More Pics from Squaw Peak

Here are some more pictures from our hike on Saturday! Notice the Provo temple in this second one, the white square on the left. Thanks again to the Boyds for a great time!

Llamas

So, Amy, Rick, Megan, David, and an assortment of children are planning to hike Timp in mid July. I have proposed that we rent two (2) llamas to aid us in our journey. They can be rented from a place in Spanish Fork for $40 a day, for two llamas plus the packs. They can carry 80 pounds a llama, and I think it would be great fun with the kids. One llama could carry whichever child was tired, the other could carry some pack.

For example, here is Pancho, and we can rent him. Doesn't he just cry to carry our packs? Now, the only thing we have to resolve is how to transport them. Amy is considering letting our two friends ride in her minivan, and we need all involved to call her and support the llama-in-van movement. Thank you all for your help.

A fine Tuesday

Today I did a couple things that were interesting. I tried a new recipe for chocolate chip cookies that I found on the Land O' Lakes website. I even had the foresight to save Jeff some dough to eat when he got home. I thought that was nice of me. :) Hurrah for jumbo cookies. In other news, I was reading an article today about publishing scholarly journal articles. I have something in the works (a paper about educational evaluation and implications for it gleaned from my reading of Tom Friedman's The World is Flat) that I'm going to discuss with my chair, Dr. Williams, at our meeting on Thursday, so that is nice. I've read the article once before, but it is a good reminder of the things to keep in mind as you write to publish. My favorite suggestion is to not lie about things in your citation page. The authors say that is about as bad as data fabrication - hello? Isn't all dishonesty wrong? Also, today we found out that our little baby boy will have a cousin on the Hoopes side just a few months younger - Congrats to Mark and Amber! I bet their son William is excited to be the big brother. That will be fun for our child, too, because my sister's little boy will be 14 months or so when our baby is born, and Amy's daughter Rachel will be about 17 months. I loved being close to several of my cousins, so I hope this next generation of kids will recognize that they can all be blessed by that too! I changed the settings today so that anyone can post a comment instead of just registered folks, so I hope that is pleasing to those of you who haven't discovered the joy that is gmail. :) Monday I tried to walk up from our stake center to the Y trailhead, which is only about 2 miles roundtrip, but I didn't quite make it. My calves were still aching a bit from our hike Saturday, so I chickened out before the turnoff to Oakcliff Dr. and went back to the car. I'll try it again this week I think, but that hill was causing me some problems. Lastly, I went and saw my friend Karen yesterday afternoon. She had a new baby girl on the 20th and you can see pictures of her at her very own website, created by her super-talented dad, Gary.

So, I feel like I need to add something today, but nothing terribly interesting happened today. However, there have been several times I have wanted to post things, but have not. For example, when I got back from hiking on Saturday, I decided to eat some otter pops in the shower. I had Stacey take a picture of my head, in the stream of the shower, while eating an otter pop. I thought it would be cute to post, and I could have a special article on my recent veneration of otter pops. However, I started to think. As I apply for jobs in the future, it is not too uncommon these days for people to just search for your name and see what pops up. It would be interesting for someone trying to decide to hire me to search, and find a picture of me eating an otter pop in the shower. Or, when I am a teacher, if one of my students finds that picture, and distributes it in class, or puts it in a class presentation. The Internet is a dangerous thing. That said, I do like to eat otter pops in the shower. You get the freezing cold pops sliding down your gullet, while at the same time, the steamy hot water streams over your body. I guess, in the end, there are not many places where it is bad to eat an otter pop. They are good here or there, they are good anywhere (in a box, with a fox....). So, yep, I like otter pops. I have bought three cases of them in the last week. Mmmmmmmmmmm. Pops.

Squaw Peak Hike

So, yesterday Stacey and I decided we would hike up Squaw peak, the large rock protuberance that is directly north of Rock Canyon, here in Provo. We invited some friends, Jeff, Michelle, and Lydia, to come with us, and we did it.

We started on our trek at about 9:15 in the morning. I had talked to a couple other people who had made the venture in a little over 2 hours, so, I decided that factoring in our physical condition and general lack of speed, we would double that, and take 4 hours. We were off. In general, the trip was pleasant(as proved by the picture of Stacey, to the left, of Stacey enjoying a drink), but it took us a bit longer than we expected, due in part to some equipment malfunction, insurrection among the porters, and other, general problems. However, we got to the top, and had some wonderful egg salad sandwiches (see the picture of Stacey to the right, enjoying her meal at the top). It was a wonderful view, and we got some great pictures, which we will post more of when they become available. The way back down was much more enjoyable. We made good time, and were down in about an hour and a half. In short, we had a good time. Stacey did an especially good job—hiking the whole 8 miles and 2700 vertical feet like a champ. I want her in my wagon train when we head back to Zion. The end. Pictures of both Stacey and I together are forthcoming. Here below is a picture of the top. The highest, pointiest rock you can see is what we were on top of.

Marathon, and other comments

So, first off, I learned that my wife, Stacey, is going behind my back and correcting the spelling on my postings. Despicable. So, last Saturday, the 19th of May, I ran the Ogden Marathon. I performed pretty well, getting 1074th place, and I had a good time, finishing in 5:02 hours. It was fun. Here are some pictures of me as I ran. The one on the right proves that although I finished 1074th, I did not get last place, as there were many people that trickled in hours after I did. So, that was that. I did get one blister, and a little bit of a sunburn, but besides that, I did alright. More pictures of me can be viewed and purchased at http://www.zazoosh.com/photos/58031430 . There are 11 in all. Here is my little record thingy of how fast I was. . So, yep, that is me.

So my laptop died

Yesterday, I was working along on my three year-old laptop, and it decided to die. It gave some errors, made some noises, and in short, the hard drive died. I have been using computers for 15 or so years, and have never had a hard drive go out on me. I thought it was just an excuse people use for not having things saved properly. Now I know that hard drive crashes exist. However, I have not really lost anything. A year and a half ago my generous and lovely mother bought me an external hard drive for Christmas, and I had been backing up all my data faithfully until a couple months ago. Then, there was a lapse. Then, two weeks ago, I felt I definitely needed to back up my hard drive, so I did. Now, I really have not lost anything, and I am very pleased with that. If I did not have the hard drive, 8 gigs of music, 10 gigs of pictures, and many, many hours of work put into documents would have been lost. But, I backed up. This whole thing makes me also aware of how much I am dependent on my laptop. I can't do my school work, or my regular work, without it. It is kind of depressing. Oh well. It will soon be fixed, and my dependence will continue, and my depression will stop. Amen.

We're going techno-savvy....

Welcome to our new blog. I guess I'll have more to put up once the baby comes this fall, but for now we're just hanging out in Provo and going to school. This summer we'll be going on a few little trips so we'll put updates up about those when they come around. So, stay tuned for the news from Team Hoopes that is soon to come! :)

Our Blog

So, Stacey and I decided we could hardly be cool if we didn't have a blog. We made the decision, and, that behind us, started to create the blog. As we were doing so, however, we had a problem--what to name the thing. The easiest and simplest names were taken: hoopes, hoopesfamily, hoopes-family, hoopesclan. Then, we thought of a great name for our blog--hoopescrew. We liked it. It sounded fun. We were a crew, like a band of pirates or the workers at Old Navy. Then, we realized that it looked more like Hoope Screw. So, we voted against it. This being a moral and non-carpentry related blog, we should all learn a lesson: When naming your blog, don't have it end in screw.