Thank You, MHG

Geez I'm such a lazy bum. If not for the bet with my buddy MHG, I probably would have skipped posting for even longer. Here are some random pics from the past week.

Photos in the Life: Day 8

UW Basketball: Gross. That sandwich: Not Gross. Love the life.

Photos in the Life: Day 7

Today, Ryan and I went golfing at a pretty ghetto Executive Course and had a blast. It was par 60 and I shot 87 but I'm definitely hitting my irons a lot better than I used to. Tonight, we went to a bar and the 8 of us quickly made a numbers board out of some receipt tape. We bought the squares for $2 each so there was $200 in the prize pool: $25 to the winner of the first and third quarters, $50 to the winner of halftime, and $100 to the winner of the Final score. I had Alabama 8 and Texas 1 and was ecstatic when Bama scored with a minute left. It seemed like I was a lock to win the $100 BUT THE KICKER MISSES THE EXTRA POINT and my buddy Joshua Weiland wins with Alabama 7 Texas 1. One of the worst gambling beats I've ever taken. Josh deserved it though because he had the halftime win locked up when Alabama had the miracle Pick-6, sending the $50 to Clint. Anyway, I took a bad photo of the numbers grid and Ryan took a picture of me on the golf course for your enjoyment. Holla!

Photos in the Life: Day 6

Today we hiked up Camelback Mountain. I'm in much worse shape than ever before and bailed before we reached the top. Luckily, Josh and Daut didn't give me too much crap for it but I'll be back soon to get to the top. Here are some pics from the hike...the pics didn't turn out very well because THE WEATHER IS JUST FRIKKIN PERFECT DOWN HERE AND THE SUN IS TOO BRIGHT!!! Seriously, 75 and perfect on January 6th. It's mind-boggling.

Photos in the Life: Day 5

Today we ran a few errands around the house, went to Costco, and spent some time at the driving range. The weather was just unreal, 73 degrees and blue skies as far as you can see. I meant to take pictures at the driving range but I was too tilted by my ugly shots. Tomorrow we're going for a hike up Camelback Mountain and I should get some quality pics from the summit. Holler.

P.S. The condoms in the shopping cart aren't mine, they're my roommate's.
P.P.S. I use Magnums, obviously!

Photos in the Life: Day 4

Today I finished Season 3 of Lost, ate 2 meals with 3 of my best friends, and flew back to Phoenix. The highlight was definitely the meals so they are the pics of the day. Lunch was Coho Salmon at Ray's Boathouse. Insanely delicious. I lost credit card roulette but I didn't mind. I just love it when my normal friends, Davis and Kenny in this case, play roulette with me. Dinner was at the Australian Bar, Kangaroo & Kiwi, where they feature 25 cent wings on Mondays. It's a favorite Monday Night hangout and I was joined by Dookie Dave. I bought dinner as repayment for him driving me to the airport but $24 for 45 wings, wedges and beer is a wonderful deal. Anyway, here are the pics of the day. Hopefully tomorrow I will do something outdoors in the Arizona sunshine.

Photos in the Life: Day 3

Today I did absolutely nothing. The goal of this "picture a day" blog is to do something cool every day so that I'll have a cool pic to put up. Blah. The highlight of the day was dinner with my Dad and Sister so here you go.

Photos in the Life: Day 2

Dong Melvi!



Holla.



Go Dawgs! (Ignore the score, please)

Photos in the Life: Day 1

Mom loves the Jello!



King in the Castle!





Holla!

Blogging in the New Year

I really want to blog more often but I can't find the motivation or creativity to write anything interesting. I want to use the blog as motivation to live a better life, ultimately spending fewer wasted days sitting around doing nothing and enjoy more productive days out and about learning and improving my life. That might be the worst sentence of all time but you know what I mean.

The idea that I've come up with is turning this into more of a consistent and photo-heavy experience. Every night, I will create a "Today in the Life" entry with four or five pictures from that day and no more than one short paragraph. If I do this every day, it'll motivate me to have something cool or new to put up every single day. And, once I get in the routine of posting daily, I'll want to write more about the cool things I'm doing.

Well, that's the latest idea in my constant struggle with blogging. I wonder what kind of odds I could get against my successfully blogging for 365 consecutive days. 100-1? I would get some sort of leniency on long travel days, since I have trips to Israel and South Africa already planned, but that's just semantics. Here's to a successful New Year of blogging.

The calm before the storm

I'm back in Germany, trying to drink water and rest up in preparation for the storm that's going to hit on Friday. Four of my best friends are flying in from Seattle and we're going to embark on a 16-day road trip through Western Europe. We're starting here in Frankfurt then going from Stuttgart-Munich-Prague-Wiesbaden-Cologne-Amsterdam-Belgium-Paris-Luxembourg-Wiesbaden. Once again, I'm going to be the 5th wheel on this trip but it's a role I've grown accustomed to over the years.

This weekend I took a short trip up to London and I got to see one of the most incredible concerts of my life. Jay Z opened for Coldplay and he killed it with a 16-song set. I was surprised how many Londoners knew all the words to his songs and how receptive they were. I was blown away and I can't believe I got to see Coldplay on the same bill. This was the 159th and final concert on their Viva La Vida tour and they, too, did a phenomenal job. The 80,000 people in the crowd were really into it as well but that wasn't as much of a surprise since the band was performing in their home town. About 10 minutes before Coldplay hit the stage, it started to dump rain and those of us on the floor got absolutely soaked. Almost no one seemed to care and it really enhanced the experience when they came out 10 minutes later. I will never forget standing int he pouring rain, singing along to Coldplay with 80,000 people. I shot a few videos and put them up on youtube and I'll link to them at the end of this post.

I got home from the concert and hopped online hoping to be able to watch the end of the UW-USC game but it was already over and amazingly, the Huskies won! I must have watched the highlights 100 times that night and could feel my chest swelling with Husky pride. The downside to traveling is that every once in a while you miss the incredible moments that happen right at home. Oh well. I do feel like getting put in the top 25 is a bit of an overreaction but time will tell if we deserve it or not. I really would love to go to a bowl game this year.

Anyway, that's it for now. For the rest of the week I'm going to play a lot of poker and try to balance all the spending I've been doing. Wish me luck.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Schneckenhof Mannheim

Once again, the Schneckenhof party did not disappoint. I am really lucky to have made such a great group of German friends. I don't know why I always find youngsters to hang out with but I enjoy their youthful exuberance and they don't seem to mind my old man-ness yet. These college parties are unlike anything in the US...they are held on campus, in a Quad-like area, and there are booths set up on the periphery with beer, shots, or wine. There's a huge stage set up on one end and people drink, dance and kick it. And they do it every Thursday night. I love it.

Here are some pics and a video from the night. I took it easy tonight and I'm flying to London early in the morning. I can't wait for this Coldplay/Jay Z concert, it should be phenomenal. I'm having a blast out here but I'm really sad about missing tailgating back home. GO HUSKIES!!!