Champion again! (and possibly for the last time)

Last night was the BYU-Idaho RecSports Ultimate Championships. My team, the Lawn Gnomes captained by my good friend Mark Kam, played against team Pffft. It was by far the best game we played all season.

Both teams went into the game undefeated. Not only that but both teams had won each of their other games very soundly. Aside from this game our smallest win margin was 7 points. Team Pffft had a similar win margin. We had heard a lot about how good this team was and that we were going to have a hard time beating them.

Like I said before this was the best game we ever played and I mean that in terms of competitiveness. For the first time we were tied at half time and very worried about how we were going to pull through. We were able to change up our game strategy for the second half and come out strong. We ended up winning by three points or so. I don't know what the exact score was.

I'm not going to give you a detailed play by play of the game. Sorry, but if you want that you'll have to ask me later. That's because this post is not about just this one game. Rather it's about my Frisbee experience at BYU-Idaho.

As I was walking to the game last night I had a thought. "If we win tonight I will have won a championship in every Frisbee league on campus." During the Spring semester of '09 I was on the Vikings when we won the Competitive Championships. The semester after that my friend Justin Cutler and I won the first ever BYU-Idaho RecSports Disc Golf Doubles Tournament. And now, just last night the Lawn Gnomes rose victorious, claiming the BYU-Idaho RecSports Ultimate Championship.

It feels good to know that I've slightly succeeded in something that I highly enjoy.

After going through all of that in my mind another thought came to me. "This is going to be the last championship of my Frisbee career." I only have one semester left to graduate. Normally that semester wouldn't come until Spring 2011 but I was able to get on Fast Grad. (A program allowing students to go year round instead of just two semesters a year.) My last semester will now conclude the first week of April 2011. There is no Frisbee in the Winter in Rexburg.

It's a little sad to know I'm not going to be playing with any of these people again. But at the same time the idea of graduating this coming April is a whole lot sweeter. And with the victory last night I think it's a perfect ending to my intramural Frisbee experience.

No worries though, I'm going to try to find a club team to play with wherever we end up living.

These are a couple of my favorite pics form Ultimate.
Me with the disc.

I'm the one in the air.

If you didn't have a chance to watch the game last night it was supposed to me webcast. I don't know if it really was but if it was it should be available here in a few days.

Lip Balm Junkie

I'm the kind of guy that enjoys having moist lips. Before you get the wrong idea what I mean is I hate when my lips are dried out. I not talking about being a little chapped, I mean really dried out. The kind of dry that leaves the small dead strands of skin on your upper lip. The kind that you always pull off like you do to the small strings of white that are left attached to an orange just after you finish peeling it. You slowly pull off these small stands of dead lip one by one until you pull one that is attached just barely to well. And after you force yourself to pull it off a small drop of blood forms on your upper lip. And it hurts. It's quite the image isn't it. The kind of mental picture that leave you cringing. When your lips are that dry every smile shoots tingling pain through your face and leaves you with that same cringe. That's the kind of dry lips I hate.

When I was younger, probably age 9-12 ish, I had the worst dry lips in the world. They were always horrible. My lips were well past the small strands of dead lip skin. They were practically facial lip scab cancer bad. Imagine Viggo Mortensen's lips in the movie Hidalgo. Now imagine it worse and on my 11-year-old face. Because my lips were so dry I would lick them and they would just dry out and get worse and worse. It was a very self destructive behavior.

Then one day something changed and I don't know why but I stop with the licking and stated with the chapstick. (Of course I should say lip balm seeing as how Chapstick is a brand but you all know what I mean.) My first try at lip replenishment treatment was with Carmex. Do you have any idea how badly Carmex stings when applied to lips as bad as mine. That still holds true today. If you go a week or so without using any chapstick and then you take a swipe of Carmex it will burn every first time.

I went through a huge phase where I would only use Carmex but after a few years I started trying other brands to see what I liked. At the time I kept reverting back to Carmex however, it seemed to be the best. All of my friends accused me of being addicted to Carmex but I thought that was rediculous and to prove them wrong I kept trying other brands

Anyway, fast forward to now. Right now my favorite is Burt's Bees. It keeps my lips nice and moist and it never stings upon application. I also really like the minty scent it has.

The reason I tell you about this is because of an experience I had just this week. I had recently worked my way down to the bottom of another tube of Burt's Bees lip balm and was indesperate need of some more. I told Megan and we decided to grab some while we were out buying groceries Monday night. We went and bought our groceries, checked out and had somehow managed to leave without buying any lip balm. It's ok we said. We need to go to another store and buy me some new socks anyway and we'll just pick some up while we're there.

As we drove to the other store I was highly anticipating buying and applying some Burt's Bees. The closer we got the store and the closer we were to getting lip balm I began to notice that my lips were becoming more and more chapped. I thought about this for a while and commented to Megan about it. I made an analogy of my lips to food. I said, "You know how when you're getting ready to eat and your start salivating before you even have any food. I can feel my lips drying out in anticipation of getting new chapstick." All she had to say about that was, "You're addicted."

My name is Shaun Mayo and I'm a lip balmaholic.

Geo Morning

In case you don't know, Megan and I drive a Geo Metro. There is a stigma that goes along with driving a Geo that immediately equates to joke. It takes a certain thick skinned breed of people to drive a Geo. If simply driving a Geo Metro wasn't joke enough there is always the fact that I'm 6'6" adding to the laughter. I don't know how many times I've had to explain to people about the three week contortionist class I took just to learn how to fold my long gnarly body into a space of similar proportions.

This morning after I dropped Megan off at work I was driving home to gather a few things before heading to school. On the way to our apartment there is a small strip of road that is under construction just before my exit. As I entered the construction I noticed the car approaching behind me was also a Geo Metro. Under any other circumstance I would have made some joke to myself about the car, but who am I to talk. (Lately if I make a joke about another Geo it's usually about the fact that the other Geo is only a two door and we drive the superior four door model.) The construction ended and as I approached my exit the Geo behind me changed lanes and pulled up beside me to pass me. As he passed the driver looked over and threw me a wave.

That's when it hit me. I am part of an elite group of proud, self-confident people who drive Geos. I had no idea who the driver of the other car was nor had I ever seen him before. But he understood that we had something in common that set us apart for the rest of the human race. The Geo Metro.

I've seen similar events to this before. Next time you go for a drive watch for people who ride motorcycles. They always wave to each other regardless of who they are. And it's not just any wave, they all do it in the same way. They put their inside lane hand down and simply open it. It's discrete but it's enough to say "Hey, I understand you, fellow bike rider."

I was contemplating all of this while I finished the drive home. I was even fortunate enough to spot another Geo Metro as I turned into my apartment complex. It was a great reassurance we're not alone on the road.

When the stranger in the other Geo waved to me this morning it was at that moment I realized we do not need to know each other to understand each other. To all of you Geo Metro drivers out there; be proud of your car and who you are. You are part of network of people who know exactly what your going through. We've got your back. There is no shame in what you drive.

And 47 mpg doesn't hurt either.

Really!? Gum!

I know I haven't put up anything for while. I'd like to say it's because I've been really busy but that is not quite the case. However, this event was to upsetting not to write about.

The other day I was going to my HR class which is in large lecture hall. This particular room seats over two hundred people and has theater type seats. (The kind of seats that are padded and fold up when you stand.) Even though the room has seating for 0ver two hundred there are less than fifty people in the class. Oddly enough we have assigned seats. Do teachers really care where you sit when you're in college? Apparently some do. Mostly our professor want us to sit close to the front as well as sit close to the people in our study groups (also assigned.)

When I entered the classroom it was just like any other day. I made my way to to the third seat in from the left three rows back and prepared myself to plop into my seat next to BJ. While I was in the motion of sitting down I noticed something out of the corner of my eye that was striking enough to cause a change in my downward coarse. I immediately stood upright and stared at a wad of bright green gum stuck to the underside of my seat.

Gum! Really?
I pointed it out to the people around me and straightway began with a similar rant. I assume anyone who sits in the seats in this room is an adult. Probably a student here. What kind of person would stick a wet, diseased wad of gum under their seat. We're all adults. Didn't we all learn how gross that is when we were children. What kind of person thinks they're so much above everyone else that the unwritten rules of courtesy don't apply to them? Would it really have been so inconvenient to dispose of your gum in another way that you had to put it under your seat? Is asking you to spit it into a piece of paper to much to ask? What about walking to a trash can and spitting it there? Or is getting up in the middle of a lecture just too embarrassing for you? You could have tried waiting until the end of the lecture and spit it out then. If all the other suggestions are just too difficult for you and you needed the gum out of your mouth immediately you could have swallowed it. But no. You choose the one option that effects more than just you. You chose to selfishly stick the gum under your seat. Why do all college students feel that they need to stick it to the man and do the absurd? You sir or ma'am are absurd. I would even go as far as to say that you are a terrible friend to your fellow man.

Maybe I know their situation. Maybe they had a really good reason for putting the gum there. I don't know their situation. They could have been saving it later. Or maybe someone else in the room had just fallen to floor in need of CPR and they quickly put their gum somewhere nobody would step in it and rushed to the aid of the victim.No matter what possible excuse I come up with I just don't think it is the real reason for their infraction. I still think your a bad person.

Let this be a warning to all of you. If you leave your gum stuck to the underside of a chair or table or anywhere it shouldn't be you are a bad person. And you don't want to be a bad person.

his name is my name too

Here's the quick background boring part. Megan and I are renting a condo from a guy named John. John owns the condo with another guy named Steve, who happens to live in our complex and I bump into him every now and then and we exchange pleasantries. blah blah blah

The other day I was lying on the couch and I heard something, a small tap. I waited, and then heard it again. I sat up and waited again. There it was. I moved slowly so as not to scare whatever it was and eventually found a slow drip coming from the access panel in our ceiling. Not good. I figured it must be a leaky pipe because it hasn't rained for over a week. That's when I called John. He came over to look at it before calling the wrong people to come and fix it. When we opened the access panel a lot of water came rushing out. Not good. We found a slow leak coming from a pipe that must have pooled until it couldn't hold anymore and started dripping onto our floor.

John called his fix it man Sean. I've met Sean before when he came over to fix a few things when we first moved in. Right on, he's coming the next day to fix the problem. That makes Megan and me happy. Now Fast Forward >>> I'm walking to gym in our complex to lift some weight, it's no big deal I'm just tough like that. Anyway, as I'm on my way to the gym I see Steve. I wave and he shots me a "Hi Shaun" immediately followed by "Sorry, I didn't mean to call you Sean." He was still a ways off as I mumbled to myself "My name is Shaun" but I don't think he heard me. He then proceeded to explain that he had just spoken to John who had told him about the leak and also told him that he had already called Sean to come and fix it. That's why he called me Sean, because he was just thinking about it. I didn't have the heart to tell him that my name really was Shaun. Instead I just thanked him for being willing to help us so quickly. I then left and went to the gym.

Someday soon he'll remember that my name really is Shaun and he'll either be really confused, slightly embarrassed, or just laugh a bit. Oh well.

big cat magic

Just some quick background. Megan’s mom just started teaching sign language classes for wee kids at a community center and a couple of TV stations wanted to do a piece on her. At one of the interviews the PR group for the community center gave her tickets to a magician here in Vegas. It turned out that Megan’s mom had knee surgery and Megan’s sister Katie was sick and neither of them could go so…

Megan and I went to see a magician. Normally I would leave out the name of the magician to protect his identity but his real name adds so much more to the story that I’m going to risk leaving it in. The show we saw was called Extreme Magic with Dirk Arthur. First of all I think magicians are ridiculous. Not as entertainment but as individuals. I’ve personally a couple magicians in my life and I always leave laughing. Granted the illusions they do are really cool but at the end of the day they still have to tell people that they grew up (using the term loosely) to be magicians. Which includes dancers/assistants, wild jungle cats, flashy jackets, top hats, doves, and big smiles.

The theatre we were in was kind of grungy. Our usher was an old guy with a gut and a mustache. We sat in the first row of booths about 10 yards from the stage. Between the stage and us were rows of long fold up table. I think we have those same fold up tables under the stage at our church. Everyone at the show look tired and grumpy and most of them were probably retired.

The show started with Dirk’s Dancers. 4 girls who probably could get a dancing job anywhere else in Vegas. Megan was worried about the visual scars the dancers were making on her little brother Riley (11) and I couldn’t stop laughing at how ridiculous they were. Anyway, Dirk Arthur loves tigers and more than half his tricks had to do with making tigers disappear or appear or whatever else you can get a tiger to do. Except, he never put his head in a tiger’s mouth, which would have been really fun to watch. He also had a really old African Black Panther. He said it was something like 15 years old and you could tell. It had grey hair by its whiskers and it walk like it had arthritis. He did have an all white tiger (no stripes) that was way sweet.

Anyway, sorry to bore you with all the details. Overall the show was pretty fun, I laughed a lot. My favorite part of the show was when Dirk came off his stage and was talking to people. It was just the usual “where you from followed” by a lame joke until he stopped at our table. Megan was sitting on the outside and he asked her if she’d been winning at the casinos. She told him she didn’t gamble. Then he said this “well maybe you should cause it’s your lucky day.” Then he made her get up on stage and help him with a card trick. YEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!! I laughed so hard. Megan hates doing that kind of stuff. The trick was fun but being able to remind her for the rest of our lives that Dirk chose her to do a magic trick is the best part. He also gave us a free DVD called Big Cat Magic. It’s about his work with the tigers. We gave it to Riley.

hummus recipe

Our vacuum came and it's great. I'm very happy with all the time and research that went into it. After the vacuum came I didn't have a project to work on so I had to find something to do. The answer came one night when Megan and I tried to make hummus. We tried our darnedest without a recipe but it just didn't turn out. We think the problem was that one of (I won't say who, but it wasn't me) spilled the garlic powder in the hummus while we were mixing it. Needless to say it was just a bit too much garlicky for us and we threw most of it away.

I wasn't about to accept defeat and deiced that I was going to make some amazing hummus and not only was I going to do it I was going to do it without a recipe, I think I get that from my dad (KFC gravy soup). I will say that although I didn't use a recipe I did do a lot of hummus recipe research and it turns out that all hummus recipes are 95% identical. The biggest differences were the portions of ingredients used. So I made a list of all the ingredients I needed and went to the store where people buy food.

We had most the ingredients already but I needed more Chickpeas (garbanzo beans), pita bread and Tahini, which is actually just sesame butter and is not located next to the butter or in the asian food section like that punk Rufio kid at the grocery store suggested I look. It is in fact next to the peanut butter. Anyway I went home and made some garlic red pepper hummus. I liked it so I saved it for Megan to try when she got home from work, seeing as how is it the hummus tasting expert. And she loved it! That's right. But I don't think I'm done yet. Although it was great I think I could do better. I'll make sure to let you know if any progress is made.

Here's the recipe I made up if you're interested. It is really easy to make and only takes about 15 min. probably less if you have a food processor instead of just a blender.

1 can Chickpeas (drained)

1 clove garlic

1/4 cup Tahini (found next to the PB)

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/4 lemon (squeezed to death)

1/4 cup water

Cumin

Crushed Red Pepper

Salt

Add Garlic (I crushed and peeled the garlic and put it in the bottom of the blender so it would be sure to blend really well.), Chickpeas, Tahini, Olive Oil and Lemon Juice then mixed it. Add water slowly to get desired consistency. Add the Cumin, Red Peppers and salt last to taste. (I probably did about a tsp each of the Cumin and Peppers and not very much salt at all.) You could also use the juice from the Chickpeas instead of the water if you want. Serve with Pita bread (I like my pita warm) or whatever you like.

Like I said super easy super great.