Update: My Life

Well I know I haven’t posted in a while so this is my filler post to let you know what’s going on in my life.

First: this week is Spring Break for my college so I worked a lot during the first part of the week and took Thursday and Friday off. My family and I are in St. George, Utah, as I write this post. We drove up here yesterday and spent the day today hiking and sightseeing around Zion National Park. If you have never been there, I wholeheartedly recommend it. Even if you don’t enjoy hiking per se, there is a free shuttle that tours the different sights. The most beautiful hike though was the 1.5 mile hike along the Virgin River in a valley between two large plateaus along the Pa’rus Trail. It is foremost a bike trail but is for pedestrians as well. Most of the trail is paved and takes you over several bridges and through a camp site. Tomorrow we drive home, but this has been an experience I will never forget/ I am glad we came. I will post photos when I have them uploaded.

Second: my sister in law is due to have my niece today, but as is the case with most first born children, she is late. So that is another exciting moment I am looking forward to in my life. I will post pictures on that as well when it happens.

And last: this summer I will be traveling back to Washington DC to finish sightseeing and to talk to a school about possibly working there when I graduate college next year. I would be teaching history in a high school in Herndon, Virginia, just outside DC. I know the administration of the school and would love to work there, especially since it is so close to DC.

So there it is…my life. Thanks for reading.

Merry Christmas All

Well right now I am in Western Tennessee at my cousins’ house just hanging out. I will be here for the next two weeks. I won’t be online very much and I do not get cell phone reception up here (because we are really in the moddle of nowhere). So communication is limited…but it’s really nice to get some time away.

So I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Daylight Saving Time

No, I didn’t misspell the title to this post. Just read on.

This past Saturday I kept wrestling with whether or not this was the week that we all roll back our clocks. It seemed to me that we always changed our clocks on the last Saturday of October, making last Saturday the day in question.

I had heard conflicting reports of friends who were rolling their clocks back and others who were still at the same time. I was confused until I read this article. It explained that a new law was in effect in the United States this year. It seems President Bush signed a new bill back in 2005 that pushed Daylight Saving Time back a week. (That would explain the conflicting reports from friends…some were from Europe which still observe the original date.) This change is hoped to help conserve energy and whatnot. Whatever. It just means we have to wait another week to get that extra hour of sleep.

So while at the website, I decided to read around a bit and see what else the site had to say about DST. Well, it seems we all have been saying it wrong. Most of us have referred to it as Daylight Savings Time. This is not grammatically correct. It is Daylight Saving Time–no ’s.’

Saving is used here as a verbal adjective (a participle). It modifies time and tells us more about its nature; namely, that it is characterized by the activity of saving daylight. It is a saving daylight kind of time. Because of this, it would be more accurate to refer to DST as daylight-saving time. Similar examples would be a mind-expanding book or a man-eating tiger. Saving is used in the same way as saving a ball game, rather than as a savings account.

Nevertheless, many people feel the word savings (with an ’s’) flows more mellifluously off the tongue. Daylight Savings Time is also in common usage and can be found in dictionaries.

Adding to the confusion is that the phrase Daylight Saving Time is inaccurate, since no daylight is actually saved. Daylight Shifting Time would be better, but it is not as politically desirable.

So that’s it. Have a happy Daylight Savings Time, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight-Saving Time, and Daylight Shifting Time on Saturday.

Fly Away Baby Chick

I have realized something this past week. With college starting, this year has been different. See, my sister graduated high school this past May and is now entering college as a freshman. Well during this last week of registration and signing up for classes I have been walking my sister through it all and showing her the ropes. Also this week was tryouts for the college volleyball team, which my sister participated in. Tryouts were from 9-12 at night. It was brutal.

Well, yes my sister did make the team. She is quit the little volleyball player. Her first game(s) was this weekend as they had a tournament over in Arizona. They tried out on Monday and Tuesday, had practice on Wednesday, and left on Thursday. Crazy schedule.

When my sister was gone, I really realized how much I missed her. I had never stopped to think about it, but my baby sister is growing up. She has matured and can make it on her own. During registration I kept making sure she was okay and had someone helping her. One day as my sister walked off to go do something, I was with my best friend and I kept watching my sister nervously to make sure she found her way, and my friend said I looked like a mother hen. She said it was time for the baby chick to fly away.

So Erin, I realize I have been protecting and guiding you for quite a while now. But now it is time for you to grow up and make it on your own. It is saddening yet exciting to see you making your own friends and becoming an adult. Good luck. I will be here when you need me but now its time for you to spread your wings and fly away baby chick.

Fantasy Football 07

Like I said in an earlier post, I am a big fan of football. Every year my dad and brother are in a fantasy football league with some of their buddies. Well this year I decided to join in. I had some business to take care of down near the draft so I decided to accompany my dad down there today.

We left at 7 this morning and drove the 2 hours to Orange County. We got there, greeted old friends, and got going. The draft lasted nearly 3 hours. This was an intense 3 hours of planning, plotting, researching, and making tough decisions. Magazines, newspapers, and internet articles were spread across the tables. Laptops were open and being used to frantically search players and their rankings.

Well it is over now and looking back, I think I came out okay. My first pick (8th overall) was RB Shaun Alexander (SEA). He was hurt last year but is expected to have a comeback year. And he plays for Seattle who are pretty good anyway. Well the rest of my line-up looks like this:

Quarterbacks : Philip Rivers (SD), Chad Pennington (NYJ)

Running Backs: Shaun Alexander (SEA), Edgerrin James (AZ), Fred Taylor (JAX), Leon Washington (NYJ)

Wide Receivers: Reggie Wayne (IND), Dante Stallworth (NO), Jerry Porter (OAK), Troy Williamson (MIN)

Tight Ends: Todd Heap (BAL), Bo Scaife (TN)

Kickers: Robbie Gould (CHI), Jeff Reed (PIT)

Defenses: Pittsburgh, Seattle

Extras: Correl Buckholter RB (PHI), Wes Welker WR (NE)

Well that’s the line-up. Im excited about getting Philip Rivers. I think he’s going to have a good year in San Diego. And they say Peyton Manning is going to be throwing alot more this year so with the pick-up of Reggie Wayne, I’m hoping to get a few extra points there. Of course both the Pittsburgh and Seattle defenses are great so I think I will be okay there. Overall, I am pleased with this roster.

<sigh of satisfaction> Ahh, football season.

Barry Who?

Well I will admit it. I have neglected my blog a little over the past few days. I have been helping a good friend start his blog and have authored a few posts for him. Then I took the family to Disneyland yesterday for my brother’s birthday. (Happy late 25th birthday Chad!)

Well tonight I decided to check back to see my total hit count and low and behold I had broken the 3000 mark! Woo-hoo! This blog isn’t even a year old and I’m up past 3000.

Move over Barry Bonds, this slugger’s got some major power going on.*

*No time during the life of this blog has the writer ever used performance enhancing substances to boost her productivity or performance. (Including Balco)

Cool Website

A buddy told me about this website and I seriously think it’s awesome! Watch the little video thing and wait for the big finale. It’s great.

Let me know what you think of it.