The Haymonds » Mike

Runnin’ The Ragnar…

Mike — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 06:08:24 +0000

During a moment of what might be referred to as “incredible stupidity”, I agreed to take part in the annual Wasatch Front leg of the Ragnar Relay, otherwise known as the Wasatch Back. Upon first glance this may seem like an excellent way to get in shape for the summer, but after further inspection you’ll find that it’s most likely a death sentence for a lazy slug like myself. Considering the fact that the last real endurance training I’ve done was about 15 years ago, I’ve definitely got my work cut out for me. And as if that wasn’t enough, I had to go and drag my wife into this mess as well. I suppose this way we can at least die together though.

For those who are unfamiliar (don’t worry, I had no idea what this thing was when I agreed to it), it’s basically a race that makes you pray there will be someone waiting at the finish line with a gun for you to shoot yourself with. The race begins in Logan and then winds 190 miles up the backside of the Wasatch to end somewhere round about Park City (Course Map). The race takes the better part of 2 days and we’ll be running straight through the night. Each of the 12 team members gets 3 legs of the race for a total of around 15-20 miles and spends all of their non-running time packed into a couple minivans which follow whomever the current runner happens to be. Basically it’ll be 2 days of tired, cramped, smelly hell. Fun, huh?

This is a happy pre-death picture

Anyway, the main point of this post is to solicit support from our dear beloved readers. Emily and I have joined up with several friends from my new job to be on one of two “Cancer Teams” that will be running the race. The main difference between a regular team and a “Cancer Team” is that all of our entry fees will be going to the American Cancer Society. The only downside to this is that the entry fees/donations for the Cancer Teams are much steeper than are those of the regular teams and this is where you, my dear readers, come into the picture. Emily and I are humbly asking for your monetary support in the way of donations to the American Cancer Society as we train for this brutal ordeal. Please feel free to donate as much or as little as you can and be assured that all donations will go to the ACS in the form of one lump sum donation that will be put together by the members of our team. Emily and I will need to come up with $700 for our part of the donation so every little bit helps. The only thing we can offer in thanks is the hard work we’ll put into trying to survive this thing as well as a promise to have someone post pictures of our limp and lifeless bodies located wherever we happen to collapse between Logan and Park City. Thanks in advance for your support and prayers for our survival. We’ll need em.

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I’m Employed!!

Mike — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 18:43:41 +0000

Well, after about 4 and a half months, I’ve found work again. I’m now working for an internet marketing consulting group down in the Thanksgiving Point business park. My new employer is called PMI and I’m working in the consulting group helping clients with their online marketing (both retail and affiliate marketing). My client base is a little different than what I was used to working with at Omniture, but the environment is good and I’m part of a good team. We’ll just have to see how things go as I spend some more time and get more involved. Either way its good to be working again. Many things are overrated in this world, but paychecks are not one of them.

The Search Continues…

Mike — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:54:47 +0000

Well, I’ve been jobless for about a month now (technically longer if you count the 3 weeks of paid leave they gave me) and I have to say, its driving me nuts. I suppose it would be fun to be jobless as long as you were independently wealthy so you could do something with your free time, but when your whole existence revolves around looking for a new job, it gets old quick. It has been nice spending more time with my kids, but I think my wife is ready for me to go back to work (as am I). So until then, I’ll just keep looking and I suppose maybe I’ll follow the twins example and just DANCE!!!

The Hunt…

Mike — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:08:06 +0000

This years deer hunt got started a little crazy due to scheduling issues, but we all had a great time and both Stephen and I got our deer. Stephen shot his at about 290 yards about 10 minutes after we left the trucks Saturday morning and I got mine at around 240 yards late Sunday afternoon. The bonus to this was that we didn’t have to worry about hunting on Monday, the downside was that I ended up cleaning and hauling it in the pitch black Saturday night. There was no moon out either so when I say pitch black, you can take it literally. In the downtime though we found time to shoot some clay pigeons and to ride Tony’s horse around camp. All in all it was a successful hunt though and as usual, we had lots of fun.

Temple Security

Mike — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:42:37 +0000

With the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple recently completed and the fact that our stake is part of the new temple district, it means that we’ve had the opportunity to provide service for the temple open house. There’s lots of different assignments available, but a couple weeks ago I got the opportunity to do security. This mostly consisted of just standing around and making sure nothing “went down”, but it was a unique opportunity to stroll around the temple grounds after dark by myself. I had the 7pm – 11pm shift so I was there for the last hour of public tours and then for a couple hours after that.

While the temple was open I got to stand just outside the front doors near the fountain and watch all the people go by as they started their tour. After they were done with the tour, they’d all tend to come and stand around the fountain and take pictures so it got a little busy, but I just stood around and smiled to everyone as they passed. As I was standing near the fountain I looked up several times to gaze at the temple and on one of these occasions I actually saw a dove lift off from the south side of the spire, fly a complete circuit of the temple grounds and then land back atop the north side of the spire. My immediate thought was “no way that just happened…” and I spent the next 10 minutes trying to spot it again, but it had apparently either nested down or flew off in another direction. Either way it was pretty cool though.

After the public was ushered off the temple grounds, I got to walk around for another couple hours and just keep an eye on the place. I walked around the open house tents and spent a lot of time just looking towards the temple as the lights began to come on and bathe it in a soft white glow. It seems crazy how most of the time we go to the temple it’s always a rush to get there on time and then you have to rush home to get the kids and that’s when you even find the time to go. So it was a unique treat to be able to just stroll around the temple grounds and enjoy the spirit (and I even snapped a couple cruddy pictures with my phone). I’m sure I won’t have that chance again anytime soon (if ever), but I’m glad I got the opportunity to serve.

Scuba Diving off Catalina Island

Mike — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 03:26:16 +0000

This week I got the opportunity to head down to California with my Dad and brothers to go scuba diving. We’d been planning this trip for quite a while, but due to people constantly bailing out, we weren’t sure we were going to get to go until about 2 weeks ago. Luckily, we were still able to make it work.

On Wednesday morning we got up and on the road by 8am and drove straight through to Long Beach harbor with only a couple gas stops. After arriving at the harbor and putting all our dive gear on the boat, we drove into town and got some dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp house. After some fine seafood we went back and bunked down on the boat. The next morning the crew got the boat up and running around 4:30am while the rest of us were still sleeping. I finally woke up about 8 while we were headed across the channel to Catalina Island. After grabbing some pancakes in the galley, the captain shouted out to inform us that a pod of Dolphins was swimming along the bow of the boat. It was a good start to the day.

After arriving at our first dive location we all started getting our gear on. The fog that had rolled in the night before was still laying low on the island and the captain pulled out his bagpipes to play for us as we got in the water for the first time of the day. With the fog and the bagpipes, it was a little like diving off the shore of Scotland, but lots warmer. We made 4 dives that day at Ship rock and Two Harbors. The last dive of the day was by far the best as we got to dive through a cool kelp forest just outside of Two Harbors. We saw lots of starfish, sea urchins and sea cucumbers and we even found a random shark egg drifting along the rocks on the bottom. There were tons off cool overhangs and walls to explore and the visibility and colors were great. My Dad’s neighbor even caught a small octopus and brought it up to the boat. After diving that evening, we ferried onto the beach and had steak cook out on the beach.

Friday morning we got another early start and made 3 dives at Rock Quarry and Whale Rock. Again, the last dive of the day was the best and we saw multiple Spanish Dancers and even a horned shark. There were some great wall dives and we explored lots of cool terrain. Although diving through the kelp is one of my favorite things. I love the surreal feeling as the kelp sways back and forth around you. It’s like flying through a quiet forest, except the whole forest seems to move around you. It’s hard to describe unless you’ve experienced it, but it’s a cool experience.

After finishing up our dives we cruised back to the harbor at Long Beach and we all hopped in our cars and started the long drive home. We were all tired and sore and a little sunburnt so a long drive was the last thing any of us wanted to do, but we made it as far as Mesquite before crashing at a family friends vacation home. We slept late and after getting a big breakfast at the Casa Blanca casino, we finished up the drive home. It was a quick trip with lots of road time, but the diving was great and it’s always fun to get away now and then. We didn’t get any underwater pictures this trip, but check below for the pictures and videos we did take…

And here’s some video of the dolphins…

And here’s Captain Greg and his bagpipes…

Happy Birthday to ME!!

Mike — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 03:48:08 +0000

So there I was just watching tv minding my own business when all the sudden there comes a knock at the door. I went to see who it was and it turned out to be Emily’s folks. We weren’t expecting them, but they often stop by to visit so I wasn’t really wondering why they had were here. Then Paul pulled a box out from behind his back and said Happy Birthday. To be honest, I had kinda forgot that my birthday is tomorrow, but now I have a whole new reason to be excited…

If you’re thinking “hey, that looks like an X-Wing Fighter Kite.” then you’re exactly correct. Now I just need a clear windy day to take it to the park and see if it really flies. You ready up there R2?

Surgery Stinks…

Mike — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:48:37 +0000

So I had to have surgery on an infected tooth this week. The infection was the result of a root canal that took place some time ago, but the point of this post is that this is only the second time I’ve ever been “put under” and I’ve decided I don’t like it. This is mainly due to the fact that there are gaps in my memory where I know I was awake enough to be mobile, but I don’t remember anything about them. At the risk of sounding to presumptuous, I have to think that this must be what it’s like in the early stages of Alzheimer’s (I just watched an episode of Scientific American Frontiers about memory loss the other day, hence the reference).

It’s just weird to think that my brain was working enough to get me from the Doctors office to the car, but I honestly can’t remember getting to the car or even getting home for that matter. I do remember talking to the nurse briefly as I woke up after the surgery. She asked me if I felt ok and if I was prone to puking. I told her I felt fine and that I don’t puke too often. Then she helped me stand up to move to the recovery room, but I don’t remember walking down the hall. I only vaguely remember laying down on the bed, but then I don’t remember anything until Emily got out of the car to get the kids from my mom. After that, the next thing I remember was laying on the couch at home. I don’t really even remember getting out of the car and into the house. It’s quite disturbing to think that I was up and interacting with people, but that I’m unable to recall most of it.

Anyway, the surgery went ok and aside from a little swelling I feel pretty good. My jaw aches a little, but for the most part there hasn’t even been any pain. I just hope the fix sticks and I don’t have to have that tooth worked on ever again.

Another Weird Dream…

Mike — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:57:28 +0000

Let me preface this one with the fact that I’ve seen WALL-E multiple times over the last few days. It was our Netflix movie last week and as such, was viewed far more than it might normally have been.

Anyway, the other night I was having a strange dream regarding the seemingly endless supply of energy that the Axiom ship (that’s the human “life raft” ship in the movie) seemed to have. As I dreamt, I recall wondering how, after 700 years, the ship was still able to power all the lights and billboards and robots and other electrically powered items on the ship. Keep in mind I was dreaming so the possibility of some alternate source of energy didn’t really enter my mind. I was thinking strictly in terms of energy storage circa 2009 so my mind was boggled while trying to figure out how they hadn’t run out of energy yet.

I pause for a moment here to acknowledge that to this point, there really wasn’t anything interesting about this dream. It might be an odd subject for a dream, but I’m sure many of you have had stranger dreams. However, the thing I found interesting about this particular dream is how it seemed to be a result of my physical situation at the time. I’m sure many of you have experienced something similar when you can’t seem to stop dreaming about water and then when you’re forced awake, you realize that you’ve never had to pee so badly in your life. Same sort of thing here.

As most of you probably know, I have a little ailment called Diabetes. One result of the medications that I take to control this ailment is that I occasionally experience the effects of hypoglycemia which is basically what happens when the sugar content in your blood gets too low. Basically, without a high enough content of sugar, your body literally runs out of gas and it results in weird side effects like shaking, sweating and loss of concentration. So to tie this back to where I started, as I lay there dreaming about power consumption in a fictional space and as I wondered how power could be maintained for 700 years without a recharge, it happened that I was at the time experiencing the effects of hypoglycemia. Luckily this condition tends to wake me from sleep (which, if any of you know how heavy a sleeper I am, you may find this rather miraculous). As soon as I woke up, I started to put the pieces together. As I rushed into the kitchen to shove anything I could find into my face I was a tad amused at how the brain works. I couldn’t help but find it amazing that as I lay there sleeping, my brain was still interpreting input from it’s surroundings and trying to put that information into some sort of context that made sense. I was literally running out of juice and my brain subconsciously turned that into an apparent need for a quick recharge via my hideaway solar panel.

It’s things like this that make me wonder about our true capacity for knowledge and learning. Brains are amazing things and it’s my opinion that they can do so much more than we can even comprehend presently. Guess we’ll just have to wait for that next sphere of existence to learn all the secrets. Until then, I should probably investigate some way to rig up a personal limitless energy supply so I can survive the next 700 years in space… or something like that.

Omniture Holiday Party

Mike — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 07:31:04 +0000

So, just like last year, Emily and I had one night again this year where we got to get all dressed up for a night out on the town thanks to Omniture. Once again I went and got a tux and Emily found a fancy dress and we went uptown to the Grand America hotel for the annual Omniture holiday party. This years party was a bit more financially conscious (no more open bar), but it was still out of control. The food was pretty good and the atmosphere was fun and the entertainment was “uncomfortable” according to Emily. We had a good time seeing everyone all dressed up and listening to Josh James’ fairly comedic monologue. We played a gigantic game of rock/paper/scissors and didn’t win anything once again. It was a fun just to get out for the evening though. Thanks Omniture for a fun night out.