Categories
McUpdate

California Love

(That photo over there isn’t necessarily a photo of Ryan and Tina, but maybe it could be.)

Okay, I know that Pace just did a little update, but I just wanted to add my 2 cents. I think that’s how the saying goes. Anyway, we had a great time in California for Ryan and Tina’s wedding. Thank YOU to Dad and Mom T. for letting us stay and play for a while there! You are always so good to us, we can’t even believe it.

Chase and I flew out there on Tuesday so we could spend a little extra time with the family. The flight could have been much worse. Actually it was okay; I had bought some dinky toys at the dollar store to entertain Chase for the duration, but those got old after about 10 minutes. So then we just explored the plane for half the flight.

When we arrived: It was a little chaotic, especially for TMom because she was basically the wedding coordinator/decorator (despite having just started classes again at SSU). But it was so much fun, also! Unfortunately Chase got sick right in time for the wedding, so he wasn’t quite his normal self, but we made the best of it. Chase loved following Grandpa around outside, eating new treats from Grandma, splashing in the pool, playing with everyone including the silly dog, Heidi (he could say her name)!

It was also great to get to know Tina and her family. They were so warm and sociable! I felt guilty because they were asked me so many questions and had me talk about myself– I could hardly turn the conversation around to learn something about them! That’s how great they were. The wedding went well, I think; there was an Indian “mandap” which consisted of four pillars, some fancy chairs and stools, and some beautiful ornamentation. They had an LDS bishop marry them in front of that, then Jessica and I sang (Ice Cream by Sarah McLachlan), and then they had the Hindu ceremony, which was interesting. Rachel got to “tie the knot” for them, and she was slipped some money, of which Jessica and I were jealous. 😉 We got to see lots of people from our old ward and we even got to see Dan, Jamie, and Bryson who just moved out to San Francisco!

I was really surprised at how calm and collected Ryan and Tina both were throughout all the festivities! And Tina is gorgeous and easy to talk with. I loved seeing this hottie (Tina) with her arms around Ryan and all. They are so great together and I am ecstatic for Ryan. He deserves this! Overall, we met lots of people, tried lots of tasty multicultural foods, and had lots of fun. Thanks, family!

Categories
McUpdate

McUpdate

My buddy
Ok so I posted new photos, but have yet to have time to post the videos. Sorry. We’ve been having a great time in Utah with the weather cooling off it is a beautiful place. We are excited for the long weekend. Mainly b/c we don’t have any plans (except yard work). Joy wishes she could go to Connecticut to Ryan and Tinas party.. but at the same time she’s glad she isn’t flying 6 hours with Chase. In other news, I got a new keyboard and mouse at work. The Logitech WAVE, it’s sweet. Very comfortable… now if only I could get a nice chair.

What do you have planned for the weekend?

Categories
Personal

Toy ideas


Prob the coolest toy combo yet. Transformers and Star Wars… Can’t wait to see what Ewoks transform into. I also wonder if all good toy ideas came from the 80s since no new toys/cartoons have spawned such a love and fan base. What kind of toy mashup would you like to see?

Also, I’ll be posting some new videos and pictures from Ryan’s wedding, the one of Chase singing is my new favorite.

Categories
Personal

We are done with Seven Peaks

Read this article to find out why we have stopped going to Seven Peaks Water Park, despite having those wonderful season passes:

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=1711437

Categories
Tech

Apple gets some games…


Weird, yet promising to tempt us geeks to buying an Apple and not running boot camp. EA released six games to Mac this month. The most notable to me is Battlefield 2142. Read all about it. Lets hope all new EA games will be dual platform, then maybe Cotton can start playing something besides tank wars 🙂

In other news, Joy and Chase took off about 15 mins ago to head to Cali. I am now a lone man in Utah. I plan on watching lots of Sci-fi movies and playing Monopoly and RISK, give me a call if you want to join in the fun.

Categories
Tech

Need speed?


So I’ve been very annoyed with our speed of our internet lately. It seems to have slowed, so I called Comcast. They came out and told me everything was great. And the guy pinged a server in Vegas as a test. Well I was getting 4Mbps (megabytes per second) and we pay for 8Mbps.. he said it was b/c of the router I was seeing 4 not 8 (not true), so later I took the router out of the loop and still was getting 4 to the server in Vegas. So James comes today and says everything is normal, and that the server in Vegas was the problem, and that Adam was incorrect in stating the router was definitely limiting, but actually windows was probably the one limiting. James also said I should try using a tool on speedguide.net called the broadband optimizer. This lil app tweaks your windows xp settings to make sure your network card is allowing the proper amount through. So I said ok whatever I’ll try it when I get home. Well I grabbed it here at work to see what it did. I didn’t need a speed boost here at the Novell campus, I get 25Mbps, but I thought, heck I’ll ramp this thing up as high as it goes. Well, I ran a speed test at speedtest.net and I now instead of 25Mbps I got 100Mbps, with a 10Mbps upload… THAT’S INSANE!

speed

Here is the proof. So now I can’t wait to get home and see what I get at home after I run this thing. So far I highly recommend running this thing!

Categories
Ranting

Don’t drink alcohol… it’s deadly


“A 23-year old Serb was found dead and half-eaten in the bear cage of Belgrade Zoo at the weekend during the annual beer festival.

The man was found naked, with his clothes lying intact inside the cage. Two adult bears, Masha and Misha, had dragged the body to their feeding corner and reacted angrily when keepers tried to recover it.

“There’s a good chance he was drunk or drugged. Only an idiot would jump into the bear cage,” zoo director Vuk Bojovic told Reuters.

Local media reported that police found several mobile phones inside the cage, as well as bricks, stones and beer cans.” –via CNN

Categories
Personal

Love is in the air


We are doing really well right now, and we hope you are too. Welcome back to Utah Cotton and Dustin. We’re glad you are back. We are excited to go out to Cali next week for Ryan & Tina’s wedding, (now you’ll have to start a blog). Otherwise I just wanted to say hi today. Happy Friday!

Categories
Personal

Put in your orders


In an attempt to reduce the amount of bandwidth being sucked out of the site, I am going to archive McVideos, we will set a max of one page, or two… to the videos, and I might turn off the auto play so if you leave your browser open it doesn’t just keep playing… waht do you think. But to make it up to you I am offering a McVideos CD that will be mailed to you that will be able to pop into your computer and play the McVideos just as if you were on the site. So if you want one, throw a comment into this post and I’ll make you a copy. Otherwise, thanks for making McVideos such a huge success.

Other places, I just got CS3 at work, and will begin using that today, so far my impression of it is pretty low since it didn’t install properly the first time, and it installs over top of old versions meaning I had to go uninstall the older macromedia studio. Hopefully there is a speed boost that will make up for this lack of simplicity.

Categories
McUpdate

Extreme Backyard Makeover


With almost all the yard changes done, we decided a nice big project that we don’t have time or money for would be a great way to end the summer. So we have decided that Chase needs a safe place to play, meaning a place we can throw him and not worry he is going to wander into the street. So We are going to put up fencing and a gate on the sides of our back yard. We are also going to take down the part of the deck we don’t use and use that area for a sandbox and play area. I don’t plan on finishing it before it gets cold, but I do plan on taking the deck down and finishing the fence before it gets cold. Any ideas of what should go in this new area? Or what kind of ground cover should be there? (there’s gravel there now.. but that’s not kid friendly, and grass isn’t dad friendly)