The Holy War 2009

The end of the football season means war in Utah. HOLY WAR that is. The rivalry between the University of Utah and BYU is like no other. There are so many competition it is not even funny. Blood drives, food drives, even ice cream eating competitions. It’s nice to know that even with all the bitter feelings some good things come out of it all. The battle began at three in the afternoon. There was even a U of U fan that dressed up as the Pope, which I thought was actually pretty creative. Anyway, it was a hard fought battle till the bitter end. We had this cool guy sitting in front of us giving us commentary the whole time. The best was when he announced that it was time for the Cougars to stick a dagger into the hearts of our fellow Utes. Figuratively speaking of course. In what was looking to be a repeat of our Freshmen Year, when the Cougars lost to the Utes in overtime, the dagger finally came on a pass to number 88, who ran it into the end zone in overtime to secure a victory for the Cougars.


At the end, all of the fans joined in the spoils of victory. It was so intense. I have never seen a field stormed before in person. It was pretty cool A momentous occasion and victory for BYU. I will certainly never forget it and neither will the Utes.


Max Hall continued the battle off of the field. He wasn’t shy about his feelings concerning the Utes. “I don't like Utah. In fact, I hate them. I hate everything about them. I hate their program, I hate their fans, I hate everything. So it felt really good to send those guys home," Hall continued. "They didn't deserve it. It was our turn, and our turn to win. We deserved it. We played as hard as we could tonight. And it felt really good, again, to send them home, to get them out of here, and so it is a game I will always remember. I think the whole university, their fans and their organization is classless. They threw beer on my family and stuff last year, and they did a whole bunch of nasty things, and I don't respect them, and they deserved to lose.” All I have to say is that if the shoe fits wear it.

Buns and Pies of Steele

My roommate Steven and I decided that we would have our own Thanksgiving this year because he got a free turkey from NuSkin. I pretty much knew how to make everything except the pies and the most important part of the Thanksgiving meal: the rolls. At least that is what my mom says is the most important part of the meal. So I recruited the help of my friend to help me make rolls for our feast. When I say help, i mean handing Savannah Steele the ingredients so she could make them. She did a really fine job too.



The pies went well too. They now make a pie ready pumpkin stuff which makes making pumpkin pie a lot more easier and it is gluten free for all of you people with celiac disease out there (1 in 133 people are born with it).



We made Pumpkin and Pecan Pies. Notice the foil covering which I thought were really amazing considering I was trying to get strips to put around the edges. The baked really nicely and the crusts did not burn!



Anyway it was a fun evening and Thanksgiving should be great tomorrow as well. Some people from the ward are going to join us and so is my cousin from Maryland so it should be a really fun day. I can't wait.

What Do Ya Know Joe---It’s Your Birthday

Today is a very special day. It is our Vice President’s Birthday. He was born on this day in 1942. We have been blessed with Joe Biden’s existence ever since. So in honor of the first Delawarean (or is he a Pennsylvanian?) to become Vice President I decided we should celebrate with the top five Joe Biden moments.

Number Five---Barack and Joe’s Berretta. I like the fact how Joe is essentially threatening violence against the future president.



Number Four---He knows where Bin Laden is. If he knows why haven’t we captured him?



Number Three--- JOBS! That Three Letter Word!



Number Two—Oh Thank Heaven For Seven Eleven. You know that if a Republican would have said this there would have been hell to pay.



Drumroll Please----The Number One Joe Biden moment of all time…Why don’t we have Chuck stand up and tell us what it is.



Happy Birthday Joe! Here is to many more great moments!

This Made My Life

This week has been filled with great events. I officially got a job as a research assistant for a political science professor. That was a miracle. I had interviewed for another job with the same professor and I didn’t get, but then out of the blue he e-mailed me and offered me a job. I’m going to be searching through books about Supreme Court Justices to look at their interactions with the Press and Politics. Awesome! Then as a result of getting a job, I got to put in my two weeks notice at the Cannon Center. I will miss my co-workers, but I will not miss smelling like a hamburger at the end of my shift. I could not stop smiling the whole day. I was so happy.

Yesterday was Cougar Tip Off and I really wanted to go to it. Cougar Tip Off is where the BYU Basketball Team splits in two and they play against each other. I talked Mike into going, which was way good because that meant that I didn’t have to go by myself and I didn’t have to walk in the cold, windy weather (I’m so grateful for roommates with cars). I didn’t think there would be a lot of people there, but there were tons of people. The game was well played. We rooted for the blue team because of Jimmer. He not only won a guy a trek mountain bike at half time, but he also scored the winning shot at the buzzer. P.S. He had 22 points in the game.



So…I am a really huge fan of Jimmer Fredette. His name is Jimmer! How can he not be the coolest guy ever? That is such an awesome name. He is also from Glenns Falls, New York (just like Rachel Ray) and we know that people from New York are awesome. So, I had seen him on campus a couple of times, but never had the nerves to go talk to him. After the game they had an autograph line with all of the team members. After waiting in line for a while we approached the table. Notice Jimmer in the background.



Getting closer….



Then we made it. He was one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. He didn’t even hesitate when I asked him if I could have my picture taken. I also shook his hand. It was awesome. Needless to say I was on cloud nine all night. I would have to say that this has been one of the best weeks ever! And it’s not even over yet.

This Made My Day

This week has been really hectic. The school work just keeps on coming. I did take a break on Friday to go to my “sister’s” wedding reception. Now I know what you’re thinking: How can he have a sister if he is an only child? Well it was my adopted mission sister who was in my MTC group, Sister Call. She is one of the most amazing people on the earth. I don’t think I would have survived my mission without her. She is the only sister I have. I was so glad I was able to go. That was only possible because of one person: Savannah Steele! I’m so grateful that she gave me a ride to the reception which was in Alpine. That meant so much to me. I would definitely say that she is one of my “sweetest” friends, which is appropriate because October 17th is Sweetest Day. Thanks again Savannah!



On Saturday I spent close to 11 hours in the library. It should be illegal to be in the library for that long in one day. At any rate, I got done what I needed to get done. Just when you think you are over the hump, the humps just keep coming, but the semester is half over. Because of this stress, I have been finding things to be a lot funnier than maybe they actually are. This definitely made my day today. I mean, I knew about the Sacred Obama Candles, the Obama Bobbles and the B. Hussein Obama toilet paper (we're going to need that to wipe up the mess he has made), but when I saw the Obama Sushi I busted out in laughter.



It gave me the best laugh I’ve had in a while. I think it’s ironic that the word sushi, according to Wikipedia, means “it’s sour,” which I think is a proper term, fitting of our President.

Rise and Shout

So, the biggest home game of the year was on Saturday against Florida State. I thought that I would go the extra mile to show my support for the Cougars by coloring my hair blue for the game. It was pretty liberating actually. Well, my show of support didn’t help the Cougars, who were soundly defeated by the Seminoles. There have been many excuses for the loss, but I think it is because they didn’t do the haka.

Niner

So today was an unofficial holiday. 9-9-9 (in case you can't figure out why it's because all of the numbers are the same when writing the date). I thought it was cool, but apparently some people take the celebrating to a whole new level. I knew something was up when Owen made pancakes with nines in them made out of chocolate chips. Apparently it is really big to celebrate these types of days in their family. So, according to tradition of following the Barnes' lead in celebrating holidays in a particular way (first it was chili dogs on Halloween) we made a cake. It turned out pretty well. Happy "Niner" everyone! (P.S. Notice Owen's shirt in the picture. How does he always end up wearing that shirt when a camera is around?)