Carolina BB-Q

Last night we had a fun get together.    I invited my cousin Scott over for dinner and  decided to fix Carolina Barbecue.   I then thought I would extend the invitation to all of my NC friends.   Doris Clark came over and made wonderful hush-puppies and slaw.  Scott's roommate is from Cary, so he enjoyed the taste from home too.   And of course my regular party posse came over (those that were in town at least)  The food was good as was the conversation.  

 I experimented some with the recipes.  I used a pork shoulder butt  and a pork shoulder picnic cut (the upper part of the shoulder)  and slow cooked them both for 9 hours.   Then we made one eastern style and the other western style.   They were both good.  I liked how the shoulder butt fell off the bone, but the picnic cut was juicier, because there was more fat with that cut of meat.  So all in all I guess both cuts work.    For those who couldn't make it  let me know when you are free and we will do it again.  It was fun.

Yes...I am still alive

Hello everyone-

I just wanted to allay any concerns you may have as to whether I still exist.   I do.  I am sorry I have not responded to e-mails, phone calls,  singing telegrams.   (Honestly my in box has over 500 unread messages.  If yours is one of those I suggest you just e-mail me again, since I don't have the heart to go read all 500 unread messages, I think I might just delete them all)

Here is an update on what I have been doing since the last post.

The end of September things really started to pick-up at school.  We are working on a major policy project, where we have to research, write, and map out a political strategy of reforming a public policy.   My team is doing  Title IX.  It has been an interesting project.  Especially since we are working with an administrative interpretation rather than a straight-up law.  I have enjoyed learning about the nuances of law creation and implementation.  Up until this year my understanding of how a law came to be could be summed up by School House Rock.   I really enjoy learning about it, even though it has meant many a late night.  Honestly in October I think I was averaging 20 hrs of sleep each week.   (Hence why I have been ignoring your e-mails.  I am sorry)

The Title IX project will be the final for four of my classes, but October and November has been full of other projects specific to individual classes.   I have become a power point master.   A full fledge decision coach.  I can do amazing things with excel. (Just ask me about a dancing line graph, you will be amazed too) And I can make any paper, look pretty (I will do another separate post on that, because I have a lot to say about this class)   And thanks to Planet Money, I am surviving my Econ class as well  (I really am not joking about planet money, it has helped me so much, listen to it, it will make you smart).   It has been a fast and furious semester and I can hardly believe I am almost done.    If you want to know more about what is going on with school I suggest you follow this most excellent blog.  Anthony is my teammate and he does a much better job on reporting about school.   Now on to the interesting stuff.

I love the rainbow.

Along with school I have kept busy having fun with friends and family.   Conference Weekend (October)  I went up to Rexburg with Ann's family.   We picked apples at the BYU-I Orchard, and hiked Mesa Falls. (I had not been to Mesa Falls since my freshman year in college.  It was fun to go back)

This is brave Hailey.  I will talk more about her complete disregard for heights when I get to Timpanogos. 

Here we are picking apples.  Every tree was a different type of apple it was really fun to taste all of  the varieties.  My favorite was a pear/apple.  It was so good.  Reminded me of the Asian Pear.

I thought this was funny.  

Late October Ann, James, the kids, and I all hiked Timpanogos Cave.  I remember doing this hike when I was probably Thomas's age.  It was fun going back with them, plus the fall colors were beautiful.   I highly suggest doing the hike in the fall rather than the summer, because it was an enjoyable, pleasant climb, but I know it can be painful and hot in the summer.  Thomas did tell me a story as we were climbing about a man who hiked up to the cave and then built an elevator, for everyone else.   I told him it was a very good story.  He told me he wished it were a true story:)

Here we are at the start of the hike.

I wish this caught the colors better, but it was such a pretty hike, trust me

 American Fork Canyon.  .

This is us inside the cave.  If you can't tell, Hailey was not too sure about the whole cave idea.

So the kids liked the cave until the guide had us all turn off our lights.   Thomas turned on his light about 5 seconds into the pitch dark,  we got him to turn it back off, and the guide shone a lazer light into a diamond and the whole cave lit up with diamond sparkles.  It was very pretty.   But all in all I would have to say Hailey's favorite part of the trip was running up to the edge of the trail (Which was a very steep drop) and hearing her parents tell her to stop.   Hailey lost all walking privileges as we were going down the mountain. (which might have been a strategic move on her part, since Thomas, who stayed well away from the edge, had to walk all the way down the mountain.)  It was fun.  And I have enjoyed spending time with Ann's family.  We also went trick o treating on Halloween and last weekend we went to a BYU basketball game together.  I have enjoyed playing with them.  

Other fun things I have been doing:  I went to San Fransisco for a school project.  (I guess I will blog about that later too),  Spending time with the awesome people in the MPA program. (I taught them about Telephone Murder Charades),  catching up with my old roommates,  I went to my old roommate's choir concert, it was amazing, a wonderful moment of culture and beauty in my busy life.   I have also enjoyed going to school with my cousins.  I watched one cousin dance in the homecomming parade, and went to the BYU men's/women's choir concert with another, it has been fun.  So all in all I enjoy BYU....and I am sorry I have not responded to your e-mail.  Try me again.  :)