Good Day

Whew, so today has been a pretty good day so far. There are still 6 hours left, but I'm pretty sure that all of the exciting stuff is over so I can go ahead a write about it now.

First of all, today is Memorial Day down here and that means (along with remembering those who have fought in the many wars over the years) no school. Then I woke up this morning at 7:30, without my alarm clock, and went running. I didn't run very far (maybe 1.5 miles or so), but it felt great to be getting out and getting some exercise in and to actually run after months of not running at all. Oh, and I learned something very important this morning...it is very difficult to burp while you are running. Somehow I haven't run into this problem until today, but it sure wasn't very fun.

After I got all cleaned up and dressed, I did the dishes and finished just in time to go out to a pancake breakfast that our bishopric put on for the ward this morning. It was great. Pancakes with whipped cream, strawberries, syrup and bacon along with orange juice and chocolate milk to wash it all down. That was all a great way to start the day.

At noon our FHE group got together to go rappelling. We hiked a little way into a canyon up in Orem to a cliff that has everything (except for ropes and harnesses) set up to climb and rappel. It was short hike, but it was very steep and did quite a number on me. I have to say, I very happy to be able to say that I have gone rappelling now, but I'm not sure if I'm going to search out opportunities to do it again. The scariest part was definitely going over the edge at the beginning, but I couldn't wait to get to the bottom either.

Me just after starting my descent

Finally, after all of that, I went out and had dinner at Tucanos when we got back. It was wonderful. I had a free birthday meal coupon to use there, but it had to be used sometime in May, so today was my last chance to use it. So, I asked one of my friends out to dinner and we had a good time stuffing ourselves with meat. I am proud of myself for stopping before I was miserably full. Also, I figure that the running and hiking and scaring myself helped justify the meal. All in all, I'd say it was a pretty good day.

A Close Encounter

I had a neat encounter tonight. My FHE group went up and hiked around Bridal Veil Falls tonight. It was the first time I had ever gone up there. It was nice short hike and it was fun to walk around by the falls a bit. Before leaving, everyone got together for a big group picture. I was toward the edge of the group and turned for a second and noticed a bird out of the corner of my eye. It was flying toward me and started to get really close. I was quite surprised by how close it was getting, so I turned some more to get a better look at it. Well, when I turned, I noticed that it wasn't flying like any bird I had seen before, and it wasn't moving forward very fast. That's when I realized that I wasn't looking at a bird. I was looking at a bat. Anyway, it flew right by me within about a foot of my arm. It was really neat. It landed a few feet away and everyone got a good look at it. It's amazing how small bats can curl up. I swear, their wings look like tissue paper when they are flying.

It's Feeling More Like Summer

Okay, so, I realize that technically it's still spring, but everyone knows that "summer" actually starts as soon as school gets out. Anyway, it's starting to feel a bit more like summer this week. This is partly due to the weather (which really has only been nice today) and how I've been able to spend some of my time.

I mentioned in a previous post that I've been wanting to get more active. I've succeeded somewhat at that this week. I was able to go play racquetball with one of my roommates earlier in the week. That felt great, even though he beat me. The only problem was that I hadn't played since September. I'm pretty sure that this is the reason behind me successfully getting charlie horses in both my legs simultaneously after the first game when I jumped up to grab the loose ball. I landed and felt both calf muscles seize up. Luckily, my left leg eased up pretty quickly, so I was able to hobble over to the wall and sit down.

Today we played softball. It was supposed to be a friendly game between the two Elders quorums in my ward. However, my quorum was the only one to provide enough players to make a team. Luckily, there were some other guys at the field when we got there, so we played with them and had the few guys from the other quorum be on their team. Anyway, weather was great (sunny, not too hot) and it was really fun. Also, I have to brag a little bit here say that, with two outs in the final inning, I hit a walk-off single to bring in the winning run. That felt pretty good.