So this last weekend was the Marine Corps Marathon. Here are some photos of the race that totally rocked me. Ill write more when I get some more time but wanted to get the photos up.

The Ultimate Sports Weekend

So this last weekend, Labor Day weekend, I had the best sports weekend planned. Two of my favorites, Utah football and US Open tennis. I planned this months ago and it was able to work out perfectly. I hopped on a flight to Michigan Friday after work, met up with Jason and Adam in Detroit and got ourselves ready for the big game. We stayed in the rinky dink Fairfield Inn but for 35 bones a night, I wasn't complaining. Jason's wife Molly printed us out an awesome red U for our rental car. You can see us putting it on our car. We thought for sure it wouldn't last through the night but it did. We woke up and cruised over to the game. We got there hours before and walked around and checked out all the tailgaters. Michigan knows how to do it when it comes to fan support and making a day out of a football game. We kicked it at Sportsradio booth that gave us free food as we mingled with all the Michigan folk. We entered the gates 90 minutes prior and the Big House was quite a site. I was impressed with their fans....they get there early and wear tellow and blue. Take note Utah fans. The game was...well you all know how it was. AWESOME. It was super hot but quite the experience. After the game, we slowly made our way back to the car. One of the highlights of the day was running into these drunk Michigan fans. You can see the photo below. Only Jason and Adam can truly understand how funny these two were. The photo below really depicts these two characters to a "T". We got back and Adam really wanted to go to White Castle. No offense, but my slider was the sickest thing I have ever thrown down my throat. I made them take me to get some real food. So we went to Carrabba's as I got some real food. Well, as real as Carrabba's can be. We ran into another funny Michigan fan, Holy Toledo, who enjoyed talking to us about the food. All in all it was an awesome day. I then woke up the next morning at 5:30 as Adam took me to the airport to catch my flight to New York. I sat next to Ute fan going to NY as well. We split a cab into town and by ten in the morning I was kicking at the Marriott Marquis in our room overlooking Times Square. Jenny and Tyler showed up shortly and we were off to the Open. Hopped on the 7 Subway and we were there shortly after noon. We watched over 12 hours of tennis as we stayed passed one in the morning watching Djokovic beat Cilic. The best part about it was that as we got in to Ashe Stadium, I found some tickets on the ground by the garbage. Upon further review, these were 210 dollar tickets. So I snaked them, convinced the other guys we could get in and fifteen minutes later we were sitting on like the tenth row just eating it up. We were all dead tired but could not pass up such great tennis. We finally left and got back about two in the morning. After a quick trip to Rays for some pizza we crashed. Monday we woke up and my contact at the USTA hooked us up with night tickets that night. So we took it easy that day, just walking around then made it out for the evening session. The matches were a little dull but still fun to be there. Then on Tuesday, Jenny and went for a run in Central Park which was totally awesome. We then made it for day three. This was awesome as we were able to see Federer play in a five setter that was one for the books. It looked as though he was going to lose but hung on to win. After that we watched Roddick just annilate Gonzo. By then it was time for us to catch our midnight bus back to DC. We packed up our things, caught the bus and pulled into DC about 3:50 in the morning. All in all, it was an awesome trip and I couldn't have designed it any better!

Elton John

This last weekend we ventured up to fine, classy establishment called Atlantic City for an Elton John concert. I first found out about this months ago and was able to secure some tickets off Ebay. Jenny was the only who expressed interest so we only got two. It ended up being her birffffday present so the two of us cruised up there Saturday morning to fight the 95 traffic.

It took forever with all the traffic but finally made it to Ocean City NJ to chill on the beach for the afternoon. After some floating lessons and some New Yorker on the beach we left and made our way up to AC. We checked into the Fairfield Inn, thank you Marriott, got ready and jammed over to the beach.

We kicked it on the Boardwalk for a while and then went in. Elton came out and rocked it for a solid two and half hours, no intermission. He played all his hits which included a 20 minute version of Rocketman. Words can't describe the concert. It was money. The guy next to us guarenteed that we weren't even born when he first heard Elton. He was indeed right. So we brought down the median age at this concert by a good thirteen years but who cares. It was some good stuff. After ending with Your Song, we were out and on our way to hit the tables of AC.
I played 21 for no more than five minutes and made out with thirty extra big ones. Yeah, I'll take that and run. I know I'm a high roller.


Another cool thing about AC was that it is where all the names of the Monopoly game were originated. We couldn't help but snake a photo of some cool street names.

All in all, it was a fun weekend as I was finally able to check off Elton from my list. Next month, Neil Diamond!

Birfffffday

I know what everyone is thinking...how is this guy 28 years old? I look barely 20 in this photo!

We were at the theater close to an hour before and we were only able to get the back row. We did get a lot of comments about our shirts though!
This was right before we got drenched in the sudden downpour while golfing.

Here are some photos from the big day yesterday. It was a lot of fun which included donuts for breakfast in bed, getting dumped on during golf, Cheesecake Factory and of course a midnight showing of Batman.

Lab Rats

So earlier tonight Jenny treated me to a night at the lab. She has told me for months how she performs surgeries on rats as part of her PhD studies. I told her that I wanted to see this first hand to see what it is that she does all day. So I met her outside the Basic Science building at G-town and she took me to her lair. We went downstairs to pick up our rat that she ordered weeks ago. He was buck white and too innocent to be taken to the grave later that night. So Jenny injected him with some some anesthetics to put him down. There he lay flat on the tray as I picked up the scissors and tweezers...and the gouger! See below.

I then made the cut on his underside and cut him open, making the incision about two and a half inches. It was at this point that I got light-headed and not thinking straight. I then blacked out and hit my head on the granite table. I was quickly recessitated and back in action to perform the surgery. Okay maybe not...I didnt even step back. Then I made a tranversal cut and peeled back the skin to see his inards. I then cut through the tissue to see all his organs. I about choked on my own throw up but swallowed it quickly. All this time, he is still alive, just sedated by the sweet juices. I was promised he was not feeling any of this...hmm. He started to twitch as I made some cuts. It reminded me of the time I killed a rat while in the Phili's but this was a little different. Jenny then proceeded to explain to me all the organs and what not. Later she removed the heart and placed it on the tray as it literally continued to beat, unattached, for a good five minutes. She then removed the brain and showed me that, including how the brain works. After a bit, we dropped him in a bag to be disposed of and we were out!

All in all, it was quite fascinating learning about all the organs and performing surgery on a little rodent. Maybe, there will be a second time!

Out West

So a few weeks ago, I went home to Utah for a week to spend some time with the fam and see some friends.

Here are some photos from the weekend that included lots of hiking, beating all my buddies in golf, tons of donuts, tennis, Hangtime, goldfish throwing, storytime, Nielsen's concretes and just plain kickin it. The sure highlight was seeing four grizzly bears while waking up at five in the morning to see some grizzlies. It was money int he cash bank. Dad, you taught me well after all those years of waking up and going to the EconoMart in West for Hostess donuts and chocolate mile on our way into the park to look for grizzlies.

Sorry for the lack of text in this post but I had to rid my blog of the Duck Beach. (That's for you Amanda!)