Turkey Trot and Thanksgiving Feast

Ahh the joys of blogging.

To some it may seem insanity to run 3.1 miles on an early Thursday morning at the end of November, not only run mind you, but pay hard earned American dollars to do so. But, for the 700 or so participants of this year's annual Mini-Cassia Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot it is about more than that. What that more is I am sure varies by the person. For some it is the thrill of competition, for others it is about the good cause and money raised, for others it is about simply finishing. I believe Dani and I fall somewhere between simply finishing and the thrill of competition, but a good cause is nice. But, we must start with the beginning...

So, about a month and a half ago, the wifey found out about this 5K race held every Thanksgiving Day. A fun run I believe they call it. Now there is an oxymoron. Fun-Run? When is running ever fun? Running is a fight-or-flight mechanism programmed deep into our brains to protect us from things that could hurt us, things like bears, police, raging bulls, and Richard Simmons. Anyway, Dani and I decided this would be a good event and motivation to get in shape. So the training began. The going was slow but eventually we were able to get up to a point that we could run the distance without having to walk. We often had to run in the cold frigidness of night because that was when we could run together after work. But that was OK, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, or perhaps weaker, oh well. The looming day grew ever nearer and we gathered more and more excited. Eventually the time was upon us and we headed to Burley the night before Thanksgiving. You were encouraged to pick up your racing number, free t-shirt, etc. the night before in order to ease congestion on the busy morning of. Thus was our plan. However the address they provided was rather obscure. We tried Google and we tried Mapquest. We tried the globe and we tried GPS. None provided the solid directions we sought, but undaunted we thought we could "figure it out". Bad idea. we ended up going way too far to the east, and then way too far to the west. Eventually we wound up on some old dirt road driving out into the unknown wilderness with a boding feeling of fear and what may become of us. Was this Turkey Trot some myth devised to get unsuspecting travelers to journey this old dirt road only to have their cars found abandoned up on cinder blocks and never to be heard from again? We should have suspected so, after all it was called a "fun-run". Ridiculous. Well after some phone calls we realized that we had passed the place a long time ago and thus headed back towards the civilization from whence we had come.

All was well after that and after a good night's rest the big morning was upon us. The time was close and so everyone lined up at the start. The countdown began and Bang! we were off. Well sort of, because of the massive crowd it took awhile to finally get out to a decent pace. Eventually we got going and things went well. Dani and I separated and each tried to make our own best time. I kept a steady pace and thanks to some "motivational" music (aka Eminem "Till I Collapse" - I found it rather fitting as that is what I wanted to do) I was able to do well considering it being my first distance run ever. As for Dani she had a nice run as well; she thought there was a lot more to go when she came around the last turn and thus was pleased to know the finish was close but didn't quite pace it as she had hoped. At the finish line we were happy to enjoy the sweet taste of victory and knowing that we had completed our task. Overall it ended up being quite the fun-run!

Here's Dani chugging along coming up to the finish!

Here we are after the race along with Dani's cousin Amy.

And here we are with Lucky the Turkey

Now we just need to find another race to keep us motivated and in shape. Dani's time ended up being 34:16 and mine was somewhere around 28:30 (not sure as I forgot to look at the clock while crossing the finish line). Not bad for our first race. We stuck around to watch everyone else come in and see the presentation of awards. They also had a drawing and gave away a brand new mountain bike and a pair of running shoes. We weren't the winners of anything cool, but we did get free vitamin water and fruit just for participating!

After a good run we enjoyed the Thanksgiving Holiday...

It was nice, we journeyed to the land of the in-laws, mine that is. We went to Dani's home and had a good time. The morning and afternoon were spent making preparations. The kitchen was all a hubbub. Trying to let in some holiday cheer, I decided to turn on the glorious event that is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Alright, it's not that glorious but it was nice to have some holiday tunes in the background. While the women cooked, the men headed downstairs to pay homage to the mighty X-Box and celebrate this day of thanks by condemning alien foes to a bountiful butt whooping! At least Dani's brothers did. I made a measly attempt with my pink controller (thanks again guys), but always seemed to end up in the negative. That is my kill-to-death ratio (I believe the gaming world calls it) was always heavy on the death side, and not the good kind in that I died more than I dealt death. In other words it would have been better for my team had I and my pink controller coward and hid from others rather than go out and get shot. Oh well. What's the fun in that?

Anyway, eventually the feast was ready and we emerged from the darkness of the basement with bloodshot eyes and cramped thumbs eager for sustenance. We were not disappointed. The food was grand and delicious, many thanks to the cooks. Here are some pics:

Here is half the table...

here is the other half....

here is the cheesiest half of the table...

and here is the most important part of the table. I LOVE pumpkin-ish things: pies, breads, cookies, cakes and shakes. Dani made this specially for me, the picture doesn't even do it justice, it was delicious!

That was the gist of our Thanksgiving Holiday. The rest of the day was spent napping and playing with family until we had to journey back home in order for me to work bright and early on Black Friday.

New Moon!

Of course I had to go see New Moon as soon as I could. As I've said before, I was disappointed by the first movie, but the trailer for this one looked pretty intense so I was pretty excited for it to come out. So on one of my weekend trips to Burley, a bunch of my family got together to go see it. It was interesting that out of the eight of us in our group, only two or three had actually read the book, so it was fun watching the movie with them and seeing what they thought.

And now for my movie review:

WOW!! This movie was AMAZING! Sooo Sooo SOOO much better than the first one. I was nervous about how the animation would be with the wolves and how they would do it without making it look cheesy, but I thought they did a great job. And I don't know what it was about the characters, but even their acting seemed better and more believable. I liked Kristen Steward and Rob Pattinson a lot more in this film compared to Twilight. And Taylor Lautner!...enough said.

I also liked the screenplay to New Moon better than Twilight; it seemed to stay truer to the book. However there were a couple of parts they changed and a couple of cheesy parts that I didn't like - but not enough for me to not enjoy it. I couldn't believe how fast the time went by - I easily could have sat there for another hour and not have noticed. I've heard that the next movie should be coming out next June so that will be exciting - not too long to wait!

So now I have a dilemna: Team Edward or Team Jacob? I've ALWAYS been Team Edward before, but now I'm just undecided. Good thing it's not a make it or break it decision right? :) Here's a pic of some of us in attendance that blessed night: Jill, Me, Syd, Jamie, Kelsi and not pictured: Linds, Tysi, and my momma (she sure got a kick out of it!)

(Photo courtesy of Jill - thanks Jill!)

Good Ol' Family Bonding

November has been a busy month for us. My sister, Lindsay, and her daughter, Katelyn, were here visiting from Chicago for three weeks. Sadly, I had to work (actually I shouldn't say sadly, because I feel very blessed to have a job at the moment), but I drove to Bur-town every weekend that they were here so I could spend as much time as possible with them. We had lots of fun! We went out to eat, played TONS of games, went shopping, watched movies, went to the movies (NEW MOON!!! Don't worry, this event will have its own special post), taught Kate some of Michael Jackson's "signature" moves (Linds wasn't too thrilled about that part of her visit), and all in all had a great time. I miss them already. Here are some pics from our activities.

Me and Brandt with the little stinker at Syd's basketball game. Kate likes
to put her arms around two people and say "Cheeeeeeese!"

Linds, Kate, and Brandt playing "Ticket to Ride"

Kate and Grandma singing "Popcorn Popping"

Aunt Nada, Brandt, me, Jill, and Linds playing "Five Crowns"
(photo courtesy of Jill) This was my first time playing this
game and it is tons of fun.

The Girls

The whole family; this is a terrible pic, but due to the fact that my
brothers are retarded and like to screw up photos, this is the
best-looking one of about 20 that we took.

Me, Kate, and Grandma at Cafe Rio. YUM!

Me and Kate sharing a popsicle and playing Phase 10
(I wasn't kidding when I said we played LOTS of games!)

And Rex - All of our playing was a little too much excitement for him!

Book Review: War and Peace

War and Peace

By Leo Tolsoy

This has definitely been one of the hardest books I've ever read. Four months later and One THOUSAND three hundred eighty-six pages later, I'm finally FINISHED! Woot! I'm patting myself on the back for this one :)

I've always wanted to try reading this book, mainly because it's such a huge classic that I wanted to know what it was all about. For those of you who aren't familiar with the novel, it was published in 1869 and is classified as historical fiction, my favorite genre. It covers the Napoleonic Wars with the French invasion of Russia, starting in 1805 and continuing through 1813 and an epilogue in 1820. The novel is seen through the eyes of five aristocratic families and chronicles their struggles and connections mingled with the history of that time period. Just this year War and Peace was #1 in Newsweek's Top 100 Books of All Time. So of course I have to read the #1 Book EVER written right?

So here is my opinion: I can see why this book is a classic. Tolstoy is brilliant in the way he describes his characters and events. He goes into so much detail that you really understand people's motives, feelings, etc. You meet hundreds of characters throughout the novel, so for the first half of the book, I had to write everyone's name's down so I could keep them all straight and figure out which ones were important enough to remember. However, I personally got lost in the details of the book. He goes on for pages and pages about war strategy, or describing a battle. And in the second half of the book, Tolstoy dedicates SEVERAL chapters to essays on the subject of war and Russian history, and I didn't care for these parts of the book at all. But I think the majority of the problem was that it is Russian history, which I don't really care about. If I were a Russian, and understood more about the war and the places, events, etc. that Tolstoy describes, I would probably appreciated the book more. Or if the book was centered around our own Civil War or Revolutionary War (something that I understand), I would be able to follow it better. But, I did learn a lot about the Napoleonic Wars that I didn't know before so I guess that's a plus.

As far as the fictional story of War and Peace, I really enjoyed that part. I grew to love certain characters, but even in that aspect Tolstoy disappointed me. He kept killing off my favorite characters and the book didn't end at all like I wanted it to. Consider Twilight for a moment (Tolstoy would probably roll over in his grave knowing I'm comparing his classic to a vampire love story) - How would you feel if Bella ended up with Jacob? You'd feel cheated right? Because she's SUPPOSED to be with Edward. Well, in War and Peace, Natasha ends up with Jacob...and Edward dies. At least that's my opinion. I always thought of Pierre (aka Jacob in this analogy) as kind of a dipstick, so I hated that Natasha ended up with him. But I guess she went a little nutty herself so I guess they were perfect for each other. And I cried when Prince Andrey (aka Edward) died (sorry, kind of a spoiler there but I figure nobody reading this - if anybody does end up reading this - will actually read the book- so no harm done!). ANYWAYS, So given all of that, I have to say War and Peace is not on my personal list of Best Books of All Time. I'll probably never read it again, but I am glad that I took the time to work my way through it.

So after I got done reading the book, I thought I'd rent the movie version and see how it measured up. There are a few movie versions out there; I rented the 1956 version starring Audrey Hepburn as Natasha. I have to say this is the first time in my life (that I remember at least) that I thought the movie was better than the novel - but don't read too much into that because the movie wasn't outstanding by any means. I liked that it captured all of the best parts of the book and it was fun to see the characters brought to life. Reading the book definitely made the movie much easier to understand.

I'm glad that I stuck with it and finished this book through (All one THOUSAND three hundred eighty-six pages of it :) but I'll probably never read it again. There are too many other books out there I need to get to.

Next project: The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott (should be interesting :)

Palisades

Last Friday, Brandt wanted to go on a day trip to Palisades Creek (up past Idaho Falls). So all week leading up to Friday he was trying to talk me into going with him. Neither one of us had been before. I had no desire to go; I just wanted to veg on the couch all day (I'm quite lazy on my days off). But he said we could go on a hike up to this pretty lake where he could fish while I read my book, the weather was going to be really nice, the leaves should be changing colors so it would be really pretty, etc. etc. So finally I consented to go.

The first half of the day was pretty great. The weather was absolutely perfect for hiking and everything was so pretty. Here are some pics we took along the way...

I think Brandt said it was about a four-mile hike to the lake. But after hiking for about two hours, we were hungry so we stopped on this flat rock and had lunch before turning around. Not ten minutes later, we see this...

And I'm thinking, "Great. It's going to snow." And sure enough, it did. And it snowed hard. And we still had an hour and a half of hiking before we could get back to the car. At this point, I am just loving the fact that I came along on this little adventure. I'm walking pretty quickly so as to get out of the storm as fast as possible. We walk across this bridge and I turn around to make sure Brandt is still with me and he looks at me with these puppy dog eyes, looks down at the creek, and then back at me.

"You want to fish, don't you?" I ask him.

"Can I?" He asks me back.

"Do you not see that it is SNOWING out here?!" I throw back at him.

"Just 20 minutes and if I don't catch anything, then we'll go," he tries to persuade me.

"Fine." So I find a spot under the bridge to hide and keep dry while this crazy man does his thing...

(You can click on the pics to enlarge)

Lucky for me, he didn't catch anything and 20 minutes later we were on our way. Here's some pics of us as we trudge on through the snow...

That's me making the expression "normal" people make when there 57 degree perfect hiking weather suddenly drops to 35 and snow comes crashing down when you still have three miles to go. And, of course, there's Brandt giving his take on the turn of events.

Oh well, It's Idaho right? What more can you expect from this state? But even amidst the snow and sleet I still had a good time and was glad that I tagged along. Brandt didn't get to fish as much as he had hoped, but we still had fun. And, looking on the bright side, it could have been worse. It could have rained and we would have ended up a lot more wet than we did with the snow. And Brandt could have ended up catching a fish in those 20 minutes and we would have had to stay there all day while he tried for a second :) So it turned out pretty good for both of us. It was so pretty up there and so quiet and peaceful. If any of you have the chance to go up there, it's worth the drive, especially now when all the leaves are changing. Just check the weather forecast before you go and pack warm clothes. Just in case.

Polly-Dent

The ADHA (American Dental Hygienists' Association) hosted a YouTube competition for hygiene students where they had to create a short video that teaches 5-year-old kids how to properly brush their teeth. The general public then voted on the videos to select a winner. This was the winning video, and Brandt and I thought it was pretty funny (I think Brandt got a bigger kick out of it than I did). It's definitely better than the "fish porn" Brandt posted last week :) So enjoy!

p.s. You can go to ADHA's YouTube Channel to view other videos. We didn't really like the 2nd place video, but the 3rd place one is pretty good also.

The Obsession

Dani has informed me that it is my turn to update the blog of Hines. However, there has not been a lot of excitement around the home these days. I am quite excited that now it is October and officially Halloween season (my second favorite holiday after Christmas). That almost seems like an oxymoron. But, thus it is. But I am getting side tracked. I did think of a post I could publish and so here it goes.

A few posts ago I mentioned the love and appreciation I give my dear wife for a sometimes obsessive hobby. Fly fishing. The obsession began when I was a wee lad. I loved to fish but never actually fished the fly, instead I dunked the worm. I am not sure why, perhaps because I was young and intimidated by the beauty of the cast or the complexity of the sport. As I grew up I lost the loving feeling and became enveloped in other things such as school, sports, girls, and The Lord of the Rings. But the thoughts and feelings, though suppressed, lingered still and waited patiently for a time when life and decisions were more my own.

Enter marriage. Now, it may seem that this would be the least likely time when decisions and life are more your own and more than ever belong to someone else, usually the wife. For me, this is not true. A few years back, I am not quite sure how or when, I was hit again with the memories and passion for fishing that had evaded me for most of my high school career. I distinctly remember asking my dear wife one day if I might purchase the necessities and gear required for the adventures of such an activity. I also remember her asking if this would be a hobby I would keep with (I often have many a dream and daily change of interest in hobbies. Thus part of my problem choosing a career, but that is another story for another time)I assured her it would be worth while, and thus began the work of becoming a fly fisherman! (Little did she know what she was getting into.)

Now I am no professional but I do enjoy the occasional outing. This is what brings me to the obsessive part. Such as last week when I had to work all night from 10 pm to 5 am and still went fishing the next day without any sleep.
Did I have to slap my self in the face while driving to stay awake? Yes. It hurt too.
Did I suddenly become wide awake whenever stepping into the water? Yes (not only because it is around 50 degrees.)
Did I get sunburned on half my face and neck? Yes, and only half. Due to the sun strangely only shining from the east early in the morning.
Did I have to eventually sleep in the car with windows that don't roll down? Yes.
Did I wake up not only an hour later with a pounding headache and a smell that can only be described as un-showered sea otter baked in a 100 degree car? Sadly, yes.
Am I thinking of making that smell into a cologne? Perhaps.
Did I have to work at 6 am the next day? Yes.
Did I catch any fish? No.
Was it worth the sleep deprivation, sun burning, headache bringing, new smell sensation day? You bet.

I was going to try again a couple days ago but sadly succumbed to the 30-50 mph winds, rain, and occasional snow, and getting up at 5:30. After finding this video trailer I was disappointed in myself. Such videos and images are romantically known amongst anglers as fish porn. Watch it and perhaps you t0o will understand the obsession. If not, it's your loss. Enjoy.