I got through the first 3 movies last night. That just leaves the last 3. Fortunately our original plan to see the new movie on Friday night has been scrapped. So we'll probably go see it on Saturday, leaving more time to finish up the last 3 movies with Katie.

So I just realized this morning that I should refresh myself on Harry Potter before the movie this weekend. Tonight then, the plan is to rush home, and start at number 1. Hopefully I can get 1-3 done tonight, then I just have to some how convince Katie to watch 4-6 with me tomorrow.

So I guess everyone wants to know how it was done.

Saturday I was over at Eric's shop to fix a flat tire. Katie texted me to let me know our plans for the evening were canceled. That made that night a prime opportunity, but I had to come up with something quick.

I decided I'd try a little misdirection. I told her that I had talked with Jason, and he was up for playing games that night. That provided the reason for me to pick her up. When we left her house I told her that Jason wouldn't be picking up his friend until later, so we could just go get dinner ourselves. It must have been a dance night as just about everywhere was packed.

After dinner we headed back up to "Jason's". We were talking about music, and so I was playing with my empeg. That gave me the reason to drive by Jason's house, and later say wait a sec, I missed it. When I had missed it she became suspicious. I then went pretty corny and stopped in front of the Bountiful Temple. I said some private words, that will be special to us, and popped the question. Fortunately I think what ended up coming out of my mouth was perfect, and had much more meaning than any of the other actions that night.

After a lot of kissing and saying yes, we went off so she could announce it to her family.

Tonight I proposed to Katie.

(She said yes.)

Today I got a call at work that Katie's ring was ready. Right after I got off I ran over and picked it up. After I got home I was gazing at it, when I noticed that the jeweler screwed up. The order of the sapphires is wrong on one side. So tomorrow I'll take it back... we'll see how long it takes to fix.

Edit: I took it in at lunch, and it was ready by 6 pm!

Jason and I decided to head down to the dunes as it has been a long time. Before going I decided to change my oil, as I hadn't ridden since May '09, and my fuel filter as it was the original one. This was a good thing, as I discovered that my battery was dead. I threw it on the charger while I worked on my bike, Friday after I got off work.

The fuel filter was a first time for me, but wasn't too bad. It's in a swirl tank under the main gas tank itself. So I pulled the gas tank completely, and was able to change it. Wow the old one was dirty. It really needed to be changed, so it was a good thing I picked it up. The oil kicked my butt a bit. Draining the reservoir was simple, but draining the oil from the motor itself was a frustrating endeavor. I ended up completely pulling my skid plate off, and then finished draining it.

Putting it back together was just as frustrating. I dropped two nuts, never to be seen again, but still got the skid plate secure. As soon as Jason arrived, I grabbed my battery and slapped it in the LT-R. It fired right up! Woo hoo! We loaded it on the trailer and then backed it up next to the van. I wanted to grab some snacks, so we took my car down to Smiths really quick. Snacks acquired, we went back to my house to get to bed. I parked behind my mom to box in the wheelers. Since I was leaving my car outside I wanted to get the major stuff out. I pulled my empeg out, set it on top of my car, then got into the back seat. Grabbed my leather jacket, a game, and some shoes I had back there. Grabbed the snacks we just picked up, and headed inside with all that. Do you see what I missed? More later...

We went straight to bed, and got up at O dark-thirty (5:30). Got dressed, filled camelbaks, and jumped in Jason's 4-runner headed for the dunes. We to Oasis just after 8, and unloaded. While the bikes warmed up we got ready to ride. Then we were off. I was taking the whoops easy as I didn't want to risk my back again. We got out to the dunes and started cruising around.

We paused and chatted about being back out on the sand, and decided where to go next. I told Jason to lead and I would follow. He took off and I hit the starter. It tried, but there wasn't the juice. Fortunately I was pointing downhill, so I tried to pop it. It tried to start, but just wouldn't stay running. After a couple minutes Jason came back to find me. I told him the bad news. Fortunately we weren't too far out, so Jason rode back to the car to grab a strap. I meanwhile climbed a tall dune so he could see me. As soon as he got back we strapped up, and I thought what the heck, and tried to start it.... it fired right up. We never even got to pulling it. Fortunately that was the only time that happened. While I continued to park facing down hill, it fired right up every time after that.

We went to the site of the four jumps in a row, or "The Sisters" as Jason likes to call them, but none of them felt good. We both hadn't ridden like that in over a year, and were wusses. After about two hours, the rain started coming down, so we cruised back to the car to chill and get something to eat.

About 20 minutes after we got back to the car, the rain let up, and we headed back out. This time we headed down towards Sand Mountain. On the way we found a really nice smooth jump. We were only going about 20 feet, but it all felt really smooth. It was good to get the feeling back. We continued to the mountain, where we only climbed the valley. After hitting that we cruised around to the back side. The bowls were big, and there were lots of smooth transitions between them. We cruised and cruised and cruised. It was a blast.

We went around the west side of Sand Mountain, and headed back towards Oasis over the dunes. We went around the west side of the hill at Jericho, and kept playing in the dunes there. We had about 30 minutes of time left before we needed to head back when my gas light came on. That is the first time I have ever let my tank get that empty. We just cruised back, and loaded up to head home. To be cautious I put my back brace on for the ride home. It was uncomfortable, but worth it if it helped. And although my legs are dead sore, I had no back problems after riding.

When we got back to my place to unload I immediately saw what I did. I left my car parked outside, blocking my mom in. And sitting on top of my car was my empeg. In the rain. All night and day. I took it inside to let it dry out. Last night I took it apart and cleaned it with some contact cleaner I have. I slowly reassembled it, and powered it up. Hooray! It still works!

It was great to get back out to the dunes. I'm hopeful I can get out again and again. Jason has pictures and videos... And they are posted here!

Last night Katie and I went to try out a new restaurant. The Bayou. I've been wanting some Cajun for a while, and it seemed like the place. We amazingly found a parking spot, and went in. I ordered us popcorn crawfish to start, so she could see how they tasted. It wasn't nearly like going to a crawfish boil, but it got the idea across.

For dinner itself I ordered blackened catfish, and Katie had the jambalaya. With my entree I got a bowl of gumbo. That's where it started. Part of making the roux in gumbo is burning flour. But it has to be done right, or it tastes like you... burned flour. The whole bowl tasted burned. My gumbo is 1,000 times better than theirs. Katie's "salad" came out with the wrong dressing.

Next our entree's came. I started into mine... tastes odd, but ok. Katie tried a bite and immediately winced. To her it tasted like aquarium chemicals. After she mentioned that I couldn't take a bite of the fish without tasting the same. I didn't finish. The pasta and beans on my plate were decent though. Katie's jambalaya tasted pretty close to authentic. I wouldn't complain about it.

Their motto is "Welcome to Beervana". I guess they have to promote the alcohol because the food is so bad.

Verdict: Don't ever go there!

I haven't been biking lately near as much as I did over the summer. Last night I decided was a good night to get back out there. When I got home I changed and got on my road bike. I started heading west, down the hill. I did a couple runs up and down Sego Lilly, then back home. It was just over 10 miles, and felt really good to be out riding. I still much prefer riding with people, as it helps motivate me, and am not looking forward to the end of the season, and moving inside.

Last night I decided to finalize one of the panorama's that I took down in Moab. I've put it on Photosynth so you can experience how truly cool the view was. This is in Devil's Garden, on the way to Dark Angel. Notice the rock fin that I was standing on. That is part of the trail. Drops on both sides. A crazy trail.

... Welcome to the new site! Well, really it should be exactly the same as the old site, but it's on a new host. I'm growing tired of hosting it myself, so I found a hosting company and signed up. Hopefully this should make the site much faster, especially in the Photo Gallery & DVD sections. One nice thing is with the speed I should be able to host videos I do... of course with YouTube now, who needs to. (Unless you want to download them...)

So if you see any problems with the site, let me know. It may work at one location and not another for a while as the DNS updates need to propagate around the web.

Today woke up like the others at about 7:30. I laid in bed until Jason came back from taking a shower, then I went to do the same. We quickly packed up, loaded up the 4-Runner, and headed out of the KOA. We stopped by Denny's again on the way out. Kinda sad how the quality & price beat out so many other joints.

After eating we drove East along the Colorado River until we reached Onion Creek. We drove up the dirt road to the top. You cross the creek well over a dozen times going along this dirt road. Eventually we reached the top. We unloaded Jason's bike, and he started down. I followed in the 4-Runner, but at a much more leisurely pace. I stopped often to take some quick pictures out the windows. We planned a spot to get several shots of Jason crossing the creek while flying down the road. Some cool pictures there.

After he was finished with the ride we loaded up and headed home. Arrived home about 5:30, and was finally able to clean up properly.

And tonight I get to see Katie.

Today started out at about 7:40. We got up and got showered and dressed to go to church. Jason found a ward in town that started at 9:00, so we went to it. All pretty normal until the closing hymn... number 273. Check it out. Some of the notes just got me... strange rhythm at first. After Sacrament meeting ended Jason asked if I wanted to leave then, which I was all for.

We came back to camp and got changed. Ran to Denny's to get Breakfast/Lunch, then headed to Arches. We stopped at just about all the normal places and took pictures. First off the Court House Towers area. We stayed on the road, and didn't hike down Park Avenue, but took plenty of pictures from the road. Next was Balanced Rock. Walked close to it, but didn't do the whole loop around it. Then we hit the Windows. We did the hike to the North and South Windows, Turret Arch, and Double Arch. Then back on the road, skipping Delicate Arch as we wanted to hike through Devils garden, and would run out of time.

We arrived at the trail head and started down the trail and stopped at all the arches along the way, finally making it out past Double O, to Dark Angel. The whole day I was thinking about Katie when thinking of Dark Angel as she just picked up the DVD's at a garage sale. We stayed there until sunset and got some amazing pictures (to be posted later). We made the hike back in the twilight and complete darkness of the desert. We were back at the car by 9:30, and back to camp by 10. When I got out of the car I couldn't move. I was so stiff. We'll see what the morning brings.

So after we got up, we jumped in the car and headed to the Sunset Grill. Apparently it used to be the house of the guy who did all the uranium mining in Moab. The restaurant wasn't open yet, so we went down to hit up the Rock Shop. Tons of cool rocks there, and I ended up picking up some cool magnetic rocks. Then we cruised back up to the restaurant which was now open. I had a New York steak, which was alright. Not as good as places in Salt Lake, but ok. The cheesecake was grainy. Very weird.

After dinner we just headed back to camp and watched some episodes of Venture Brothers before going to bed.

Today started out much later. I was exhausted, and kept sleeping. Around 7:45 I finally got up. We got dressed to ride and headed out to breakfast. We went just to Denny's this time, where I got the Country Fried Steak and Eggs. Jason just had a short stack. Same thing he had yesterday, but for only 1/4 of the price. (Like I said, Pancake Haus sucks) After breakfast we headed up to the world famous Slick Rock trail.

I applied plenty of sunscreen, and we headed off. After a whopping .2 miles (according to the numbers on the rock) I called it quits. I just don't like riding on the rock. I grabbed the keys from Jason, and headed back, while he continued on through the practice loop, and the main trail. I grabbed my hiking boots, and my camera, and went back out. I took a bunch of pictures from on the trail, and waited for Jason to come back. I know it was over an hour that I waited, but can't say exactly how long. They say the average person does it in 2-4 hours, and I was sure he would go faster than that. Eventually he came back, and I took a bunch more pictures. As we were loading up at the car he said he was done for the day. The whole ride was exposed in the sun with barely a breeze to cool him off.

We came back to camp and hit the showers again. Today I also shaved. I hate shaving, but I hate facial hair worse, and it was getting bad. All cleaned up we chilled in the tent. I wrote this up, and Jason is on his side snoring.

I'll finish up more later.

I miss Katie.

Last night Jason and I rolled into Moab around 7 pm. We set up our tent quickly, then went into town for dinner and ice. We decided pasta was the item of choice before the epic riding to take place, so we went to Pasta Jay's. After dinner we kept the night simple, and just picked up some ice, and watched a short mountain biking movie.

Friday morning we both woke up about 6:30 am. First we went into town to get breakfast at the Pancake Haus. Way overpriced. Nobody ever go there. Then we cruised back to camp, got dressed and made our way out to the brand trails. We started on the Bar M, heading south. Our plan was to ride everything except the Killer B trail. So first up was the Bar B. It started out as nice singletrack with a few rocks to go over. It wasn't long though before I hit a rock, stalled, and ended up going over my handlebars. I laid there for a minute as the adrenaline started surging through me. Eventually I made my way up as Jason came upon the carnage. No damage to me, but the mount for my computer was toast. As we continued on I walked more and more of the trail. It was over tons of large individual rocks, and I wasn't handling them well. Eventually we got to dirt, where the riding was much simpler.

After the loop of the Bar B finished, we got on Rocking A. It was much better than the Bar B, but I still would have hard times in the technical areas. I took my time, and was slow, but eventually we reached the Circle O trail. This one was the easiest of the three on rock, and there were fewer areas where I walked, but I still felt better on it than the other ones. Finally it reached the other end of the Bar M, and we finished the loop back around to the car. I had forgotten to put sunscreen on, and after that long ride I was paying for it. Sunburns on my legs, arms, face, and neck.

We loaded up and went back to town, stopping at McDonalds for a quick cheap lunch. Then back to camp where we both crashed. The heat along with the effort just did us in. About 3 PM we left the camp again to go ride. We stopped at a bike shop to get some parts for Jason's brakes. The shop hooked him up, and recommended to us to ride Dead Horse Point. We checked it out online really quick, and decided sure. So we made the drive out there, about 30 miles from Moab.

We started on the trail itself, me riding gingerly due to saddle sores, and made our way out to the first viewpoint. Nice. Then on to the the second view point. Cool. We continued on. We turned a corner and suddenly saw a rock wall right in front of us. There was no way we were riding that. So we hiked our bikes up and over that. Jason got on and started riding again. Another little steep rocky climb, and he stalled out! Over he went onto his left side, smacking his knee directly onto a rock. He slowly got up, feeling the pain in his knee. We paused for a minute as he tried to work it out, then got riding again.

A few corners later there was a narrow rocky climb. Jason went up first, then my turn. I started going up. The trail was super loose, and although I was in the right gear I spun out. I started going over. I quickly unclipped my right foot to try to put it down. It slid off the rocks on the side, and down my leg went off a small cliff to the right! Fortunately the cliff was only two feet tall, so I did catch myself with on foot on the ground, the other clipped into my bike, which was now sideways.

I'd pretty much had enough with the crash and the pain in my rear, so at the last turn off, I started to loop back. Jason would continue on to complete the full loop. I made my way back, taking my time, and eventually reached the car. I pulled out my camera and started taking photos. It was about 5 PM when Jason got back. We took some time to take some pictures at both the visitor center, and out at Dead Horse Point itself. We didn't want to take the time though to get good light, so finished up and headed back. It was shower time.

Back at camp we both showered up, then headed out for dinner. We ended up going to the Moab Diner where I topped of my Kokopelli Chicken Sandwich with some apple pie a la mode. Another ice run then back to camp, where after I spent some time texting Katie, we both crashed hard.

Throughout the day I though often of how fun it would be to bring Katie down, and we both spend time taking pictures. I told her that, and we decided we need to do it this next spring.

Yesterday Eric, Jason and I went for another bike ride on the Wasatch Crest. As it was an even numbered day though, we continued down Millcreek Canyon.

We started this ride off at the top of Guardsmens Pass, and tried to take the Scott's Bypass trail. Unfortunately we missed a turn, and ended hiking our bikes up and back down a really nasty trail. After that it was puke hill. I hate that thing. We all eventually made it up to the top, and took a few minutes to rest up and keep from puking. (I had to keep it down at least...)

We started down the single track. Eric was leading and I was in the rear. I suddenly came upon a horrific scene. Bikes were on the sides of the trails and Eric was in the bushes off the to side. Apparently he endoed on a flat smooth section of trail. He said he hit a rock or something. He made sure there were no serious injuries, just some bumps and bruises, and we took off. The next climb, then time for The Spine.

I still have not got my mojo back. I'm getting better, but I don't need to ride something crazy to have fun. This results in me walking more technical obstacles. I'm fine with that. So I started my walk. Jason started his ride down the new easier line down the spine. Then Eric started as well. He walked over one section I believe, but rode the rest. Props to them. Then it was into Millcreek Canyon.

Most of that was uneventful. There was a rock section I walked, then a section I did ride Eric endoed again. The guy behind him should have got it on video, so hopefully I'll be able to share Eric's endo with everyone soon. He got up and we rode the rest of the way down. We started down the road, and diverted onto the Pipeline trail. Rode that trail until the first exit at Birch Hollow, then took the road the rest of the way down. 23.6 miles.

I went home and showered, then crashed on my bed. I turned on my oxygen concentrator, and put on my cpap mask and enjoyed getting some O2 into my blood. I napped for about an hour. A bit later Katie came over, we went and grabbed a bite to eat, then I took her for a "Reality Tour", showing her some interesting places from my life. One funny thing, she grew up one house down, and across the street from Cliff and Amy. Crazy! After the reality tour I subjected her to the torture of Missionary Man, and she was so kind to massage my neck and shoulders as they were so sore from the ride. She's now seen a different side of all of us!

Today I had a followup on a sleep study I just did. This was to see how well my CPAP was working.

Some numbers---

Before:
Apnea/hypopnea's/hr (AHI): 123.2
O2 average saturation: 89.5%
O2 low Saturation: 82%

With my CPAP 2 years later:
Apnea/hypopnea's/hr (AHI): 2.6
O2 average saturation: 92.7%
O2 low Saturation: 89%

A bit of a difference! It's shows my therapy is definitely working. Which is great as I want my heart to last for a long time. I definitely encourage everyone who doesn't sleep well, finds themselves waking up often, and even snores, to get a sleep study done. You can first do a home study, where you just wear a vest to measure the stuff in the comfort of home.

I had another date last night with the girl I went out with a week ago. I picked her up, and we headed down to the Gateway, and went to grab some dinner at Happy Sumo. I've only ever really had the cheap California rolls, never anything "good", so this was a first. We got one of their California Rolls, their tempura fried Vegas Roll, and for something a little more bold, the Jezabelle Roll. I tried them all, and while the Jezabelle wasn't my favorite, I did have a couple pieces of it.

After dinner we ran upstairs and picked up tickets to Scott Pilgrim vs The World, but it wasn't for almost 2 hours. So we just started walking around and talking. Eventually we ended up sitting my the fountain talking until it was time for the movie. Back up to the theater, and got in our seats. That movie was so hilarious! I highly recommend it! After the movie, it was like 12:30, so I took her home, then rushed home myself to get to bed. Another good date!

Last night started out all sorts of bad. Immediately after work I went to the gas station to fill up. I checked my tires, and needed to add some air, so after filling up I pulled over to the air hose. Got the fronts... and crap. The hose wasn't extending, so I couldn't get to the rears. Moved the car so that I could top them off. Time to go home. Jumped in, turned the key, nothing.

Tried again and again. I have plenty of power, but nothing was happening. I gave Eric a ring to see if he had any ideas. Recommended I try starting in Neutral.. No good. Looked and didn't see any fuses for the starter or such. Then while poking around under the hood I noticed my fluid had leaked out far too much. Ran into the station, no distilled water. So I walked over to Smiths to get some. My car requires special G12 antifreeze which is pretty much only available at Audi/VW dealers. No gas stations or auto parts stores carry it. So I added a bit of distilled water, to see if a dry sensor was causing it. Nope. Still nothing.

I called Eric again, and he was going to stop by on the way home to see if he could see anything. I got out my phone and started searching online. Eventually I found a post that mentioned the transmission multifunction switch. The recommended trying in park, the neutral, then park, and so on. So I kept moving the transmission between the two, each time trying to start it. Suddenly it started! Yay! Rather than risk anything I immediately started going home. Once in the garage I stopped the car, and tried to restart it, no problem. Reversed out, and back in and tried it again, still good. Ok.

At about 7:15 I started loading up my car to take pictures of the Perseid Meteors. But first I went over to Eric's to have cake and ice cream for Whitnee's birthday. I hung out there, helped Eric try to get his xbox playing nice with his router, and headed off to get a spot at about 9:30. A quick run to Dan's to get some Dew and snacks, and I was off.

I reached the top of Emigration Canyon at 10:00. It was packed! I found a place to park, and set stuff up. I started playing with settings to try to find something that worked well. As the night went on cars kept coming up and down. It was very hard to include some horizon in the shot for a cool point of reference. Finally I said screw it, loaded up my gear, and hiked up the mountain on the north side of the road. No more headlights! I sat there and tried several different angles, exposures, etc... At 1:30 AM I packed up and headed back to the car. It did start immediately, so I headed back home, and to bed an hour later.

I looked over my shots... Not one turned out. I think it was a combination of things. A darker sky would have greatly helped. (Going camping away from everything next year!) I did a poor job of focusing the camera. Very difficult using just the small LCD to figure it out. And finally I'm going to say I was using the wrong lens. I need a lens with a much larger aperture (1.4-2.8). The meteors were so faint that with the brief amount of time they are visible, not enough light can get into the camera from them. So next time I try sky or even just meteor photography, I'll first rent a lens that gives me that larger aperture.

Yesterday Jason and I rode up Mueller Park. I got to his place at 6 PM. We changed, loaded up our camelbaks, and drove down to the trailhead. We were on the trail by 6:30. The trail is one of the greats in the area. Smooth hard pack, with a light dusting of old pine needles. The first mile is the real kicker, with a pretty high grade. But after that it becomes much more manageable. We took our time, and made it the 3.6 miles up to Elephant Rock. That's about the same distance as the top of Clark's.

I was feeling pretty decent, so after resting for a while, and chatting with another rider, we continued up towards Rudy's Flat. There were a few sections that were a bit rockier than below, and definitely a lot more roots. We stopped at the 5 mile mark, and made the call to turn around due to the light. So we started booking it back down. Relatively early Jason hit a root to jump it, and hit a rock on the landing, sending him flying off the trail. He kept the bike upright, but went into the trees off the side of the trail.

We kept going down as it got darker, dodging horse crap along the way. At the bottom it was very dark, and compounded by the tree cover, but we made it out and back to the car. We cruised back to Jason's house, and started some chicken for dinner. As it cooked we relaxed our muscles in the hot tub. After dinner was ready we parked it in front of the TV and watched part 2 of the Battlestar Galactica miniseries.