Days of my Life

just a punk kid

2008-12-18T12:14:00.002-05:00

Funnest. Car. Ever. So I’m driving a 2009 911 Carrera S for the week. The picture above is from me working in Hershey, PA. I put it because I am driving one of the green cars that we used while there. Seriously. I love the car. I could get in soo much trouble with it because it is so much fun to drive. No joke, I’ll be driving around not thinking about much, then look at the speedometer and realize that I’m going 80 in a 45. The car is powerful, 385 horsepower, and it can go from 0 to 60 in 4.5 seconds with our new Porsche Doppelkupplung transmission (double clutch). The Cayenne is cool… but this is awesome.

Road trip

2008-12-08T08:24:00.002-05:00

When Melanie asks for something, Melanie gets something. This entry is pretty much a journal log of a recent trip. So… since I will be switching into a newer Cayenne sometime in the next few weeks, I figured it was time for a road trip to put some miles on the Cayenne, because I’m nowhere near the limit. Spur of the moment, me and some friends decided to go to Charleston, SC. Mapquest and google maps, estimated it to be a little over 5 hours, but it ended up being about 4.5 hours. We used priceline to get a hotel on the quick and cheap. We left Friday evening around 8, meaning we got to the hotel around 12:30. The next morning, not really having a gameplan, or knowing much about the city, we looked online and decided to go downtown. We found a farmers market and walked around there for a bit, and then walked down their main street which had lots of shops/stores and little restaurants.

We then heard about this place called “old market,” which is apparently where they used to sell slaves. Anyway, its still standing but now there are a whole bunch of vendors selling a variety of items such as jewelry, art, baskets, and clothing, among other things. By the time we were done with that it was about lunch time, so we went to this famous seafood place called Hyman’s. Since I don’t like seafood, I ordered chicken fingers and they were the worst chicken fingers I’ve ever had but whatever. After lunch we decided to do a little bit of exploring. Two of us wanted to see an old aircraft carrier that is docked there so we went over the bridge to this place to find that it’d be 16 bucks each to go on it, and since the other two with us put up a fight against it, we didn’t get to go up. So, we went to a park by the water instead. We walked around a bunch, had fun, took pictures, and made our way to what is called rainbow row. Its really just a few houses in a row that all have different colors on the outside – someone said it was famous but I still don’t know why or if it really is.

It started sprinkling on us, and we were all a little tired so we decided to go back to the hotel. They all decided to take naps, while I stayed awake and switched back and forth between the USC-UCLA game and Florida-Alabama SEC Championship. By the time those games were finished we were all awake and ready for dinner and we had already seen a place we wanted to go. After the navigation tried to make us go in circles, we found our way to a bbq place called “sticky fingers.” It was pretty much delicious, I got ribs and bbq pork, with cinnamon apples and mac and cheese. There wasn’t really anything cool after that. Pictures to come (I didn’t take any so I’ll have to wait for my friends to post em).

Has it been that long?

2008-10-14T16:54:00.003-04:00

Its been forever and a day since I last posted so I figure I’m long overdue for an update. Here’s a quick rundown of things that have happened. I moved into a house with a bunch of guys from church.

I went to Hershey, PA for a week of work (got to drive the updated 2009 911 Carrera - about a month before it was even for sale). I stopped going to physical therapy for my wrist. I went to California for a quick weekend trip. I bought an Xbox 360. I grew a beard.

I bought a 50 inch plasma tv to go with the Xbox. I went to Boston for a quick work trip. I shaved my beard into a mustache.

And now you're pretty much all caught up.

family vacation

2008-07-04T08:47:00.006-04:00

Even though the only people that look at this is family and they were all there on the same trip, I still figured I would jot down some memories from the Aspen Grove trip in no particular order.

- setting the mini-golf record (18) to the dismay of Andrew and Devin, who just couldn't get under 19
- making a fool of myself dancing while admiring the moves of my nephews, brothers and cousins
- Audrey getting totally soaked in the trash can trying to help us win
- taking the 3-on-3 tournament even though we only played one game
- watching as one of the Romn*** got put in a headlock on the basketball court - hilarious
- sitting in the cabin late on the last night and talking with brothers, sisters-in-law and cousins and rating flatulence
- having Jake on my shoulders and attacking everyone with me somehow making him hit his head on everyone
- Melanie's amazing 360s in the signs game with the young adults.
- Jake secretly flashing his A-town down sign
- Danny trying to flash the sign
- just hanging out with Andrew and Devin
- family's reaction to my dunk when I was playing for another family
- Me and Devin stealing the show/flags at the night games and completely dominating
- Brent basically jumping straight down from the ropes course
- late night run to burgers supreme/krispy kreme in provo/orem
- how ridiculous sunday school was
- eating together in the cafeteria
- Tami and Ellen getting the lowdown for me
- Melanie's laughing outburst when I said my name was Steve

I know I left out a lot of things... what a great week!! I have an awesome family and I love everyone of them!

Bittersweet... but mostly sweet

2008-06-13T13:52:00.002-04:00

Only one thing could’ve turned what was such a good day into a miserable one and it happened. The lakers ended up blowing a 24 point first half lead, and then a 20 point lead in the third quarter and it effectively put a damper to a great day.

Why was yesterday so great you ask (pre-laker game). The answer is pretty simple, I picked up my Cayenne from the dealership after work. It is awesome!!! I got in the suburban and drove it, shortly after getting out of the Cayenne and… oh my. I don’t want to drive a normal car ever again. The whole ride and feel is just better, and combined with all the cool features it has, the Cayenne is one heck of a car.

There was great anticipation built up for this, even more when early yesterday morning I got an email saying it was ready at the dealer for pickup and knowing all day I was going to be picking it up. I was not disappointed. The day was also more enjoyable because my friend Austin was also able to pick up his car (Boxster) yesterday so we shared in the excitement throughout the day. Hopefully in the future I’ll be able to enjoy the car with the rest of the family.

hodgepodge of thoughts today

2008-05-30T14:26:00.001-04:00

- I’m thankful for insurance - I’ve racked up $25,000 in medical costs (in the last 3 months) due to my wrist surgery.
- wii fit is pretty awesome
- happy that the Lakers are going to the NBA Finals, even happier that the Spurs are out of the playoffs
- I have a nice farmer’s tan
- excited that I should be picking up the cayenne from the dealership next week
- I ate too much for lunch (big steak burrito, chips and queso, and salsa)
- I really wish I could play ball and lift weights rather than just running
- I’d love a new tv and an xbox 360, maybe throw a PS3 in there too
- while I’m at it, more money on a paycheck would be pretty nice too

It's coming

2008-05-25T21:59:00.003-04:00

For those of you who don't know... a black cayenne with havana/sand beige interior is on its way. The only thing we're waiting for is for the insurance/driver's license check to go through. It could be as early as this week!!

Also, my cast is off. One of the bones (capitate) looks really good, but the scaphoid doesn't look nearly as good. The doctor said it was against his better judgement but thinks if he left it in a cast that my wrist would get too stiff. Basically its not healed yet so they made me a splint and I'm wearing that, I just have to be careful. Its nice to let my hand breathe and be able to shower normal. I'm slowly regaining mobility in the wrist/thumb but it will probably be awhile before its 100 percent and before I start playing basketball.

Officially a Georgian

2008-05-18T10:36:00.002-04:00

On Friday I officially became a Georgian when I tearfully turned in my California driver's license and exchanged it for a Georgia driver's license. I figure I waited as long as I could, considering the Georgia state website says you're supposed to change it within 30 day of moving here and its been almost 9 full months now.

I've been able to do a few fun things recently. On Friday night, I went to my second concert ever. Luckily a friend had gotten tickets from a local station so it was free. We saw Paramore. It was pretty good, but I didn't really enjoy the first two bands that played, and I have no idea who they even were.

Yesterday I was able to participate in our employee track day at Barber Motorsports in Birmingham, Alabama. It was awesome. Lots of fun. We got to do a few lead and follow laps on the track in a 911, and even a hot lap as a passenger with a professional driver (they go a lot faster than we did). We also took a Cayenne S offroading and saw its capabilities. I'm not sure any sane person would take a $58,000 car and do what we did. We also got to do autocross in a Boxster, a skid pad in a 911, and tested ceramic brakes on a Carrera S, and did some exercises in a Cayman. I can now say that I have driven a car in each of our product lines. Some of the activities were kind of hard to do with one hand but it was still a lot of fun. If any of you ever get the opportunity to partcipate in something like this I would say that you should take advantage of it.

Tomorrow I go in for another checkup on my wrist and I'm really hoping that I won't have to get another cast put on. I'm ready to get back in shape and to start playing basketball again, its been too long (over 2 months).

This picture is not of me... its just from the website.

What i'm rocking out to

2008-05-05T09:30:00.001-04:00

3 more weeks

2008-04-28T18:08:00.002-04:00

So I had a follow-up with the doctor today... they removed my cast and did some more x-rays. The verdict: I'm back in a cast for at least 3 more weeks and possibly longer!! Its now been nearly 5 weeks since surgery, so by my next visit it will be nearly 8 weeks since surgery and 10 weeks in a cast (was in cast for 2 weeks before surgery). I knew it wasn't likely to get out of the cast but I was really hoping i'd come off so I'd able to start working out and playing basketball again.

Everything else is going so-so... The girl situation sucks. It was up and down for awhile and now its just down. Baseball games are fun and I think season tickets have been totally worth it so far. I went to 5 games in 6 days last week and was shown on TV at least twice that I know of and one time on the stadium's big screen. Other than that, I had to put two new tires on the 'burb and that wasn't fun. On a good note - the Lakers are playing well and dominating the nuggets. These are the days of my life.

car

2008-04-21T14:51:00.003-04:00

for some reason i didn't take any pictures of me with the 911... but here is one of the car in front of my friend's house.

UPDATE

2008-04-11T09:36:00.002-04:00

I had my first followup (after surgery) with the doctor earlier this week. I snapped a picture with my cell phone before he took out the stitches, and as you can see it looks nasty. The incision was between two and three inches long, and I don’t know what exactly I was expecting but for some reason I thought it’d be smaller. However, thinking about it, they had to make it big enough so that they could correct the capitate and then move the tendons aside to get to the scaphoid.

My doctor said everything looks good so far, but there really isn’t any specific timeframe for it to heal. My next followup is on the 28th (3 weeks from my most recent visit). Since it was such a bad and uncommon injury the doctor said that I could be in a cast from anywhere between 3 weeks and 3 months. The x-rays were pretty cool, seeing a screw in two of my bones, too bad I don’t have a picture of that.

The other picture is how my arm looks now. I know its weird but that white thing is basically a covered hole that I use twice a day with a bone stimulator. Its just an ultrasound device that I place directly on the skin over the bone and it is supposed to help the bone heal quicker. I’m hoping it heals soon because the doctor said I can’t do any physical activity that would work up a sweat until the cast comes off, so right now I’m just getting fat. On a positive note, I just got the keys to a 911 that I will be driving today, but I have to give it to a co-worker tomorrow. Still… I’m excited.

Surgery today!!!!

2008-03-27T08:25:00.003-04:00

So in a few hours I will be put to sleep and they will cut open my wrist. For those of you who don't know, I had a CT scan done last week and it revealed that I had another fracture in my wrist. So there are two fractures and both are pretty much displaced. I've included a picture of the wrist below. The fracture that we couldn't see on x-rays is a fracture of the capitate (the biggest bone in the wrist), of which the smaller piece has actually rotated 180 degrees. How that happened is beyond me. The other fracture is of the scaphoid. The capitate fracture has made this surgery more difficult for the doctor. The plan is to go in from the top of the wrist and try to pin the two pieces of the capitate together, if he can't pin them he will use surgical wire to put them together. Also, if there are any problems he will also make an incision on the bottom of my wrist to correct it. He will then go ahead and pin the scaphoid bone together and close me up and put me in a cast. The surgery should take about 2 hours and they, of course, will be putting me to sleep. The doc said that I should expect to be in a cast anywhere between 6 weeks and 3 months!! Crazy. Anyway, now ya'll have a good idea of what is going on with the surgery.

Some guys have all the luck...

2008-03-18T18:27:00.004-04:00

...and some don't have as much (like myself). I consider myself extremely lucky to have been at the SEC championship game on sunday to see Georgia alter history - Even though they were supposedly not letting in fans because of the change of venue from the Georgia Dome to the Georgia Tech gym. It was awesome to walk right up to the ticket guy and ask for a ticket and be let right in for free!! It was also kind of funny, seeing how I just came from church and was still in my church clothes (minus the tie at this point).

And then for the unlucky portion... on saturday while playing basketball I had a big fall as my legs gotten taken out. I put my hand out to cushion the fall, and it turns out that I'll probably need surgery. I went to the doctor on monday, she recommended going to an orthopedic surgeon. So I went to the orthopedic surgeon today. He recommended surgery because I have a fractured and displaced navicular bone. However, he can't perform this type of surgery and so now I have to go see a hand surgeon tomorrow for a third opinion.

Furthermore, there are other parts of my life (that I won't get into) that also seem to fall on the unlucky side of things. On the bright side, my birthday is this week and March Madness starts too!!

T-Shirts

2008-03-07T11:41:00.001-05:00

I know this doesn’t seem like much news, but this week I got two new t-shirts. The exciting thing about this is that they say champions on them, as I played an integral role on two different teams that won the regular season championships and got the #1 seed for the tournament. One of our championships means a little bit more, so let me tell you why. Last week we were sitting at 4-2 and in 3rd place in the top division of one of the leagues I’m in. It was the final night of the regular season games and it so happened that we had to play two games that night, against the two teams that were tied for first place at 6-1. Without getting into too many details, we beat the first team in a very close game 55-53. We were up by 8 or so in the final two minutes but we turned the ball over a few times which allowed them to make it more of a game than it should’ve been. We then had an hour break before we were to play the other team.

This final game we took a small lead into halftime and then blew them out in the second half and won by 18 (75-57), creating a 3-way tie for first place at 6-2. Since each of the three teams had beat each other once it came down to the point differential, which we won by 1.5 points over the team that we had beat by 18 (5.75-4.25). The interesting thing is that we hit a 3 right before the buzzer of that game to give us the 18 point victory and oddly enough, give us the 1.5 differential over the other team. Had we not hit that shot they would’ve had to do some other tie breaker and we may not have been champions. Anyway, I don’t need the t-shirts, but its great to be champions.

Tomahawk chop

2008-02-22T08:28:00.004-05:00

So I'm pretty excited. Last night after work, I went downtown to Turner Field with Austin and we looked at some seating options for the upcoming Braves season and then we purchased season tickets. We got second row seats in left field. We both really liked the seats and the view and really couldn't be more excited for the season to start. Plus the Dodgers come to town the second weekend of the season, so I'm even more excited, too bad its the only series they play here in the ATL.

I've been sick this week and needless to say, it hasn't been fun. It may have been a good idea to take a sick day or two, but I've been trying to tough it out with theraflu and dayquil. The other night when I was sick in bed I watched the Lakers/Suns game - what a great game, i'm pretty excited about what the lakers might do now expecially once bynum is healthy. anyway, thats enough randomness.

buzzed

2008-02-17T10:38:00.004-05:00

So last saturday I was sitting a home just relaxing, when I had an overpowering desire to buzz my head. So I grabbed my roommate's clippers and proceeded to do so. Why? I have no idea. After I was done I felt like Ron Burgundy when he jumped in with the hibernating bears and said, "I immediately regret this decision." I don't think it looks bad, but it doesn't necessarily look good either. Perhaps it makes me more aerodynamic for when I play basketball though... which I need because as of tomorrow I will be playing in 5 different rec leagues.

Since Tami asked about how my valentine's day was... it was pretty much just like any other weekday, only I didn't get to play basketball. Let me start by saying, valentine's day is retarded and I don't just say that because I'm single, I say that because it is stupid. According to wikipedia, the significance of Valentine's day is that "Lovers express their feelings to each other." Do we really need a day set apart to do this? Are we as humans that stupid that we can't just express our feelings any or everyday to someone we love? Anyway, I've always been a pretty good sport when I'm in a relationship on Valentine's day and always tried to do something special... and I will continue to do so in the future, but it still doesn't mean that its not the most stupid made up holiday ever. So what did I do? I went to work, I came home, I made myself dinner, I watched The Gameplan, and I bought some new shoes online. And no, I didn't pay full price, I got em 25% off. I also sent a girl flowers, but I won't comment any further on that. Ok, I feel better after my little rant.

Ok... here is a picture of it buzzed... yes, i'm sitting in the burb

Why do I have a blog?

2008-01-25T07:20:00.000-05:00

I can’t believe it’s been 3 weeks since I last wrote on here. Sorry to all my fans that haven’t been able to read anything from me, I know it must’ve been a hard 3 weeks and I apologize. The truth of the matter is that I haven’t really done much, I haven’t even beaten guitar hero 3 on medium yet… but then again I haven’t even played it for 2 ½ weeks.

For all of those people who didn’t hear… It snowed. Not just once, but twice!! This is a huge deal for Atlanta. It snowed on Wednesday of last week and then again on Saturday and it stuck to the grass and trees but not on the roads and the news was still full of canceled events. My friend’s church even called on Saturday and said there would be no church on Sunday because of the snow, which again, never even stuck to the road. People were going crazy… which I guess makes since when they only see it like every 7 or 8 years.

I love that I’ve been able to play a lot more basketball. I’m currently playing for two different singles wards on Saturdays, and then two other leagues on weeknights, and hoping to get in one more league. The only bad thing is that I have been lifting less. Anyway, that’s all for now… below is my favorite cover song right now, its New Found Glory singing King of Wishful Thinking.

freezing!!

2008-01-03T11:37:00.000-05:00

Yesterday when I was leaving to go to work the car said that it was 24 degrees - the high was 30 yesterday. This morning when I was leaving it was 18 degrees and 20 degrees when I got work 15 minutes later. I really didn't expect this. Its sooo ridiculously cold.

Christmas... 2008

2008-01-01T12:30:00.001-05:00

So I just made it back to Atlanta yesterday after spending the last 10 days in California for Christmas. It was an enjoyable time with the family and great to take a break from work. Christmas day was probably the smallest gathering I can remember as it was just the 3 unmarried children with Mom and Dad - but it was still a good one. Time at home was spent playing a lot of madden on the wii and trying out guitar hero for the first time, and introducing Andrew to arrested development. I'm excited about the basketball half-court going in the back yard. Greg and I helped Dad figure out the dimensions we wanted, as well as looking at a couple of different hoops at the store. I'm also excited for the new year and some resolutions that I have made. I'm hoping that it leads to a great 2008.

Little children have nothing on me

2007-12-18T08:01:00.001-05:00

Better days ahead

2007-12-17T14:03:00.000-05:00

We all know that things don’t always go as planned or even as one might have hoped. This has been a problem for me the past few weeks, as little seems to be going right, or when one thing does go right, another thing goes wrong, but badly wrong. I’m not going to get into details, but this has pretty much extended to almost every aspect of my life. It just makes me more appreciative of the way I feel when things are going well.

On a more positive note, last week the weather here was amazing… it reached the high 70s every day last week until Friday when it started to cool off to more normal temperatures. The weather was so nice, that when our ward went caroling one night last week, I was wearing shorts (but of course, not jean shorts).

On an even more positive note, I love Christmas. Everyday when I get to work I go to pandora.com and I set it to my Christmas playlist and just listen to Christmas music all day. Its great. I also like that everyone seems to be in better moods and seem to be more generous. I was surprised to see how generous even my co-workers are as we collected gifts for less fortunate children. I’m trying to do my part in spreading Christmas joy but I’m sure I can do a much better job.

Jean shorts II

2007-12-14T08:47:00.000-05:00

So my friend just sent me this picture since Tim Tebow won the Heisman and since Floridians are notorious for wearing jean shorts.

Jean shorts

2007-11-16T11:16:00.000-05:00

Now that I'm a working professional, I tend to wear pants just about everyday. When I'm not in pants I'm usually in basketball shorts. However, last weekend I decided to put on some jean shorts to go to a church activity on Saturday afternoon. If only I knew the ridicule I would've endured.

Apparently it is not acceptable to wear jean shorts in Georgia. This was news to me since I've only lived her for about 3 months and jean shorts seemed to be acceptable fashion for the last 24 years of my life. I was shocked and stunned by this, and I still am nearly 7 days later. They also called them jorts, which is obviously short for jean shorts - I had never heard these term before. Well I did some research to find out if there is a reason why this is a Georgia fashion no-no. It seems to be due to the rivalry of the Georgia Bulldogs and Florida Gators. And its all documented very clearly in a yahoo sports article that I uncovered. Here's the link.

Anyway, I promised a few friends that I wouldn't wear them anymore. But I've changed my mind. I still see nothing wrong with jean shorts. Am I wrong or are jean shorts not ok to wear anymore?

GA->CA->GA

2007-11-05T21:31:00.000-05:00

I've been lazy so I haven't posted anything. That and I knew I would see most of the people that even look at this page last weekend at home in Fresno. At least I posted something before Greg and Ellen. It was great to see the family and also good to see that Andrew hasn't passed me in height yet, although it is pretty close. I learned something from my trip this past weekend – my body doesn't handle flying from Georgia to California then back to Georgia in a 60 hour timespan very well. I'm glad that my next two trips to California are longer stays.

Halloween came and went. This was easily my most racy but most awesome costume ever. I decided to dress up as a Victoria's Secret Angel with my friend Steve. The costume consisted of a wife beater, boxers, and wings. We went to a YSA party and it was a lot of fun – we even made the top 10 in the costume contest but we weren't even in contention for the title as two of the judges were male and clearly jealous that they didn't think of our costume themselves.

So I finished the first season of Heroes. I'm mad that Sylar didn't die, but I understand that his character is probably needed to continue season 2 – which I haven't started yet. I also enjoy talking about Heroes in front of people who have never watched the show. Just seeing their reactions as they wonder about what I'm talking about is pretty funny.