My Brother Owns Ely Football

Every Year the Ely football team has a pentathalon (5 events) to start off the football season and get the blood of competition flowing. The last three years my brother, Matt, has absolutely dominated! He's big and fast and strong. A winning combination for any football-type challenge. Here is the article the local paper wrote about him. The article is poorly written, but the facts presented are outstanding. Check it out!

http://elyecho.com/main.asp?SectionID=12&subsectionID=12&articleID=9155

Adventure Week

This week was awesome. doing cool stuff is cool, but going on adventures is where it's at.
This week I was an active party to two awesome adventures. Both were things I'd never been a part of before. Both were things I would do again. I mean this second I would do it.
The first adventure was geo caching. now that may not sound like too exciting of an adventure, does it? No. It does not. What you need to know is how we mixed it up to make it an adventure. The first step was to go in the middle of the night. Adventures are best in the dark. Once we were to our embarking position on the side of the road (after being questioned by the friendliest police officer I've ever met) we immediately had to forge the river. Remember that it's night. after our party of four nearly made it across dry we began our search for the unknown mystery item. when you don't know what you are on the hunt for, finding it is a real bear of a task. Fez brought with him the gps unit and was able to guide us up the mountain to as near the target area as possible. We made a gallant attempt to find the missing treasure. We scaled treacherous cliffs. *note on cliffs: it's easier to climb ridiculous ciffs with no ropes or anything like that in the dark. You don't see where you'd fall to.* We looked at every place we can see. We never found our treasure. Yet the adventure was in the looking. That's a life lesson for you all to remember. Rowdy is wise in the ways of life. We climbed down the mountain. investigated some old ruins on our way down. Crossed the wet river and went home.
Adventure two was less complicated but possibly more fun. My awesome roommate, Fez, was able to procure two four wheelers from contacts at his work for a night. After a stop for gas and a stop for air we were on our way to the base of Mt. Logan. We were set to go up at 10:30 that night. We zipped up the mountain in the wind and the cold with dust in our face and the full moon lighting the forest. We woke up every camper on the way up (I hope) and nearly wrecked on a few turns. Once we made it to the tip top of the mountain we laid on the mountain and looked at the lights of the city and wished talked about religion, life and probably a lot of fairly mundane things as well. Before we left we both agreed that it would be a good place to bring girls and that we were thankful that we aren't girls since girls usually don't go on adventures of this type. The ride down was as fun as the ride up and we were able to rouse the campers a second time.
People, go on adventures. Trust me. One good adventure can last you for a long time. Grandpa Hancock used to tell us, "Life, to me, has been a grand adventure." I want to be able to say that. I don't to say "Life has been a cushy ride. I didn't take chances answer so I didn't get hurt." or "I don't get people's deal with living."
Make Adventure a Verb.

The Rowdy Chair

My friend, Joshua, works designing offices. He was looking for a cheap chair to use in break rooms and cafeterias, things like that, when he stumbles upon the "Rowdy."

Here are some of the descriptions:

• Rowdy is ideal for corporate settings, education, health care and institutional applications. Rowdy is ready to go to work for you.
• Rowdy's lightweight one-piece shell and frame design include a back handhold, promoting quick and convenient transport.
• Rowdy is stackable up to 40 high on a convenient stacking cart, facilitating fast and easy storage without placing extreme demands on space
• Rowdy's continuous wire rod frame joins with its lightweight shell to create an orderly aesthetic without the need for attachment screws.
• Rowdy's one-piece shell is molded from high-impact polypropylene for long-lasting durability and provides a generous, enduring sit. Ridges on the rear of the shell provide increased strength and resilience even in the most demanding environments.

and my favorite:

• The Rowdy frame is available in black for a handsome and distinguished look appropriate for any environment.

A Ant

Today on my way home from work I was listening to 1776 on audiobook. When I pulled into the driveway I only had 12 minutes of it left so I sat in the air conditining and finished it up. While I was on my last few minutes of the book an ant began crawling down my windshield. It had something in it's mouth, a tiny leaf or bit of grass. As it was decending it tripped and rolled the rest of the way down the windshield.

stupid ant

Sunburns

Did you know there are no real remidies for sunburns and especially for bad sunburns. I don't know if it's my durn English blood, the whole in the ozone or rotten luck, but at least once a summer I get burnt pretty good. I'm not talking about a little sun kiss. I'm saying that the sun full on makes out with me. It's very violating and I'm sure that's a weird visual, but it's a pretty accurate description. I usually bring it on myself though because every summer, like some alzheimers patient, the day will come when I think I'm "tan enough" and spend six hours shirtless on a boat, or the beach or wherever. Then I think, "my skin is feeling a little hot. Maybe it's time to apply a little sunblock." This is when it's too late. The damage is done, all I'm doing at that point is containing the spread.

Back to my original thought. Whenever I get burnt everyone seems to have some fact about treating a sunburn. Don't put anything cold on it, use butter take a hot shower and it will pull the heat from out of your skin. Hogwash! all of it. The only thing that heals a sunburn is time. You have to spend several days putting on shirts that used to be comfortable but are suddenly made of burlap. You can't crinkle your nose or laugh because when burnt skin wrinkles you suffer.

On the upside, once the pain is gone I get a decent tan for a few weeks. Well, decent for a white kid. Then I become a leper and have to deal with my face peeling for a week. However, I usually have enough fun while I'm being burnt to figure it's worth it.