Surreal Summer

I haven't written in this blog for a bit. I've had a busy schedule and limited internet access.
I still am busy, but I have a lot of time at a computer again. There is to much yo talk and rant about for one blog post, so this one will let everyone know what they can expect in future post.

I got pulled over three times this summer, so you can expect me to rant about that.

I lived in my van. I will probably remissness about that. Maybe I will give some encouragement and some pointers for people the want to do the same. 

I made a couple of videos that I will share, they're okay.

I did a ton a super fun kayaking this summer, so you can expect me to ramble about that.

Here is a little video Ben Petersen made for a online Knife company for now.  


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SPMMrhUfZE

I bought a house!

Recently I bought a new vehicle.

Here it is.

I also recently bought and did some work on a new home.

Here it is.

Cool, huh? Do you want to see the inside.

First, we will start up front. I consider this the kitchen. I have a cooler here and an Ipod,

 Now to the master bedroom.

I attached that clothes rack with some wires. That orange board is Jared and my's affirmation board. I'm the lucky one that got to keep it. Those drawers under the bed are super convenient. I build a little bed frame that attaches to the drawers. I have plenty of clothes space.

It might not look like there is a lot of room, but, there is.

I'll keep you-ins updated on my experiences.

good day. nay, I say great day

It was a great day today in spite of the tragedies. The last couple of days we have been running Coal Creek, the river that runs down Cedar Canyon, and through Cedar City. It has been so fun, and the water keeps rising. Here is a better, but sideways graph It's a very small river with tons of fun drops. Today was particularly fast and fun. It was non-stop action.

I am telling you guys, this run was so so so sweet. I'm on such a high right now.

There are a few good stories from it, and a couple tragic ones.

I will start with the sad stories.

I lost Jason's camera. I had it on a mount on the front of my boat when we took off. I got worried that I might hit it on a rock and it would come off, so I put it in my boat. Everything went well, but at the takeout, as I was getting out, I lost my balance and my boat filled up with water. The camera must have fell out. This wasn't just any camera either, it was a GoPro. I was sick to my stomach about it. Jason was so cool about everything. I didn't see a second of frustration or anger on his face. "It's fine man, if I cared I wouldn't have let you take it." "it's just stuff" is what he said. If I've ever met someone with a heart of gold, he has it.

Second sad Story

Josh had bought a yellow kayak years ago from Jason. The first day Josh took the boat down the river, it cracked. Recently he bought a nice used kayak. It's a boat that is as nice as mine. At the take out, he discovered a huge crack in it. I couldn't believe his luck. Poor guy. If you ask him though, the trip was sweet enough that it was well worth it.

If you ask Jason about this next one, he might not think it's a good story. Jason hit a rock and a tree (Rocks are unavoidable on this stretch) and it sounded like he got pinned up on something and the river popped his spray skirt (the thing that keeps the water out.) He tried to roll up, all while getting beat and hitting his head on rocks. There was just too much water in his boat, so he came out. Sick of having this now super heavy boat drag him along rocks, he let go and got to shore. There were no calm spots for Josh and I to get his boat over. I was worried, because I knew there was a large twenty or thirty foot water fall coming up, and I did not want his boat to go over that. I saw one of his sandals, that came out of his boat, floating in the water, so I grabbed it and put it in my mouth. Josh put the other sandal (chacos, mind you) in his mouth. Josh Paddled down stream and grabbed some plants on the side of the river to anchor himself there. I pushed Jason's boat to Josh. Josh grabbed the boat and hung on. I pulled over and hopped out of my boat in time to grab Jason's, and none to soon to avoid going over the death waterfall.

We all got scraped up, and beat up, but loved it. We kayaked over one super fun water fall and all almost got sucked back into it.

Even in such a small river, there is sooo much power.

Here is that waterfall in lower water. There is about four to eight times (or more!) as much water running through there today, as there is in this picture.

This is Hayden. He's quite impressive. This is a great picture. 

Jason got the video on his helmet cam. When it's available, I'll post it here.
  

campaigning

I am campaigning for the position of business senator. It's a good experience. I've loved working with all the people in my party, and all the people that help support me and my party. I went door to door earlier tonight and it was so fun! It was like the mission, except people let me in. Here is the link to our Facebook page. I got up at five this morning and have been going non-stop since. I look forward to work and classes because they are a break.

Not the most flattering picture. I was kind of ashamed to put it up with all the classy signs from the other parties. That's how it goes. Things are good.

more free fun

I found a snowboard in that dumpster! That dumpster that I wrote about yesterday! So I broke off the legs of a chair (a free chair, of course) and used the snowboard bindings to attach the seat.

After a evening of heavy snow, we attached a rope to Lindsey's car and rode behind the car on this snow board.

 Look how crazy Jared looks. It was a good night.

free stuff

I love free stuff. The fraternity next door was shut down, and I got some free things. I am so happy they were caught hazing. They parked a dumpster in front of their house, and it turned out to be a great resource for free things.  I'm running for student government, and I knew I needed some big plywood boards for campaigning. So, what did the fraternity throw into the dumpter? Big plywood boards. When I went up there to grab the boards I found this!

CANDY!!! This was my day! That's like, 15 pounds of candy! Jared gave some away in Sunday School to test it out, and it's fine. No one got sick. I have eaten enough of this candy that I haven't had to buy groceries for a week. Those frat boys aren't to bright. So wasteful. They'll probably just get their daddies to buy them new candy.

cooking as a college student 3

I think a great way to eat healthy and cheap is to order "Bountiful Baskets." You pay about $15 and get a ton of fruits and vegetables. It's always a surprise what you will get, but it's great and it's always a variety. I don't always know what to do with some of the stuff, like squashes or this last week, Jerusalem Artichokes, so I fry those weird things up like you would french fries. It all started when I brought and bag of potatoes from home, the same weekend that Jared brought a bag of potatoes from home, and the weekend after, we got a bag of potatoes from Bountiful Baskets. We needed to get through them, so we fried them up and ate them with ketchup. It was fun enough that we tried other things, like: celery, squash, apples, onions, tootsie rolls or whatever. It's way easy. 

 

So good. I loved it. I was frying all the time! Until recently I covered some Oreos in corn bread batter and fried them. They were tasty, but I ate enough that I threw up. I have no desire for grease, oil, or sugar. I don't know if I will for a while.

cooking as a college student 2

Alright, as promised, here is how to cook cheap, easy, AND healthy. More specifically I will teach you how to cook Ramen Noodles healthy.
Cook them like normal. Then, before they are done....

.... throw in some mixed vegetables.

I get a huge bag of them at Walmart for cheap! The Ramen noodle seasoning that is usually to strong gets diluted and flavors the vegetables!  Making this meal is about as easy as writing this blog post was. enjoy it!

cooking as a college student.

There are plenty of things that I wish I would've known about how to cook as a college student. I would like to share some of those things with ya'll.

You gotta use what you have. One time I had some meat (like a sausage or something,) some kraft singles, and some Ketchup. After that, you just need to have it spend some time in the microwave. This is what I made.

Looks good huh? It was. If I had, like, a taco shell or something, it would have been that much better.
If you want something cheap, easy, AND healthy, stay posted. I will teach you how.

front-pack

Are you ever late for class, but can't run because you're wearing a back pack and are afraid of looking like a fool? Do you ever want to hop in a car without taking off your backpack? Are you sick of having to reach under your desk to pull out a pen, notebook, or calculator from your backpack? Well, these problems are things of the past. Introducing the front-pack.

Now, back-pack manufacturers might try to keep back-packs cool by saying they're better for your back, or by calling them b-packs, but we all know nerds wear back-packs. Look at all the things you are now able to do with a front pack.

You can sit down without crushing your lunch!

Retrieve stuff with ease.

Run with style.
Don't get caught looking like a goon. You will if you run with a back-pack on.

Jared and I will sell you a front pack for $49.99. YOU NEED ONE!!!!!!!

I'm back, and will be for a bit

I've taken a blogging break. I was blogging a lot, and then none, and now I have a lot to blog about and a lot of pictures to show you-ins. I'm a binge blogger. I couldn't figure out how to get pictures from my camera to the computer, but now I have. In the next week or two you can expect:

• Innovative ideas
• Cheap and easy recipes
• Techniques for living cheap

For now, I will show you pictures.

  There wasn't enough water, and it was to cold, but it needed to happen.

Thanks for driving and taking pictures, Laura.

Furnished

I feel like ramblin' a bit. I just moved into a new apartment that had to be furnished. I was intimidated, because I didn't have any furniture and neither did any of the people that I would be living with. I came down to Cedar a week early to try to at least get a bed or something before the semester started. Furnishing the apartment was a total success. Here is what I got for free.

• King sized bed from freecycle.org
• Two couches
• 8 chairs and a table
• A desk
• A love sack

Impressive if I do say so myself. Most all the credit should go to Laura Correy, she made it all possible.

When Scott came down, his friend hooked us up and he furnished his room, and got a mattress pad from his friend for Jared to sleep on.

We now live in the party house. Every one loves to party at our house. We aren't desperate for people to come over, or to love us, everyone just does. "oh yeah, that place is the party house." Everyone just assumes it. No one needs to tell them. No one needs to say, "yeah, just go to Jared, Scott, and Erics place, it's the party house." Every one cool just knows it is. Cool Mexican people, black people, and cool people from England. They all know.

We will have dance parties, fiestas, Mexican parties, stir fry parties, game parties, sit down parties, sleep parties, study parties, and Birthday Parties!

Well, I'm done with ramblin. or in other words, finished. And I'm done putting furniture in my apartment, or in other words, furnished.