Breakfast Club

"What comes first??"
"Breakfast."
"No, family, George Michael. Family comes first."
"Oh...I thought you were talking about the food."
I find it somewhat ironic that my favorite sitcom, Arrested Development, starts with a joke involving my favorite meal. Breakfast.

One day I was talking with some of my closest friends and the topic of breakfast came up. I have a confession:

I LOVE Breakfast.

Without a doubt, breakfast is the most influential meal of the day. Nutritionists can tell you its the most important, and while that may be true, I can say without a doubt that breakfast has the biggest power. Let me explain:

1. Breakfast is SO good. Think of the times recently when you've had a good breakfast. I'm not just saying milk and cereal here. (Though I do love cereal, not gonna lie.) But think of when you had an omlette, or a breakfast burrito, or pancakes, or something on that regard. How did your day go? I submit that you had an AMAZING day. And that AMAZING day started with an AMAZING breakfast. Think about that.

2. Last semester I lived with a good friend, Jaren. Every night Jaren would come to me and say "man, I am so excited for breakfast tomorrow." His love for breakfast was one of his defining characteristics. He was always happy while going to bed because no matter what happened that day, he could look forward to breakfast the next morning. Think about that for awhile. While falling asleep, there should be no worrying about the day's events, because those are things you can no longer control. What can you control? Breakfast the next morning.

3. I'll admit, it is a big sacrifice to eat breakfast in the morning. Sleep is precious and many choose to neglect the breakfast, or just kinda set it aside and not give it the true attention that it deserves. This is a mistake, and must be crossed out of your life. You're just depriving yourself of joy for no good reason. If someone gave you 20 american dollars, would you just say no, i'd rather not have 20 dollars? Of course not, you would take the money, and you should take the breakfast as well. It's worth it.

4. This semester I am part of a breakfast club. Some breakfast afficionados such as myself get together every friday morning before class to enjoy some breakfast. I'll admit, even I was a little bit anxious about the idea when it was first proposed. Looking back, however, that was dumb. Friday morning is great.

Without a doubt, the breakfast club is an amazing success. Not only have I gotten to know some cool people a lot better, I get to eat amazing breakfast every friday morning. This semester we have had pancakes, waffles, breakfast burritos, german pancakes, bacon, orange juice, french toast...the list goes on and on. (Well, actually, the list stops, since we only started doing it a month and a half ago.) Even though we are losing a couple of really good members (moment of silence...), I'm looking forward to another four months of great breakfasts. :)

5. During high school some good friends and I would eat friday morning breakfast at the Senate. Every friday morning. I would get there late from seminary, they would have already ordered hash browns for me. We would eat, and it was so good. Like the current Breakfast Club of which I am a part, it gave me another reason to celebrate Fridays. However, there's more. How cool is that we had the same waitress every friday? That she knew what we were going to order? That we had our own corner table, that one time people took and we got mad? How none of us would ever carpool anywhere, except for will who didn't have a car, and so a caravan of like 6 of us would go to school in a line right afterwards? (I'm too lazy to try to remember who actually went.) Every time I mention Friday morning high school breakfasts at the Senate people get jealous and talk about how great of an idea it was. Who's idea was it, by the way? Probably Ryan. Props to Ryan.

6. Think of all the great restaurants where you can eat breakfast. Around BYU, the two best places would, without a doubt, be Kneaders (unlimited cinnamon french toast? can it get any better??), and Magelby's, but IHOP is pretty good too.

7. I'm trying to think of the best breakfasts I've ever had. When I was little I went with my parents to the top of the Space Needle in Seattle for breakfast at the revolving restaurant at the top...that was pretty sweet. Breakfast in New York City with Dave at that little place was pretty fun. Italians aren't big on breakfast, but I learned how to make a pretty mean frittata with tomatoes, peppers, and onion one August morning in Florence. mmmmmm. Even just the memories that come with various breakfasts: eating oatmeal while camping, warming it up on a fire that is warming you from the bitter cold michigan morning frost...doughnuts at seminary every friday morning...eating bread and cheese that you carried into an ancient Swiss mountain village from the slightly larger village up the valley...fighting your siblings for the cool cereal so you can read the back of the box...giving Chris English two boxes of Apple Jacks and winning the "best birthday gift EVER" title...Christmas morning breakfasts with the family...Cube breakfasts!!!!...taking Torrie and Deanna out to breakfast for their help with halloween costumes and the ensuing turkey dinner...this list really does go on and on and on.

Let me salute then. To Breakfast!

If anyone has great breakfast memories, or thoughts on breakfast, or you want to somehow try to prove me wrong...go ahead and leave a comment.

Change is in the wind....

I think it is crazy how pretty much EVERYTHING about my life is going to have changed by this time next year.



Where am I going to live?

Will I be married? If yes, with whom? If not, then who will I be living with?

What will my job be?

How much money will I be making?

What will I be doing with said money?

What fun adventures will I have done?

What will I do for fun in my spare time?

When I have alone time, what will be the first thought that comes to my mind?



If anyone has any suggestions, please comment and say them. I know nobody reads this, so I fully expect to get zero comments.

Just a Quick Update

This Saturday, under a light, cold rain, the Fighting 57th took their season to an unparalleled level, winning in a shutout 3 - 0. Scott Morris was given a special award, "The Brick Wall". Ross and Jaren continued their battle for the team goal leaders, each scoring one.

I had a pretty good game, directing the offense from my position as center fullback. Our first goal was pretty sweet...I passed it to Jaren to Ross and Kyle, correctly positioned at the far post to kick in the rebound. It was great. As the game moved on I tried to move up a little bit more and take more of a role in the offense. I had some good runs, but they were all thwarted.
More importantly, we had quite a bit of support from our fans. I wasn't too optimistic for the size of our crowd, seeing as it was ANOTHER cold rainy day in Utah (that's four Saturdays in a row), but once again, the true fans came out.

Our next game is a week from Friday, right before the ward Halloween Party. Come in your costumes! The team is seriously considering wearing ours during the game. I personally think that would be hilarious. Especially considering what my costume is going to be.

The Ultimate Season

When people ask you, "What is your favorite season?" what do you answer them?

The answer for me is fall. Every single time. Fall fall fall.

I think my dad sent me this picture one time either to remind me of how cool and colorful Michigan is in the fall...or to complain about having to be the one to gather all of those leaves. (This is outside my house.)

I really don't think I could ever actually be sad during the fall. All I have to do is experience one of the reasons why Fall makes me so happy, and - BAM - sadness is gone.

There are a number of reasons why Fall makes me so incredibly happy. As with any good blog, I will elencate them for you here:

1. Colors.

There is nothing - NOTHING - prettier than a forest turned all different colors. I remember last fall when we drove on roadtrips to upstate New York or Virginia, and I was entertained for eight hours straight just looking at the trees. I could not get over it. Literally every five minutes I was saying "wow. this is so pretty." I love the changing colors so much that one of my main problems with moving to Seattle is that I don't know how pretty it is going to be in the fall. I read weather.com because it talks about how pretty the colors are changing. I call my family in Michigan to get updates on the trees. I'm depressed that this fall I don't live in a forest, but in a desert (but if you think I'm not going up the canyon to see the changing colors, you got another think coming.)

Quick related note: The other day I was walking to my car across the grass and all of a sudden I recognized a sound. *crunch crunch*. The sound of walking on freshly fallen leaves! I had totally forgotten! Fall just keeps getting better and better!!

Here's a picture from the Chesapeake Bay last fall.

Notice the pretty pretty colors.

2. New Beginnings

People always say spring is the time for a fresh new start. I say, You're Wrong! Fall is the time to start anew. New School Year, maybe a new School...a chance to make many new friends, . Looking back at my life, almost all of the big changes have come during fall.

What season was it when I left everything I knew and came to some school halfway across the country where I knew a total of zero people? Fall.

What season was it when I came back from my mission and had to find all new friends? Fall.

What season was it when I went to Washington, D.C. without knowing anybody? Fall.

What season is it now that I'm back in Provo after being gone for the summer and almost all of my friends are married, graduated and left, busy, or practically engaged? Fall.

All this change associated with fall has left a very positive taste in my mouth. Fall is a time to start anew and correct all of the mistakes that the summer inevitably brings.

3. Weather

Literally every single time I walk outside, I get excited. You know, that slightly cold, brisk feeling? I absolutely love it. It's so fresh and invigorating.
Take last Saturday. I had an intermural soccer game, and then we were going to go golfing afterwards. Well, we get done with the soccer game, and it is cold and rainy. Not golfing weather. I couldn’t be too mad though! Even though I really wanted to go golfing…I was just too happy that it was one of those stereotypical wet cold fall days. It even snowed! Normally I would be so mad that it snowed in September, but instead I was just happy because I was able to drive up in my car to a place without houses and sit and read and enjoy the sound of rain and listen to rainy day music.
Oh, and the weather being cold is a lot more conducive to cuddling. There’s another big plus right there.

4. Warm Clothes

This kinda goes with the weather. You really can't wear flip flops and shorts anymore. You get to wear all the clothes that you haven't for like four, five months. Sweatshirts. Long pants. Long sleeve shirts. You forget how good they look! And how comfortable they are!! I want to go buy some.

5. Football

Is there anything better than going to a football game in the fall? Coming home from church on Sunday and catching up on whatever football happened during the morning? Reading espn.com non stop while you're in classes during the week? Going out and playing some pickup football with your friends? I didn't think so.

6. Cross-Country

Doesn't fall just seem like the time you're supposed to run? Crunching leaves, cold rainy days, they just bring back memories of the glory days, when nothing mattered but how fast was your last split and how much you hated Northville High School. Even the smell of fall brings back memories of lazy days at Cass Benton Park, just relaxing and talking after another successful race.

I know there’s some negatives about Fall. Some people don’t like the cold, it’s somewhat harder to find things to do, people complain more about going outside but then it’s boring inside…but stop whining and enjoy it. That’s what I say.If anyone would like to post comments about their feelings on Fall…please do. You can even leave it anonymously, if you don’t want all your friends finding out that you read Logan’s dumb blog.

To celebrate making it to the end, here is a picture of 13 year old Logan camping during the fall. Yup, all the ladies wanted me. How did you know?

Go Fighting 57th!

One of my dreams has always been to be a sports star, or at least a role player on a fairly successful sports team. I halfway reached that during high school, but, honestly, who cares about cross-country/track besides the people that actually run, right? No one cares if you're a role-player, the 3rd guy on the high school cross-country team. Even if you finished out the best 1-2-3 combo in the state.

Another one of my dreams was to play soccer. I played until about 8th grade, when the games moved to Sundays. I loved soccer. I wasn't too bad at it. I was always kinda sad that the games moved to Sundays - I would have liked to see if I could have played high school. Still, the times that I would end up playing, whether I was in Italy or just pickup games here at school I loved it. I wanted to be on an intermural team, but I never knew the right guys who had a spot open on their team. With my graduation next April, I figured my chance was gone.

So when Jaren came up to me and said, "hey, we're starting a ward (a ward is the local unit of organization in the LDS church) guys' intermural soccer team...are you in?" I jumped at the chance. Awesome!

We set two goals for the team:
1. Win - it has been at least two years since a ward intermural team has won even a single game. (Personal note: I was not a part of any of those teams.)
2. Get as many girls to the games as possible.

We took #2 seriously. We went around to Relief Society and made announcements, telling them of this opportunity to give service and prepare to be a soccer mom. We talked ourselves up at Ward Prayer. We went around and personally invited pretty much every girl to come. It was awesome. A lot of skepticism, but we got some people to say they would come.

First game: 20 people. Orange slices at halftime. Chilled Caprisuns afterwards. Water. It was amazing!! So much fun. We were a little rusty - let in a couple of really bad goals. Jaren let the day with his 3 goals, however, and we managed to eke out a 3-3 tie. I played center defender most of the time. They didn't score while I was out there. I don't consider myself to be that good, but I am fairly fast and I understand where I need to position myself.

We followed that up with a number of announcements, thanking everyone for the support (we had like 20 girls at that game. How great is that.) and amazing treats, and getting everyone pumped for the next game. Are you a witness? Were you there to see the undefeated Guys Soccer Team? (luckily, not too many people figured out why we never said that we won, we just kept mentioning that we were undefeated)

During announcement time at Ward Prayer, I busted out my megaphone and started getting everyone to cheer. I felt like the Quarterback at a high school pep rally. Finally, as things continued, I hesitated...and, caught up in the moment, declared, "I am going to guarantee a victory this Tuesday!!!" Everyone cheered and went crazy. It was seriously great.

Of course, Tuesdays rolls around and all of a sudden there's a little bit of pressure. Can we win? I really wasn't worried, honestly. They hadn't scored with me playing defense yet (except for the really really bad goal that went through Scott's hands.) Why would they start now?

Final score - 5-2. We win!!! Ross scored 4 goals and Jaren added another. I had a really good game on defense - both goals happened right after I was substituted out of the game.
Better yet...we had like 35 people at this one. How great is that. It was so much fun! The fans made a tunnel for us after the game, I ran through it like three times.

Our team continues to get better, as people learn how to play soccer. Our next game is this Saturday, 12:00, on the Indoor Playing Fields. The question I have for you is:

Are you a Witness? Were you there to see it?

Rant of the Day

I just want to make everyone here a promise. And by everyone here...i mean myself, since I am the only one who reads this, and even I don't do it that often.

When I get engaged (which I don't see happening for awhile...but we must be prepared) I will NOT put it on facebook. Nope. Never. If you want to find out that I'm getting engaged, you are going to have it to hear it from somebody. If my fiancee` tries to make it official on facebook, I will decline her. If she has a problem with that, then we're not getting married. That's right. I am putting my foot down! BAM.

I have nothing against people finding out that I'm about to make the biggest decision of my life. I'm okay with that! I love and want people to know how happy I am. But they are going to find out by some sort of personal contact. I want to give people the joy of telling their friends "hey! did you hear Logan found some sucker to actually give in and marry him?" I mean, who would not want to be the one to tell their friends that Logan is getting married? I know I would. That's why I'll probably spend $300 in cell phone bills calling people and bragging about the amazing girl who I finally wore down to accept my incessant proposals. As much as I love facebook and its stalking potential, my foot is down. The die has been cast. The stone has been thrown.

I am sick and tired of finding out some of my best friends ever are engaged by some stupid internet program. Seriously, is anything sacred anymore??? If you really want people to know that you are engaged, stop making out for a few minutes and give people a call. That's an okay thing for you to call and tell people about. In fact, I would say that it is a slap in the face to your friends to find out over the internet. They will be more than happy to hear from you. As will I.

GOODNESS!!!!

i'm throwing in a few angry ampersands for good measure.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&!!

Seattle Torchlight Run!

Last Saturday evening I laced up my running shoes and ran in the 8K Torchlight Run. 4.98 miles, I did it for a number of reasons. I wanted to race (I haven’t ran in a race underneath 26.2 miles since…2003 as an unattached runner in a BYU 4 mile race.) I wanted to see how I was doing compared to the training that I want to be for the Top of Utah Marathon that I am planning on running in September (I haven’t officially signed up yet though, so I’m not committed. Once that money is spent, though…) I wanted to go to Seafair, which is basically seattle’s excuse to have a party and a parade and stuff. I wanted to see real pirates (The Seafair Pirates are famous around Seattle, I guess.) Finally, people in my ward were going and invited me along, and I jump on the chance to have more than nothing to do on a Saturday night.

The race started near Qwest field, then around and up onto the Alaskan Way Viaduct, down into the Battery Street tunnel (I think that’s what its called) and then through the streets of Seattle back down to Qwest field. I was surprisingly nervous before the race – it’s a road race! Doesn’t matter! Yet it did. One fun thing about this race was the costumes – princesses, pirates, there was a fast-looking genie girl. I wanted to beat them. I really didn’t have any idea how fast I would go – I was thinking 32:30 was a good goal. 6:30 a mile.

So the race starts (yay for having a watch), and after getting through the first mess of slow people starting near the front we started going up the viaduct. Up ahead you could see the leaders of the race WAY ahead. It’s nice to know that once upon a time I could have ran with them for a mile or two. Also makes me feel pretty slow. At the one mile mark, I went to mark my split, and to my chagrin I found that I had left my watch on clock mode! No one mile split for me. I asked a guy next to me – 6:15. Hey, that’s not too bad! No way I’ll be able to keep that up….
The second mile I felt pretty good, starting to get a little bit tired. This 15 year old looking kid passed me, which made me kinda mad. I should’ve gone and stayed with him, but I don’t do speed workouts and I’m always afraid of dying. I stayed content to just cruise where I was. At the two mile I started my watch and called out for a split – 12:45. 6:30 second mile…yup, that’s about where I should be.
We spent an entire mile in the tunnel, which was weird – I kept hearing echoes of cars that I thought were driving behind us. I’m pretty sure I was very slow in that tunnel. We came out and I began to feel a little bit better, so I would speed up until I felt tired and then I’d try to coast where I was…but not slow down. A strong coast if you will. I’d pass people every once in awhile (I passed the genie girl during mile 2) Crowds began to appear (we were running along the parade route) and mile 3 came by at 6:30 again.

The roads were mostly downhillish now (the first two miles were mostly uphill) which was really nice. I continued going fast, pushing it while I felt good and trying to survive the rest. I was getting more and more tired. I would reach the point where I really didn’t care about catching the people in front of me…and then I’d feel better and I’d get closer anyway. Little kids would come up and try to give the runners high five…I got a couple but stopped after I missed one kid and instead slapped him in the arm. Serves him right. After awhile I looked down at the time and realized that I must have missed the 4th mile mark. It’s funny how much better I felt now that I knew I was almost done. I wish I had done a better job of studying the course – nevertheless, I sped up and began to pass people. Looking back, I wasn’t passed after the 1.5 mile mark. I definitely need to start out faster. I sprinted past the 15 year old looking kid about 50 meters from the finish. Take that. Final time: 31:15. I averaged 6:00 miles for the last two. Yup, definitely need to start out faster for an 8k. 6:15 6:30 6:30 6:00 6:00 were my mile splits...an average of 6:15.
Overall, I think I’m on course for my marathon goal of 3:00. Assuming I run it.

And most importantly, I made another Seattle memory. I love running down the middle of streets that are normally packed with cars. It's all about making memories.

Top 10 Sports Moments I've Seen

While I haven’t seen too many amazing sports events in person, (I think the best would be the Michigan state cross-country meet my senior year, but I was a part of that, so I don’t think it counts) I was pondering the other day as to the most memorable sporting events that I remember watching. The criteria for making such a list:
1. While it was going on, I remember thinking, during the event, “I can’t believe this is actually happening. This is something that I will be putting on a ‘most memorable sports events’ list one day, that I may put up on a web log (blog) if I ever cave in and make one because of a boring day at work.
2. I will have been so amazed/excited that I actually stood up and yelled and cheered.

I would tell you all to feel free to say something, remind me of something I should have put on there, but I know no one actually reads this, so the point is moot. On with the list.

10. 1996 Summer Olympics – Women’s Gymnastics Team Final

Yeah, yeah, I know. Kerri Strug has a really high voice, let’s make fun of her, big deal, so she did a vault with a sprained ankle. Just imagine little 12 year old Logan in the basement of our first Livonia house, sitting on dad’s old brown chair on the yellow/orange smokey shag carpet, watching late at night while everyone else has gone to sleep. Big crush on Dominque Moceanu. (She was cute. Look at her. You can’t judge me, I was 12.) We were against the Russians! I was patriotic! We never win women’s gymnastics! Well, we did win, and I was pretty excited.
Bonus points for being the first time I remember watching late night sports and then celebrating by myself, starting a grand Logan tradition. What a pathetic great life I lead. She's cute..but married.

I know, I know, I can’t believe gymnastics is on here either. It’s only #10. I needed a # 10, all the other ones are better.

9. 1999 Ryder Cup - United States comes back to win

So I have a secret, guilty pleasure. I like watching golf. Only on certain occasions – Sunday afternoon, nothing to do, and names that I know. I have to know who’s playing. So one day while I’m 15 I flip on golf to find the Ryder Cup. U.S. vs the World. I’m a patriotic guy (see #10) and I love watching the U.S. win, so I was disappointed to see them so far behind, but the announcer mentioned that the U.S. was making a big comeback. So I watched…and everything went in. I’m sure I don’t appreciate good golf as much as I should, but we just kept winning and we were so excited and I was excited too.

8. 2006 Tour de France – Floyd Landis’ breakaway mountain win

I know it seems like he was taking illegal enhancements or steroids or whatever. Everybody else was, too. Throw that out, don’t think about it.

This was awesome. Landis was out, he wasn’t going to win. He had bonked the day before, and was too far behind. Everyone had counted him out. After 7 years of Lance domination, the Tour de France was going to be won by a non-American. I don’t know how many of you have tried to bike up a mountain lately, but it sucks. I remember turning the TV on, just to see how the Tour was doing today – and the announcers were amazed. Floyd had taken off on a breakaway (good for him! That’s the way to do it. Leave it all out there.) alone and was just destroyed the field. Everyone thought that he would die…and he didn’t. I can’t just imagine the thought that goes through his mind – screw it, I’m taking off – and then he does and wins.

I love watching Americans win in France, when they can’t. Kinda reminds me of World War I…World War II..

7. 2001 World Series - Arizona Diamondbacks beats New York Yankees

I hate the Yankees. A baseball team from some po-dunk town in Arizona (does anyone know what city theyre from? They’re from a state! Goodness.) finds a way to beat the Evil Empire. Come-back win, 9th Inning, Game 7. Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling pitching from the mound…and big pandemonium ensues when Luis Gonzalez’ hit drops and the Diamondbacks win. Great baseball drama. Love it.

6. June 12, 2007 - Justin Verlander throws a no-hitter against the Milwaukee Brewers

I only saw the last half-inning of this game. Connor calls me up one day after work and tells me that verlander is three outs away from a no-hitter. I don’t get Detroit baseball in Seattle, but luckily ESPN turned over to watch the last half inning. It was amazing. Pure adrenaline up there. You knew before he threw the pitch it was going to be a strike. The crowd was amazingly loud. I was jumping up and down yelling at my brother over the phone. Strike. Strike. Strikeout. Strike Strike Strikeout. Groundout. I’m pretty sure that’s how it went. It was great.

5. 2007 Fiesta Bowl - Boise State beats Oklahoma

This game was ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. Again, watching alone in the middle of the night. Dad had stayed up with me for a lot of it but went to bed. I don’t really have a connection to either team – if anything, BSU annoys me because I know too many people from Boise. But seriously. 50 yard hook and ladder lateral to tie the game with seven seconds left?? Are you kidding me?? 5 foot 7 halfback throwing a touchdown pass? A statue of liberty play on the two-point conversion to win the game?? Are you freaking kidding me?? MVP proposes to his cheerleader girlfriend after the game?? And the underdog won the game. I wanted to put this at #8, cause I don’t have a real personal connection with either team, but while thinking about it and writing about it I am definitely moving it up. This was awesome.

4. 2006 - Detroit Tigers beat Oakland to qualify for World Series

Walk-off home run puts the Tigers in the World Series. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t the biggest tigers fan when I moved to Detroit. But I always knew – one day they would turn it around, and sooner rather than later. No one really believed me.
So when they tigers took off last year (I think ive talked about this already) I was ready. The team all waiting for Magglio to get home so they can start celebrating is the picture on my desktop at work. What a great moment for a city in the midst of the declining automobile industry. I love the Tigers.

3. 2006 - Italy beats Germany in World Cup Semi-Final

Again, alone for this moment. I don’t know how many people really understand how much I love sports. I really thought Italy was about to lose this game. We really didn’t look good in that extra time. And then all of a sudden…we scored. It was perfect. And then Del Piero scored the second goal a few minutes later to finish the Germans off. Take that Germany. I liked how it was still in the game, I loved how perfect it feels when somebody finally scores in a soccer match, and I love how when I jumped in celebration my wrists went straight into the ceiling fan that was on above my head. That hurt. Forza Italia!!!
I know everyone remembers the France game, with Zidane’s headbutt and the penalty kicks, but I was in a car driving across New Jersey with Mallorie giving me the play by play over the phone. That was so funny. “Uh..oh my gosh! The French guy just headbutted the Italian player?” “what? Mal? You have got to be kidding me.” “No! I’m serious!” “What happened! Mal!” “I don’t know, don’t get mad at me! He just all of a sudden went crazy and headbutted the Italian player and they gave him a red card!” Mal’s on a mission right now and can’t read this, but I’m sure she’d appreciate getting a shout-out here. She certainly had to deal with enough of my obsession with the Pistons. (See #2)

2. 2003 – Detroit comes back to beat Orlando, 4 games to 3. aka the awakening of Tayshaun Prince
Honestly, this was a hard choice. I had to put the Pistons here. I love them, and I was gone when they won the championship. I celebrated that through an email from my mom. I could have put when they beat Cleveland last year. Honestly the first moment that pops into my mind is Rasheed Wallace leaving to guard Manu Ginobili, leaving the most clutch 3 point shooter in history, Robert Horry, open in the corner to knock down the 3 that put the Spurs over the Pistons. Everyone talks about the Spurs Dynasty, but if Sheed hadn’t made that bonehead play….
So I put here a moment that I shared with Chris and Nathaniel in Amy’s basement. All the Livonia Ward people hanging out, something we did not do often enough. (Biggest regret of my high school career.) After watching some scary movie, (the ring maybe? I hate scary movies) turning on the game. Detroit was down 3 – 1, Tracy McGrady had just guaranteed victory, called the series over…and then started getting guarded by a new guy, Tayshaun Prince. 3 games later, Detroit was moving on to the next series. I love the Pistons.

1. Super Bowl XXXII, 1998 – Denver Broncos beat Green Bay Packers, 31-24
Football was the first sport that I loved. I loved football. I loved the Denver Broncos. I loved John Elway. I had his posters all over my room. I pretended I was him. I won multiple seasons as him on video games. I wanted to be him.
So when the Broncos finally beat the Packers in what SI called at the time, “The Greatest Super Bowl Ever” I don’t know if I have ever been so happy. We won. The Super Bowl.
It was a great game. 14 year old veteran John Elway throwing himself into the air, getting hit by two defenders and spinning around in order to gain a first down. Terrell Davis out for a quarter with migraine headaches, but going back in cause he wanted to win. Green Bay is in the lead…Denver in the lead…back and forth…and then the victory. My childhood idol has won his championship. My boyhood dream was realized. The Broncos had won the Super Bowl.

So, there you go. My list. This will be fun to read again someday.

I LOVE the Detroit Tigers

Last weekend I continued my love affair with the Detroit Tigers. Three games, three nights. Honestly, as soon as I found out that I was going to be in Seattle for the summer, I looked up the schedule to find out when they were playing. The fact that the Tigers were playing may have played a significant factor in my decision to come here (other factors: money…job…extended family…beauty…a future. All pale in comparison to the tigers, obviously) I put in some pictures:

Final tally, Tigers 2, mariners 2. It was really entertaining baseball, close games (well…Sunday wasn’t really that close), drama, basically two really good teams playing against each other. I do think that the tigers are a better team, but I may be biased, and it really doesn’t matter, it just matters who wins. Cause like I teach my missionaries, what is the purpose of life? TO WIN

I’ve been trying to figure out why I love the Tigers so much. When I moved to Detroit, I was (and still am) liked the Denver Broncos for football…and that’s it. I liked other sports, watching and playing them, but I don’t remember liking a team. Baseball, in particular, didn’t really have too much appeal to me. I was in Denver when the Colorado Rockies started, and that was cool, I remember liking them. Hockey was the big thing when I moved to Detroit, so I ended up liking the Red Wings, though a part of me liked the Colorado Avalanche, so I usually ended up cheering for whichever team won. I never really gave the Tigers a thought….
Until they closed Tiger Stadium and started building Comerica Park. I think that was it. Because such a historic place was closing, there were a lot of stories in the media and I remember thinking how cool it was that so much had happened there. I also remember coming in to Comerica for the first time and falling in love with the park, and thinking how sad it was that the team wasn’t good to back up such a pretty place.

Then last year the Tigers began to get good. Real good. The tiger seeds that had been planted began to grow. For some reason my family really grabbed ahold of it – we would call each other about the games, picked our favorite players, got the hats, and then the shirts, when I was in town we’d all go to the games together…all of a sudden there was this baseball fire of which I was previously unaware. I remember watching when magglio Ordonez hit the walk-off home run to put the tigers in the world series, yelling and cheering up and down, and feeling the magic of victory, that something special that makes me keep going back and back to watching sports.

And now I’m stuck. I watch all the games on ESPN gamecast because I can’t get them on tv. I really wish I had bought the package to listen to them on the radio. I go to three games in a row without getting bored, and I wish I could have gone to the next one. I argue with friends about who’s pitching is better. I probably won’t live in Detroit for the rest of my life – am I doomed to being obsessed with a team that I’m never going to be able to actually see play?

Sorry these blogs are so boring. Not funny at all. I told you these would end up being really boring…oh well. Something to do at work while I wait for my meeting.

Things I Loved About Washington, D.C.

I had the great opportunity to spend Fall 2006 in Washington, D.C. Life-changing event for me. I guess you really can't call it an event since it lasted four months...whatever. Well I saw some pictures the other day and it got me all nostalgic. I'm going to write a list down of all the good memories and reasons why I loved D.C.
Actually I'm going to start with 100. I'll probably add more later. Feel free to email me any other ones you may have.

1. How everyone hated Dr. Stiles (Kenny!!!!) at first because we all thought he was insane.
2. Drew's nickname for Kenny at the beginning.
3. How Letty's phone went off every single class when she was there.
4. Jon's crazy nicknames for people (Wisconsin, anyone? Wolverine? and i forget, what was Kristen's name?)
5. How Vice President Cheney's motorcade would drive by every third thursday morning or whatever. I never actually got to see it.
6. The story of the most awkward first date EVER, and how he had no idea. NO idea. hahahaha that was a good one.
7. I was the table setter for Supreme Court Justices Scalia and Breyer. Heck yeah. Without me...they weren't going to be fed that night.
8. The paid homeless strikers who tirelessly walked around the front of the ConSource building, including the giant rat that called Kaylee and Megan bad names.
9. Driving through Niagara Falls, Canada, and seeing the couple walking down the median of the busy street with his hand straight down her pants. Doesn't get any better than that.
10. The fight at the George Washington gym. You see, this guy rolled a ball through our game so i kicked it out of the way and kept playing. It was a real intense game too. So like 5 minutes later this punk kid comes up and yells "hey who kicked my ball?" well this huge guy on the other team like freaks out and tells him to step off. Well the punk kid says "what if i don't?" and totally walks up to him. after a lot of yelling and like 5 guys holding the big guy back the stupid punk kid left. and then we all made fun of the dumb kid and we finished the comeback to win the game.
11. Kaylee and Dave getting the hotel room at the Travelodge
12. Driving to Palmyra and just being amazed at how pretty all the leaves were
13. Climbing up to Jefferson's Rock above Harper's Valley and seeing the Shenandoah River. "it was really pretty, I finally understood what all the type about the south was" - Kendra Price
14. Coming back from that rock and seeing Eric, Dave, and Trisha swimming in the river.
15. Remembering how i was glad that i didn't sit next to those three on the bus, cause they smelled like river.
16. Leaving Shawn at Valley Forge. Way to go Dave.
17. Kendra and Kaylee's big gigantic gummy ball of goodness
18. Running next to the Potomac River at sunset and seeing the pink reflected across the water with the Lincoln Memorial in the background
19. Learning the majesty of Disney Princess Fruit Snacks
20. Trader Joe's!!! (Trader Hos.)
21. Eating the peanut butter cups from Trader Joes
22. When Sam came out and visited me in D.C.
23. Walking on the mall every single day, because the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where I worked, was on the mall :)
24. That one day walking home with Kristen and the heavens erupted and water just came down and we didn't have an umbrella. I did give Kristen my coat to put over herself
25. So we stopped in the Corcoran gallery and it happened to be on the free evening, so we walked around and looked at cool art
26. Trying to get a taxi, but none came and cars would just hit me with big puddles of water instead.
27. Eating at Cosi for dinner that night, looking like drained rats.
28. Finally making it home and laughing at all the people who were also too stubborn to take the metro.
29. Kendra and how she kept hooking me up with sweet tours
30. Going on a white house tour!
31. Almost sneaking past the red rope at the white house, but seeing the big security guy and deciding not to.
32. How me and Kirsten would walk by the white house and think that big fancy people were walking out of the front door...and then we figured out after the tour that it was just tourists.
33. Kendra's amazing capitol tour. Best capitol tour ive been on ever
34. Kendra getting lost on our tour.
35. Kendra lying to me through the whole tour, making stuff up about Jackie Kennedy and other things. Good thing I saw right through her.
36. Kendra falling over on her own tour, tripping over some stairs.
37. Trying to sneak past the guard on the tour to get into the senate side....yeah didn't work.
38. Kendra falling down the stairs at the Barlow BIG TIME.
39. And that's why you never play the game "Would you be my friend if" on stairs.
40. Endless games of mafia in the basement
41. "No!!! I'm not Mafia!!!!!" - Guess who
42. That time during the first Mafia game when I was TOTALLY mafia and everyone knew it, but I managed to convince all the girls to change their votes
43. My amazing celebratory dance after that win
44. How everyone called me a charmer cause i had charmed the women into voting for me
45. When i flicked the queen of spades up and it got stuck in the roof!
46. Jeremy and Autumn
47. How kendra can't say the name Jeremy
48. watching the ohio state michigan game. i hate ohio state. dumb game.
49. does anyone remember that dip that Drew made for the game? Heavenly.
50. Alexander Jones and Katie King
51. How Katie and Alex fought over when their anniversary actually is (day before Halloween, for the record)
52. How everytime I saw Katie King I would yell Katie King!!
53. Introducting everyone to Arrested Development
54. I hate the cardboard couches in the Barlow.
55. The BC in the DC. What a great name.
56. Halloween in Georgetown!!!
57. Eating at Johnny Rockets...again...wow dave and kate really liked that place
58. Kristen went to Ben & Jerry's and brought back some Pineapple coconut ice cream that she was just in love with...which happened to make Kendra throw up, since those are her two worst favorite flavors. I just thought that was funny.
59. Remember how great it was on friday afternoon when class was done?
60. My 8 mile run down the river trail through the rain.
61. Running around the isle with the hand coming out of it 3 times on my 15 mile run
62. Running around all the monuments
63. Running through Crystal City after it got dark.
64. Free samples at Trader Joe's
65. When I made pesto genovese for dinner one sunday
66. my cubicle buddy, Laura Lewis!
67. How much i loved wearing a shirt and tie to work everyday.
68. How the USDA paid for my transportation to work everyday.
69. walking home from the USDA with kristen
70. Lunches on the mall
71. Going on the sweet Smithsonian carousel
72. The great greek food restaurant my office would sometimes go to for lunch
73. The two IT guys that we sat next to at work. They were great.
74. When two guys almost got into a fight at a USDA meeting. Farmers fight!
75. Going to the pentagon and kendra taking illegal pictures of the snipers
76. Being interviewed for the Pentagon newspaper (google my name! its there!)
77. Ferris Beuhler Day!!!
78. Going to the library of congress
79. Going to dia de los muertos at the museum of the american indian
80. eating lunch at the museum of the american indian
81. finding the painting of president benson in the USDA.
82. Dave using his lobbying connections to get us to a cabin on the chesapeake.
83. Dave using his lobbying connections to get us a land rover to take us to a cabin on the chesapeake.
84. Katie and Alex arguing in the kitchen: Alex: No. Katie: but Alex.....
85. We need somebody to sign the card! Who has nice handwriting? Kendra? (Kendra's voice coming from the couch "noooooooo")
86. How Kendra literally spent 12 hours that day laying down in the couch.
87. Jumping in the chesapeake in december
88. Caneoing across the chesapeake (just around the riverbend!)
89. Leaving Kendra stranded across the bay.
90. her running out in the bay trying to get to the canoe
91. How Dave' s boss's wife saw the whole thing.
92. When we went sailing!
93. And....nobody knew how so we got stuck and some guy towed us out.
94. When Katie and Trish tried to sneak up on us while we were on the dock at night...yeah that didn't work.
95. Reading scary stories by the fire.
96. Football at the cabin!!
97. Going to the national cathedral
98. How everyone in our ward shunned us
99. Remember singing carols in front of the subway station? that was fun.
100. The first evening, hearing the national symphony orchestra play on the steps of the capitol

I am in Seattle

So I haven't had a blog since freshman year of university. That was five years ago. I didn't even call it a blog. I think that was the time before blogs. It was an online journal. Do I really think I will keep this one up forever and ever? Probably not.

Why not? Mostly cause I dislike the word blog. It's not an attractive word. Blog. Kinda sounds like one of the many different words for "to vomit". blog.

for example:
man i ate all this bologna yesterday, and i totally blogged it all up.

Second reason: I much prefer to tell you (well, honestly most of you) personally about my life. The people who I think would actually look at this are the people who I would actually like to tell you about my life and the funny things that happen to me. I don't want this to take away the personal contact that I actually like to have.
Though there are some of you who I would like to keep updated on my life, but with whom there just not is time. Ah, decisions, decisions.

But we will see how it goes. Maybe I'll keep it up. At least for the summer, when I seem to have a little more spare time than I do in Provo. I don't think I'll share all of my deepest and darkest secrets here. I don't think this will become a venting place or a place to rant and cry while depressed. If I do, sorry. I'm envisioning this as a place for me to tell funny stories and maybe expound my complex political feelings. (for example: i am against cloning full-grown people to maturity just so that i can have a ready-made liver.) Maybe I'll be one of those married people who maintain a blog to keep in contact with all of their friends without actually having to talk to them. I always thought that was kinda cute. Awww...a family blog....

Um to tell you the truth, I don't really know how I'm supposed to advertise this thing. Do I just tell people, "hey, check out my blog its at loganisreallyreallyawesome.blogspot.com. Can you just do that? Is that weird? Am i loser for having a blog? Is that a piece of blog on my shoe? blog blog blog