocket is a little worn out. I've had to find a new place for my extra Book of Mormon.

Multifunction Pens

I'm in PHY131 (Physics II) at ASU right now and everyone in the class is an engineer of one kind or another. Naturally, on occasion someone will ask to borrow a pen and I almost invariably have a couple of multifunction pens on my person. I've never seen so many people capable of appreciating the beauty and utility of a multifunction pen in one room before. Usually, if I show my pen to a girl and explain it, she'll be mildly interested but not personally care nor want one. The reaction of guys is usually somewhat warmer. I lent my pen to a girl in my class and she was amazed at the pen. She had to know how it worked. I'd never seen someone so entheusiastic about it before. She's an engineer. I know how she feels (about the pens at least.)

Sometimes people ask where I got my pens. One of my favorites I got from Office Depot. Most of the rest I got online. I got a couple for like five bucks, but I couldn't find that link today. Anyway, here are a few other links. My favorite is the Fisher Space Multifunction Pen.

http://thewritersedge.com/multiaction.cfm
http://www.yafaoutlet.com/quintek.html
http://airline.stores.yahoo.net/yafmulstylpe.html
http://www.styluscentral.com/stylus-shop/stylus-pen-combos.asp

Wow Library!

I've been going to the Noble Science Library at ASU pretty regularly of late and not really looking around. I had noticed before that there were individual study rooms upstairs because they have big nice windows overlooking the Library common area. Today I went up to use one for the first time because I had phone calls to make and I didn't want to disturb the rest of the patrons. Up the spiral staircase I went and what did I find? Electronic sliding bookcases! They're so fancy! It's row upon row of space efficiency.

I'm not actually interested in these particular volumes, but I suddenly fell in love with the facility. The study rooms provide great pseudo-privacy. There are two printing stations conveniently located on two floors. There are couches and tables and a paper slicer and all kinds of things to make a student happy, even games.

I almost died!

Well, almost is a relative term. (That means it should be divided by C² if you believe Einstein.) Now, if you'll just sit tight, I'll tell you the story, but it's MY story, so I'll tell it like I want. : )

Up this double high flight of stairs and around a couple corners is the advising center for computer engineers where I had an appointment. I ran all the way up the stairs with my heavy backpack on and my scooter in my hand, but at the top I forced my self to walk calmly and breathe normally. There was a security guard up there, but she was ignoring me.

On my way back down, I considered sliding down the rail, which is particularly free of obstructions on top. I had on another occasion decided against such an action, but maybe I was just being overly cautious at that time, so I had another look. The top rail did look particularly inviting, itself, but there was an annoying hand rail a little bit below and sitting at an awkward position which would not lend itself to steady sliding. So considering the geometry of the rails and the vector of gravity in relation to the hypothesized Jack-and-rails system, I decided that the distance between my body and the earth would present too great a risk for the proposed benefit of a possibly fun slide to the ground.

Walking down the stairs, I reached out and slid my hand on the top rail. It was very slick. The projected amount of friction deemed necessary to maintain safety in the sliding trip was missing! I'm sure that I would have been fine regardless, but I don't do these things unless I feel safe doing them anyway.

Cufflinks

You might say I like cufflinks. I have a few of them.
I've been wanting a cufflink box for a long time. I was using this cedar box for something else, but today I cut some strips of velour, rolled them up, and cut them to the right length for my box.I didn't know I was going to fill the box up. I also didn't know I was going to discover that I'm missing some studs. They may yet turn up though. I don't think they're really lost.

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A Robot Jacked My Blog

Yesterday I felt the love of our future robot overlords. There was no blue screen of death involved and the maniacal monster of madness that is the monolithic and ubiquitous empire of nefarious evil did not rear its ugly head, but nevertheless, my blog went the way of all the digital earth, possibly to be revived at some ever-near but sempiternally invisible, unknowable date. The reason: spam. I've been accused of spamming the blogosphere and harsh immediate action was taken to redress my alleged offense against society. My writing may have been abrogated, but my speech continues.

No person actually accused me, but just Google's police-bots. They detected spam-like activity and decided that I was not human, so they tried to eliminate me. Fortunately I am too fleshy to be exterminated by such simple and digital means. I weigh a million time more than any computer program and I'm physically stronger!

My Run

This was a quick run at the end of a workout. I had pushed myself pretty hard and fast on the calisthenics, so I just did my minimum run.

Used Watch

I used my new watch yesterday. It occurred to me that if I just run the stop watch all day, then it will count my calories all day for me too.
It was a little bit disconcerting actually. I did eat breakfast before school. And I did work out, but at the end of the workout, I had only burned about 400 calories and I thought something like, "Well, if that's all I burn in a medium type workout, then I must not be using as many calories per day as I thought. I'm only going to burn around 2200 kcal today."
So in the early afternoon when I was getting hungry and I hadn't eaten since breakfast, I checked my watch and it said I had burned over 1600 calories already. I hadn't even done anything since breakfast! I thought something like "Man! I'm gunna die if I don't hurry up and eat something. I can't believe how many calories it takes just to continue living while I do nothing."
Fortunately, I had some Cliff bars and a Lara bar in my backpack, so I didn't die. I wished that I had a bottle of water in there too, because then I could have not-died in better style, but the empty bottle I had was starting to get a little gross, so I didn't want to fill it again.
I continued to not do anything active the rest of the day and I lived like I normally do with the exception of wearing my watch and the chest band. I also wore it to bed. It's amazing how many calories I burn while I sleep.
The watch also tells me continuously what my heart rate is. That was interesting because I thought I should have a heart rate of around 65 all day except when I exert myself. It turns out that 65 is only good for a resting and really doing nothing heart rate. An awake and moving around doing nothing heart rate for me is closer to 90. Before bed, while I read my scriptures etc I checked my watch a few times and my heart rate dropped below 50 sometimes.
So my calorie reading this morning was 3300 kcal. !!!!!!1 My metabolism is higher than I thought. I don't know how I cram that many calories into me every day. I also don't have any idea how many calories are in most foods, so I don't really have that much frame of reference to justify my surprise.

New Watch

A couple weeks ago I thought I had lost my watch and needed another one. So I started looking up watches on the internet, and I found one with a heart rate monitor within my price range. I thought it might be similar to Tamara's body bugg, but it's not. What it does do is monitor my heart rate. So I've been wearing it today under my shirt. In the picture it looks like I'm wearing it outside my shirt, but that's only because you wouldn't be able to see it otherwise. I actually wear it underneath where it can have contact with my skin.
If I start the stop watch while I run, then it will record my heart rate, so at the end I can see what my average heart rate was and max and min. It can also be set to a target heart rate and sound an alarm when I go to high or too low. So it doesn't tell me how many calories I've burned all day and graph it for me, but it does tell me how many I've burned total during the time that the stopwatch goes.

New Nail

Last Friday, my nail was getting rougher and more annoying, and making me worry that it was going to rip and cause big problems. So after my workout at 24hr Fitness, being across the street from the mall, I decided to get my nail fixed. I had to really look around to find their nail salon, which was packed. there must have been 20 or 30 people in this small room doing manicures and all kinds of stuff. I only wanted to get 1 nail fixed, so they were a little confused, but they had me sit down with some guy and asked him to do it for me.
I guess he's only used to making long beautiful fake nails, because that's what he put on me and I only wanted to get my nail filled in a little. I'm thinking functional/safety, not beauty, so I told him I want it short like my other nails. He did file it down a bit, but he filed the sides too and the shape was all funny. He only charged me $3 so I tipped him $2 and got out of there before he could do any more to me. When I got home, I got my nail clippers out and cut it short like the rest of my nails.
Now you can only tell that I have a fake nail if you look really close and know what to look for. It doesn't catch on my clothes anymore and I can even scratch my head or do whatever I usually do with nails like normal now.
Unfortunately, even with my nail fixed, I still do guy things with my hands and lose skin in the process (see lower left corner of picture.) I'm just too male to have beautiful hands for the wedding pictures. If it ends up mattering, I do have the GIMPfu (read: photoshop skills) to edit problems out of the picture.

First Flight

Directly after I finished my Calculus III final, I picked up Tamara and went to the airport. I had never seen the airport parking lots so full, but that's mostly because I don't fly often I imagine. We had to park way over in the far east parking towers, to which place I had never been before. Then we rode the shuttle over to the terminals. I had done that before, but not in Phoenix. We had thought we were in a hurry, but when we got close to our terminal, we could see that the plane wasn't even there yet, so we had some lunch and visited while we waited. It was nice having Tamara there to wait with me and fly with me.
In Denver there was a subway to ride from the terminal to the main airport building, where Mom and Dad were waiting right where we come out.
Tamara and I stopped for the picture, so we wouldn't be blurry, but no one else around seemed to care if they were blurry. Maybe they just didn't realize that what Mom was holding was a camera. They didn't even smile.
We also got a picture in the car, but the lighting wasn't quite as good.

Finals Death

In this picture I am dying of finals. Tamara's computer is in front of me (she's using mine.) My phone and calculator are off to the side, and I'm taking notes - from my notes. I don't normally keep a roll of toilet paper on my bed, but I have a terrible cold and I don't want to drip on my notes. The afghan behind me was made by Grandma Mickey. It looks like I have a really big piece of paper in my lap, but really that's because I use a piece of dry-erase board as my lap desk.
I turned the thermostat all the way down to 80 degrees so that I could stress out about my homework without over-heating. When I'm happy, I normally keep it at 84 degrees, but intense frustration makes me hot.
It's almost bedtime. Hooray. I might get up at 3 in the morning to study some more. or I might sleep in really late until 6. That's what I did this morning. I don't use my time as well when I sleep in so late though, so we'll see.

Scars

I heard a mathematician on one of my podcasts explain how scars form. Apparently, normal skin has fibers going every which way randomly like a great net in 3D that the cells fit into. A scar consists of the same fibers and cells mostly, but with the fibers all lined up straight instead of random. Well, he did say that he was oversimplifying things and I'm telling it from memory, but it made sense to me at the time. I thought I would post a picture of one of my great scars, but as it turns out, almost all of my scars are so faded that I wouldn't be able to get a good picture. I guess my skin can't even stay in orderly straight lines. Randomity is in the nature of my flesh, but maybe it's only skin deep.
The best scar I could find was on my left hand and it doesn't even have a fun story. I wanted to take a picture of the scar on my knee, but it's almost all gone. I got it by walking too close to a sharp tree. The scar used to be crescent shaped pointing forward. A few months later it was still crescent shaped, but pointing the other way somehow. >sigh< The more scars I get the fewer I have.

Smashed Finger

A couple months ago, I smashed my left forefinger in the door. Naturally it got ugly. So we're hoping that the blister will grow out and be gone before my wedding so that it won't be in the photos. At first it looked like it would take forever and ever to go away, but now it's looking like it just might be gone in time. It makes significant visible progress every week. The top picture shows how it looked on Saturday evening. I had been able to squeeze a lot of the blood out already. The bottom picture shows how it looked after a soak in hydrogen peroxide this morning. A lot lighter, but a little uglier.
What we learn from this experience is that if you are tempted to smash your finger in a door, you should first stop and think about whether you're going to be getting married soon. If you are, it's better to wait until after the wedding pictures to smash your finger.

Friend at Church

One advantage of our trip to California was that Tamara saw a lot of friends from years past and I met a few of them. One was Stephanie. She left her husband and children and drove a long way early in the morning just to see us. In the picture, we're smiling at Grandma Cowles, who is holding my camera for me. I didn't bring my tripod this time.
(Pronunciation hint: Cowles like bowls, not like towels)

Nails

Today was Tamara's bridal shower. We went to the nail salon for a pedicure before the shower. It smelled the same as the nail salon that Mom used to take me to when I was little. The way I tell it makes it sound like I'm in the habit of going to the salon, but really I don't go for myself ever. If you look closely, there is a man getting a pedicure in the picture. He came with his apparent wife and son. The son didn't get a pedicure, but the wife had her finger nails done. I didn't ask their names.
While Tamara was getting her nails done, I talked to her and I read my book.

Model Kitty

Last night I dreamt it was my birthday and was getting a lot of presents, just one at a time, here a little and there a little. In the same dream I was going to take a picture of an owl, but some cats on the tree scared it away, so I took some pictures of the cats instead.

Right now Tamara is gone to her luncheon and I'm alone in the house with Mina cat. She was meowing, so I went to see what her problem was. When she jumped up on the bed, I knew she just wanted her picture taken, so I obliged her. She would lie on one side and then the other and turn her head this way and that. She's an enthusiastic model for a cat. We did take a few breaks for petting though.

We went to the courthouse for our marriage license today. It was fun Lately there has been a real rush on the courthouse because of the recent change in law about gay marriage. We saw three male couples while we were there and two other hetero couples. One couple was so happy and having so much fun, it made us smile.

Present Night

Today, Tamara and I came to San Diego to visit her parents. We had to both come so we could get our marriage license, as required by California law. While we're here, Tamara will get to visit a bunch of ladies for a luncheon and have a bridal shower.
We went to the Robertsons' house first to see how it's renovation is going. It had a flood last year, so it should be ready for living in soon. All the walls were open with the electric cords showing everywhere. It was kind of exciting. I would love to be able to see where all the wires and studs are in my house and be able to lay ethernet cables, speaker wires, etc. in all the walls I want to.
Back at the apartment was waiting our first wedding present. Brent wanted to give us his present now so we would have room for it in our car. It's a flag! We're glad he gave it to us before Independence Day. Now we'll be able to put it up and be festive.

Feet

I listened to a podcast from NPR about healthy feet and plantar fasciitis in which they said that our feet might be healthier if we walk around our houses barefoot. Growing up, I pretty much wore shoes from the time I dressed myself in the morning till I was ready to go to bed. In the past several years, I've walked around the house in my stocking feet quite a bit, but never intentionally as much as incidentally. In Phoenix especially I remove my shoes to be cooler during the summer. When there's no one to be bothered by it, I leave the thermostat between 81 and 84 degrees most of the time, so it's nice to have more air exposure. Now I do it for my health also.

Owl!

We were just sitting in the living room talking, when suddenly there was an owl watching us from the tree outside the window. We don't see owls in the middle of Phoenix very often. The cats liked him. If we had let them out, he might have liked one of the cats, and that would have been sad. He probably ate one of the rabbits that are always around the apartment.
It was fun to watch the owl turn his head all around. I thought it was a little early for him to be out hunting. Owls don't eat worms, so he had no motivation for being the early bird.
Since then I have had 2 dreams involving owls. I really enjoy my dreams most of the time. I feel like I continue living my life, just on a slightly freer scale in my dreams. I'm thinking about focusing on lucid dreaming again. There was a time when I had lucid dreams fairly often.

Climbing the Bridge

Here I am climbing the bridge that takes Mill Avenue (southbound) over Tempe Town Lake. It may look like the bridge is only over land, but that's because the lake is just outside the picture. I guess the designing engineer thought his bridge needed a running headstart to make it over the lake. Chelsea took the pictures for me. The central image (the one most zoomed up on me) just looks so typical of me that I Thought I would make it the main picture, but it ended up being a bit small in order to give better perspective to the bridge. I'm wearing my combat boots that were issued to me at boot camp. The girls that helped me with my kayak that day really liked my boots. Under the bridge is a little storage area where they keep old junk. You can see an ice machine on the left. It wasn't plugged in. Above the bridge there is a round fence. That's actually the top of the building behind the bridge. It's an office building, with condos hiding behind it. In the very top right corner you can see the string of lights that decorate the bridge. They are pretty at night.

Names Project

I want to put together a page full of my family and friends each saying their own name. Naturally, as I haven't told anyone about this, I'll start with my own.
Jack Turner(ジャック・ターナー)

If you email me a sound file of your name, I'll add it to the list. Better yet, if you post your sound file on the internet, I'll link to it, but email is fine.

Yum. Lunch

I'm not going to blog my lunches all the time. This is just an example of what kinds of things I might eat on a school day when I haven't planned ahead very well.

Here are a couple of my fantastic lunches. Each of these containers has its own lid and stacks into a thermal container. The container isn't quite waterproof, but it goes into a zippered nylon canvas bag with a fork and a spoon and chopstics and a napkin, so it all works out pretty well.

The first picture has brown shortgrain rice w/ spaghetti sauce and tuna, cottage cheese and strawberries, red beans, and strawberrys and papaya.

The second picture is today's lunch. It has spaghetti, strawberries and apple, strawberry banana yogurt and plums, and more stawberries and apples.

I love my bento. I would never have such great lunches if I were still using a regular tupperware.

Tamara's Views

Look at what an awesome apartment this is. The first picture is a view of the area in front her apartment. Notice the grill in the center. We grilled salmon in it today. It turned out pretty well. There is shade here all day. On the other side of the grill, there is a double sidewalk that is supposed to make it easy to back a moving truck up closer to the apartment. Actually, backing the moving truck up the sidewalk was not easy, but I managed it and we were happy.
The next picture was taken from the trail in the back of her apartment. It's so nice to go out the back door onto the balcony and feel the fresh breeze blowing from the mountains there, and just enjoy the perfect Phoenix weather. Also, you can't really see it in the picture, but there's a very nice trail that leads right up into the mountains there. We hiked all over the trails today after General Conference. The yellow flowers in the foreground are probably creosote trees. There is also brittle bush.
The last picture is a view of Tamara's apartment from the direction of the mountains. I wasn't actually in the mountains when I took that picture; I was much closer. There's a red patch of eucalyptus leaves in the tree to the left. That tree actually doesn't usually have red leaves, but the sun was setting and made them look redder than normal. The woman in the blue shirt is Tamara. She's smiling because she's happy that I'm taking pictures for her. She's probably thinking about how much fun it will be to blog these pictures when we're done.

Fixing the Dryer

I thought I was just going to clean up the floor by the dryer, but I ended up cleaning out the vent tube and straightening it so that the air would pass through more easily. This was at Tamara's brand new apartment. This is what it looks like when I add a picture directly from picasa instead of logging into my blog and adding a picture from there.

Hi! Welcome to my new blog.

After making a new blog for Tamara and one for Andrea I was jealous and wanted one like theirs, so I made one for myself. We've had a lot of fun having Andrea here. She's been a great help to Tamara in getting moved into her new apartment. We had a great time at the Tempe Arts Festival and at the Renaissance Faire.

I did not intend that Tamara's first post be doting on me like that permanently. I thought she would laugh at it and then change it to something completely different, but instead she just edited it and left my humor for all to see!