Trip to Maui!

I finally got to go to Hawaii for the first time in my life. Unfortunately it wasn't a very long trip. I flew out there Wednesday of last week, and flew back Sunday night. My friend Jon-Paul invited me to go out there with him. His Grandparents own a timeshare in Maui, and go there every year. Since I stayed at the timeshare, I had free lodging! Jon-Paul is also a certified diver, so we made sure to go SCUBA diving. My first day I flew through Honolulu, so I can say that I've been to Oahu and Maui but I didn't see much other than the airport. However, I thought it was cool that the airport had a little outdoor courtyard, even within the security area.

Jon-Paul's grandparents took us out for some authentic hawaiian luau food at Outback Steakhouse. Who knew that bloomin onions are hawaiian food? I sure didn't. But it was yummy. We also stopped by the local dive shop to book our dives.

Thursday we went diving at a place called Molokini, a really tiny half crater island poking out of the water off the coast of Maui. Then we had our second dive closer to shore. We saw lots of tropical fish of which yellow is a very popular color, a couple white-tipped reef sharks, moray eels, and a really funky looking crab.

Friday we drove to the top of Haleakala, the largest of the two volcanos that make up Maui. The top of Haleakala is just over 10,000 ft. We actually had to be cautious about the timing of our drive, because we had been SCUBA diving the day before. The view up there is incredible. It puts you up above the clouds, looking down over the island and you can also see Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on the big island from there. There is a plant up there called silversword, and it's the only place in the world where it can be found. There are also Nenes (Hawaiian State bird) up there.

After we were done checking out Haleakala, we drove back down for a night dive! It was my first night dive ever. I didn't truly appreciate just how dark night dives are. It's similar to being in a cave. We all had dive lights to so that we could see. On the night dive I saw some shrimp, a sea snake, and another eel. It was very eerie being in under the water when it was so dark.

Saturday we drove along the north western shore of Maui. That's where the lush tropical rainforest part of Maui is. They call it the road to Hana, because it takes you to a small town called Hana (I'm sure you never would have guessed if I hadn't told you). Beyond Hana, there is a lower portion of the Haleakala National Park. In the this portion of the park is a place called the Seven Sacred Pools. People like to go swimming in them, but they had signs posted saying it was unsafe for swimming at the time. Something about flash floods and people being killed. There was also a trail along the stream that fed the pools that led up to Waimoku falls. The trail was beautiful, a portion of which consisted of a bamboo forest. There were also passion fruit trees along the way, which provided a tasty snack. Waimoku falls was incredible! It is a 400 ft tall waterfall.

Sunday I went to an 8 AM Sacrament meeting in Kahalui, and then to the airport. Those are pretty much all the main points of my trip. It was a fun trip, and I hope to go back to Hawaii someday soon. I still want to see Oahu, Kauai, and the big island. There's just so much I still haven't seen, but at least I got a taste of Hawaii.

Latest Happenings...Softball Gimp

I've discovered I have a problem. I never take my camera anywhere with me. So while I'm actually doing things with my life, I rarely record it. And since I know how much people like to see pictures of what's going on, I rarely update.

Today I played softball with some friends of mine. It was very fun, and I enjoyed chasing down fly balls, hitting all over the field, and even doing some pitching. There was an incident however. While I was pitching, a line drive caught me on my calf muscle. I've been a gimp ever since. I'm sure it will leave a nasty bruise eventually. It feels like I got a cramp, and the muscle is always stiff. I hobble when I walk, and it takes awhile to get it stretched out if I've been sitting for a long time. I'm hoping it heals quickly though. I definitely won't be running any track events in the olympics though. I was really hoping for a shot too.

Work has also been pretty busy for me. We're about to release a new product at work and things have been hectic trying to get ready for it. There are test fixtures that are still in the process of being debugged, and I've been helping with that, and doing some manual testing and calibration. All this has been away from my office, so I've been driving to Fremont and Redwood City. On top of that, our office is relocating on the 11th, and I so I've been trying to pack my lab, throw away the junk that has accumulated over the years, and get things cleaned up. I'll be glad for it to be done soon.

Here's a picture of me at the Cheesecake Factory in Palo Alto with some friends this past week. It was a going away dinner for the girl in blue.

Now I'm off to find a cane to go with my gimpy leg.

Castle Rock

Today I went hiking at Castle Rock. It's a really beautiful area in the mountains close to Saratoga. Castle Rock State Park is a popular place for rock climbers and boulderers. There are plenty of places to boulder and you'll find many people doing just that on a Saturday morning. I went there with my buddy Chris, and we actually managed to climb up on top of Castle Rock. It was a pretty decent climb, that took a little bit of technique. We also hiked around the park for a bit after we were done climbing on rocks. 

Here are some pictures from an outlook that we hiked to:

Somewhere over those mountains is the Pacific Ocean

My buddy Chris Green taking pictures with his camera phone

The bottom of the rock, we climbed up from down there

Amazingly, this beautiful area is a pretty short drive from my house.  I love where I live, cause I'm right next to the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains.  Anyone who come visits me can be treated to a scenic tour if they so desire.

Snail Warfare and Hobbits

Many things have occurred since I last wrote a blog entry. I always hesitate to post anything though cause I don't have any good pictures to show for it. I also start to feel a little conceited when I'm constantly posting pictures of myself. So...I'll skip the pictures and just describe the more recent events of my life. Maybe if your lucky I'll think of an interesting picture to add in the process.

In the month of April there were a bunch of changes in my ward. The young single adult (ysa) ward I'm in was combined with another ysa ward from a different stake. We continue to attend in the same building as before, so essentially the other ward joined into our ward. Our ward also got a new name to reflect this change. We're now called the Santa Teresa Ward. Everyone in the ward (except the bishop) was also released from their callings. We got two new counselors in the bishopric, one from each stake that the new ward represents. I was released from being the Elder's Quorum President. A week later I was called to be the Ward Mission Leader. This is an exciting new calling for me, and I enjoy it. It will be a good growing experience for me.

I also got to go to Utah for Sheri's graduation from BYU and see family. YAY!

In the month of May, I went on a week long business trip to Lincolnshire, Illinois. To those that are uneducated about Lincolnshire (which was me until just recently), it is a very affluent suburban city in the northern Chicago metropolitan area. Contrary to popular belief, there are no hobbits in Lincolnshire. Believe me, I looked everywhere. I still don't understand how you can have a shire without hobbits. Maybe that will be explained in the upcoming Hobbit movie. I did get to eat at some tasty restaurants, paid for by Snap-on. Among the places I ate were Wildfire (some fancy place with tasty prime rib and key lime pie for dessert), Bob Chinn's Crabshack (I ate a whole POUND of Alaskan King Crab), Cheesecake Factory (herbed crusted fillet of salmon is delicious), and Benihana. My hotel was close to the Chicago Temple so I also went there and did a session. It was nice. It's also a pretty small temple, which I didn't realize before.

No hobbits in here...
or in here...
Hobbit hunting makes me thirsty.

In May I also planted a garden. It's kind of late for planting here in CA. Last year I actually planted my garden in March and was eating stuff by May. I was just slow starting this year. I planted some cherry tomatoes, which seem to be growing nicely. I hope to have some tomatoes in June. Those that will be coming to CA in June should be able to taste them. I also planted some yellow crookneck squash. I planted 6 plants to be exact, because they came in a sixpack of seedlings from OSH. I bought seedlings rather than seeds cause I wanted to try and play catch up. When I returned from the land of no hobbits, I discovered that snails had eaten all but two of my plants! I didn't have any snail problems last year, and I don't think snails even exist in Missouri, so this was a new phenomenon for me. I didn't know that they could literally strip your plants bare of leaves and leave (no pun intended) nothing but a bald stem. I figured it was only a matter of time before they ate my other two plants. I asked for some advice from an OSH employee that works in the nursery (who also happens to be one of my new ward missionaries, YAY!), and she recommended using snail pellets. I bought a box and sprinkled them liberally around my plants. I also bought some zucchini plants to replace the eaten ones, and protected them. I did some searching and found the snail lair. It was a woodpile just a few feet from my garden. There were easily 50 snails living in there. I sprinkled more pellets in the woodpile. To test the effectiveness of the pellets, I picked up a snail and put him on a pellet. The pellet stuck to him, but nothing was happening. So I stuck another one on him. Nothing. It must be slow acting stuff, and not at all like salt. I came back the next morning and found that my experimental snail was dead. It turned into goo, and left an empty shell. Over the next few days, the other snails turned to goo. For some reasons ants seem to like that goo, cause they were all over the snail carcasses. I've declared victory over the snails. HOORAY! If I catch anymore critters eying my squash, they'll get a war they don't want. In the meantime, I have some artichokes that are doing well. I already ate one, and two more are ready to be picked!

Amateur Model

Here's an update on my life. I went snowboarding for the second time in my life about a week ago. It was great fun, and the bottom half of my face got burned from not wearing sunscreen. It told people that I dipped my face in red kool-aid. I wish I had a picture to show you, but I don't. You'll just have to creatively picture it in your mind. I was wearing sunglasses and a beanie, so my eyes and forehead were still white. Some of you may not know it, but occasionally I do side work as a model. My particular specialty is body stuntwork. I can do somethings with my body that are pretty abnormal. I've decided to show off some of my stunt work:

My dentist loves me

I just swallowed a helium filled balloon

My Picasso impression

I am the SMARTEST man alive!

Do blumberjacks make blogs?

I'm a blumberjack and I'm okay... I sleep all night and I work all day!

So, I once had a grand idea of keeping people updated on the exciting events of my life, by creating a blog. But then I realized that most of the goings on in my life really aren't all that exciting for people to read. As a result, I didn't write anything. Maybe if I start keeping a blog, exciting things will happen...? Here's a picture of me, ready for excitement and danger!

Here's where I spend most of my daytime hours. I have a giant lab all to myself. It gets pretty quiet.


With the Presidential Primaries going on, I thought it would be appropriate to let people know how things would be if I were President of the United States. First of all, I would make sure that cats are given their rightful place in the world.

I would also work towards unifying the world and bringing peace. Everybody should just get along, and follow the example of dolphins and cows, working together, side by side.



That is all!