I have quite the political streak in me... I'm not too shy about it either. Mitt Romney is great, here are the 5 top reasons I like Mitt:
1- He turned around the Olympics. I remember when I was working for the Salt Lake 2002 Olympics as a Spanish Translator. Everything was scandal-ridden and on the brink of bankruptcy. Then he came and fixed everything. I think he can do it again for our country.
2- He knows business back and forth and has real life experience other than just being an elected official. If you keep the economy in good shape the people can fix many of their problems for themselves thus reducing the need for as much government intervention.
3- He exemplifies and shares my views on family values. Say what you want, but how a person is able to live their own life means a lot about who they are.
4- He got a state-wide Health Care plan together even while being an unpopular Republican Governor in a very Democratic State like Massachusetts. Even more amazing is that he did so with absolutely NO NEW TAXES.
5- He sees abortion and Islamic fascism for the evil they are.
I really hope he gets the nomination. So help me if it comes down to either voting for Jon "Wouldn't-know-conservative-if-it-slapped-him-in-the-mouth" McCain or Monica Lewinsky's ex-boyfriend's wife... I just don't know... I'll have to go throw myself off the cliff into the ocean or something.
Here's a really funny video. His son pulls a sweet prank on him using Governor Schwarzenegger's voice clips
Jan 23, 2008
zoo, family, and the 2nd Deluvian Era
Michelle and Aaron came all the way from San Francisco to visit us this week! We LOVE visits from family. They got here just in time too. It was unreasonably warm the Saturday they arrived. We were playing ultimate frisbee at "Magnificent Magnusson's" birthday party. We decided a trip to the infamous Santa Barbara Zoo was in order. It was marvelous. Our favorite animals were the chinese aligator
(who was so busy getting a good education and stealing our engineering and science jobs that he wasn't actually even there), the black footed cat
(who we decided is actually just a regular house cat that they spray painted it's feet and put in a cage.) and the crooked necked giraffe
(who died last year)... ya so pretty much it wasn't the coolest zoo because our top three favorite animals were either dead, invisible or domestic house cats.
It was a good time though and making fun of the animals with baby Aaron was terribly fun. We then decided to watch an awesome movie. My best friend Andy has endorsed the movie Hot Rod multiple times so we decided to give it a go. In fact, to get ourselves in the Hot Rod mood, Baby Aaron and I rode the mighty Rebel all the way to Blockbuster together. Baby Aaron is trying to scowl, but it turns out it's hard to portray any emotion other than apathy behind a full helmet.
Way awesome. One of the best movies I've seen in a good while because it contained all the vital elements needed to make an awesome movie: 1. Mustaches
2. People on Fire
3. Wussy Street Motorcycles
4. Punch Dances
5. Fighting Old People
How could it go wrong?
We checked out Downtown Santa Barbara and bought some Tim Tams (perfect for Tim Tam Slams! Coming to a Thursday Night hang out near you!) And of course we took them to the beautiful beach (Alicia: If you're reading this, you should know Jodi took this next picture for the singular purpose of luring you out here to visit us.)
We found a mega-big star fish. This thing could have sucked my face clean off so I didn't let him try like last week.
And no trip would be complete without going to our favorite hidden rope swing.
This picture was supposed to be me hitting Baby Aaron with an Ultimate Punch.
And as soon as Michelle and Aaron left we got nailed with the biggest storm yet. I'm starting to wonder if that whole "promise to never flood the world again" thing doesn't apply to wicked Isla Vista... because it's raining like crazy! Look at our front and back yard! They're becoming lakes!
(who was so busy getting a good education and stealing our engineering and science jobs that he wasn't actually even there), the black footed cat
(who we decided is actually just a regular house cat that they spray painted it's feet and put in a cage.) and the crooked necked giraffe
(who died last year)... ya so pretty much it wasn't the coolest zoo because our top three favorite animals were either dead, invisible or domestic house cats.It was a good time though and making fun of the animals with baby Aaron was terribly fun. We then decided to watch an awesome movie. My best friend Andy has endorsed the movie Hot Rod multiple times so we decided to give it a go. In fact, to get ourselves in the Hot Rod mood, Baby Aaron and I rode the mighty Rebel all the way to Blockbuster together. Baby Aaron is trying to scowl, but it turns out it's hard to portray any emotion other than apathy behind a full helmet.
Way awesome. One of the best movies I've seen in a good while because it contained all the vital elements needed to make an awesome movie: 1. Mustaches
2. People on Fire
3. Wussy Street Motorcycles
4. Punch Dances
5. Fighting Old People
How could it go wrong?We checked out Downtown Santa Barbara and bought some Tim Tams (perfect for Tim Tam Slams! Coming to a Thursday Night hang out near you!) And of course we took them to the beautiful beach (Alicia: If you're reading this, you should know Jodi took this next picture for the singular purpose of luring you out here to visit us.)
We found a mega-big star fish. This thing could have sucked my face clean off so I didn't let him try like last week.
And no trip would be complete without going to our favorite hidden rope swing.
This picture was supposed to be me hitting Baby Aaron with an Ultimate Punch.
And as soon as Michelle and Aaron left we got nailed with the biggest storm yet. I'm starting to wonder if that whole "promise to never flood the world again" thing doesn't apply to wicked Isla Vista... because it's raining like crazy! Look at our front and back yard! They're becoming lakes!
Jan 13, 2008
I wish I wish I hadn't squished that fish...
... or rather, that sea anemone, to be more precise since it's not actually a fish. You see, it all started out with this ridiculously good weather we've been having. Yesterday and today has been so nice that we can't even compute it. I mean it's January and it's like a perfect balmy 78 degrees outside. We were so thrilled we decided to go for a motorcycle ride and explore more of the city. We discovered a new favorite beach, it's called Arroyo Burro Beach (known to people here as Hendry's Beach)
It has a lot of dogs there. 
We then went and had a picnic in a beautiful park overlooking the ocean and fell asleep. That's right. We fell asleep in a park like hobos. It was wonderful.
Anyways, back to the squished anemone story, we were so enjoying the fabulous weather this weekend that after church today we went to the beach with our friends the Jeepsons and the Magnusons. We were enjoying the tide pools and poking the anemone and watching them try and close around our fingers when Janae poked one with her foot. Not to be outdone I slopped my foot onto a big one and wiggled it around alot letting the anemone grab on good and pump his evil toxins into my foot. I then promplty put my foot in my chaco and ignored the fact that it was slightly starting to tingle. Meanwhile we found a sweet starfish 
and I decided it'd be a great idea to stick it to my face because it looked dead and, Hey, dead starfish face makes for a good picture. Well, little did I know that starfish was only playing dead and when I went to take him off he'd STUCK TO MY FACE! 
He had like 5 or 6 little stickers stuck in my cheek that sort of pinched when I pulled him off! The ocean is dangerous! It's not bad enough that there are huge great white sharks, killer whales, giant squids, barracudas and freaky eels... but even the friendly looking creatures like sea anemones and starfish are dangerous! By the time we got home my left foot was swollen up and itched like crazy from the anemone. I guess it's only fair payback for all the anemone I poked just to watch how they squirted water.
one last picture of the awesome beach by our house.
It has a lot of dogs there. 
We then went and had a picnic in a beautiful park overlooking the ocean and fell asleep. That's right. We fell asleep in a park like hobos. It was wonderful.
Anyways, back to the squished anemone story, we were so enjoying the fabulous weather this weekend that after church today we went to the beach with our friends the Jeepsons and the Magnusons. We were enjoying the tide pools and poking the anemone and watching them try and close around our fingers when Janae poked one with her foot. Not to be outdone I slopped my foot onto a big one and wiggled it around alot letting the anemone grab on good and pump his evil toxins into my foot. I then promplty put my foot in my chaco and ignored the fact that it was slightly starting to tingle. Meanwhile we found a sweet starfish 
and I decided it'd be a great idea to stick it to my face because it looked dead and, Hey, dead starfish face makes for a good picture. Well, little did I know that starfish was only playing dead and when I went to take him off he'd STUCK TO MY FACE! 
He had like 5 or 6 little stickers stuck in my cheek that sort of pinched when I pulled him off! The ocean is dangerous! It's not bad enough that there are huge great white sharks, killer whales, giant squids, barracudas and freaky eels... but even the friendly looking creatures like sea anemones and starfish are dangerous! By the time we got home my left foot was swollen up and itched like crazy from the anemone. I guess it's only fair payback for all the anemone I poked just to watch how they squirted water.
one last picture of the awesome beach by our house.
Jan 7, 2008
The Holidays...though long gone
So I am finally putting up a post about our Christmas vacation, even though it has been a couple weeks now. We drove home to Utah to be with our families for the occasion. My family's big tradition is to get together on Christmas Eve, have dinner, and read the nativity story while all the little kids dress up for the parts. The kids are always way excited about it. We may or may not have had a neurotic sheep this year. 
Once that is finished, we all open the gifts that were to and from each other. My family now totals up to 50 people (mom, dad, siblings, spouses, children) so the present opening gets quite crazy! My family also tends to enjoy jump roping with small children.
We slept at Taylor's house with all of his siblings on Christmas Eve, which is always a sweet release after being at my parents crazy zoo. We are really lucky to have our families living so close together to be able to spend a lot of time with them both. We spent the rest of the week relaxing and visiting friends, Taylor got a little sick, and I spent much of my time sucked into the vampire love saga books. Definitely the highlight of the week, even better than Christmas, was on the 29th when my brother and his wife were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. My sister from Hawaii surprised us all by coming for the occasion, which made it the first time that my whole family was in the temple together- spouses and all. What an incredible milestone and achievement, especially for my parents having 9 kids! It was a such an awesome experience. Amy & Brandon from Hawaii also blessed their baby while they were in town, and my nephew Heston was baptized! Quite a busy week!
Here is a pictures of the 4 newest babies...they were less than thrilled about this picture and somewhat lifeless.
It was a wonderful break from school and work, and we love being able to have a white Christmas. However, there is no denying how much we both loved coming home to the welcoming arms of sunny Santa Barbara. It is always nice to come home. We spent our New Year's Eve enjoying hot caramel apple cider at Starbuck's, taking a walk, and going to see the movie "I Am Legend"...Taylor barely survived that one. I think we've both decided that this year our goal is to be more adventurous, just get up and go! We will only have such a short time to spend together, just the two of us, so we better enjoy it!
the above view is what taylor's lucky mother gets to see off her back deck every day. it was really nice to have a very white christmas.
Once that is finished, we all open the gifts that were to and from each other. My family now totals up to 50 people (mom, dad, siblings, spouses, children) so the present opening gets quite crazy! My family also tends to enjoy jump roping with small children.
We slept at Taylor's house with all of his siblings on Christmas Eve, which is always a sweet release after being at my parents crazy zoo. We are really lucky to have our families living so close together to be able to spend a lot of time with them both. We spent the rest of the week relaxing and visiting friends, Taylor got a little sick, and I spent much of my time sucked into the vampire love saga books. Definitely the highlight of the week, even better than Christmas, was on the 29th when my brother and his wife were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. My sister from Hawaii surprised us all by coming for the occasion, which made it the first time that my whole family was in the temple together- spouses and all. What an incredible milestone and achievement, especially for my parents having 9 kids! It was a such an awesome experience. Amy & Brandon from Hawaii also blessed their baby while they were in town, and my nephew Heston was baptized! Quite a busy week!
Here is a pictures of the 4 newest babies...they were less than thrilled about this picture and somewhat lifeless.
It was a wonderful break from school and work, and we love being able to have a white Christmas. However, there is no denying how much we both loved coming home to the welcoming arms of sunny Santa Barbara. It is always nice to come home. We spent our New Year's Eve enjoying hot caramel apple cider at Starbuck's, taking a walk, and going to see the movie "I Am Legend"...Taylor barely survived that one. I think we've both decided that this year our goal is to be more adventurous, just get up and go! We will only have such a short time to spend together, just the two of us, so we better enjoy it!
the above view is what taylor's lucky mother gets to see off her back deck every day. it was really nice to have a very white christmas.
Jan 4, 2008
random..ruh... ruh... random
sorry folks. this one will be random. it was time to clean off many of the pictures on my phone so.. here's some random ones that never made it to the blog on their own.
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Let's start with this little beauty... I couldn't help myself. I was sitting in my chair and this guy sat in front of me with this "You're an engineer if..." shirt. Now first off, the shirt wasn't funny. You can read that the reasons were ones such as
1-You have no life- and you can prove it MATHEMATICALLY.
2-It's sunny outside and you're working on your computer.
3-You can translate from English to Klingon to Binary.
others were equally lame. However, the most compelling reasons you could tell this specific individual was an engineer are more subtle. Blow up that picture, go ahead, now notice a few things with me.
1- The tons of dandruff fallen all on his shoulders and shirt.
2- The rampant neck hair growth growing not from his HEAD but rather reaching up from his BACK.
3- Lastly the greasy oily hair which you can actually see combed (unfortunately I didn't take the picture high enough to show the smart part and I didn't take it low enough to show his velcro shoes.)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's three reminders of much happier times...
I put these up because today is not a happy day... In fact Look at this picture and tell me...
"One of these things is not like the others, one of these does not belong."
It was like driving 40 miles per hour through a never ending shower, or rather like swimming 40 mph all the way to school. I definitely don't love the rebel somedays.
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I rocked my semiconductor lab this last quarter. Here's two cool pictures from it. We built a transistor from scratch! Sorry, that's really cool to me.
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I love my three-legged dog, she's a little bit naughty right now.
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Somehow this little beauty of a shirt ended up in my luggage when I was moving out to California.
I think my dad gave it to my mom... and somebody took a jab at my rebel riding lifestyle.
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We can't make it through a single sunday dinner without this happening. Right before and after this he was making the crystal ring loudly until alicia gets mad at him and dares him to fit it in his mouth. We also can't make it through sunday dinner prayer without david giggling and murmuring spanish praist to jose smith, michelle scowling, me laughing and whispering hail mary's in spanish, jodi kicking me, ryan feeling overwhelmed in his bad decision to join our family, alicia stuffing an entire steak in her mouth and mom getting mad. We have a problem.
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Ever since David gave Jodi this furry blanket for christmas... she's been wrapped up like a little vampire-book-reading-wife-burrito. Thanks D.
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I don't know whether to congratulate myself for my strength or proclaim loudly "WHO DESIGNED THIS??!!" (my favorite phrase) after our crappy garlic crusher cracked in half. Granted I was crushing enough garlic to scare away all the vampires within a 100 mile radius around Forks, WA. That's right... the dang twilight pandemic has hit the sparks household as well. If you don't know what I mean yet, you will soon.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Lastly, my mom has a problem.
Notice how there is like 10 tons of tupperware on my mom's counter here. I threw it all away when Jodi and I bought my mom a nice new set with matching lids because the tupperware was actually reproducing and giving birth to even worse tupperware (without lids)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let's start with this little beauty... I couldn't help myself. I was sitting in my chair and this guy sat in front of me with this "You're an engineer if..." shirt. Now first off, the shirt wasn't funny. You can read that the reasons were ones such as
1-You have no life- and you can prove it MATHEMATICALLY.
2-It's sunny outside and you're working on your computer.
3-You can translate from English to Klingon to Binary.
others were equally lame. However, the most compelling reasons you could tell this specific individual was an engineer are more subtle. Blow up that picture, go ahead, now notice a few things with me.1- The tons of dandruff fallen all on his shoulders and shirt.
2- The rampant neck hair growth growing not from his HEAD but rather reaching up from his BACK.
3- Lastly the greasy oily hair which you can actually see combed (unfortunately I didn't take the picture high enough to show the smart part and I didn't take it low enough to show his velcro shoes.)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's three reminders of much happier times...
I put these up because today is not a happy day... In fact Look at this picture and tell me..."One of these things is not like the others, one of these does not belong."
It was like driving 40 miles per hour through a never ending shower, or rather like swimming 40 mph all the way to school. I definitely don't love the rebel somedays.------------------------------------------------------------------
I rocked my semiconductor lab this last quarter. Here's two cool pictures from it. We built a transistor from scratch! Sorry, that's really cool to me.
-----------------------------------------------------------------I love my three-legged dog, she's a little bit naughty right now.
------------------------------------------------------------------Somehow this little beauty of a shirt ended up in my luggage when I was moving out to California.
I think my dad gave it to my mom... and somebody took a jab at my rebel riding lifestyle.------------------------------------------------------------------
We can't make it through a single sunday dinner without this happening. Right before and after this he was making the crystal ring loudly until alicia gets mad at him and dares him to fit it in his mouth. We also can't make it through sunday dinner prayer without david giggling and murmuring spanish praist to jose smith, michelle scowling, me laughing and whispering hail mary's in spanish, jodi kicking me, ryan feeling overwhelmed in his bad decision to join our family, alicia stuffing an entire steak in her mouth and mom getting mad. We have a problem.
------------------------------------------------------------------Ever since David gave Jodi this furry blanket for christmas... she's been wrapped up like a little vampire-book-reading-wife-burrito. Thanks D.
------------------------------------------------------------------I don't know whether to congratulate myself for my strength or proclaim loudly "WHO DESIGNED THIS??!!" (my favorite phrase) after our crappy garlic crusher cracked in half. Granted I was crushing enough garlic to scare away all the vampires within a 100 mile radius around Forks, WA. That's right... the dang twilight pandemic has hit the sparks household as well. If you don't know what I mean yet, you will soon.
------------------------------------------------------------------Lastly, my mom has a problem.
Notice how there is like 10 tons of tupperware on my mom's counter here. I threw it all away when Jodi and I bought my mom a nice new set with matching lids because the tupperware was actually reproducing and giving birth to even worse tupperware (without lids)
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