Guys Behind the Blog // October (and giveaway)

It's back! Justin gets to take over the blog and answer questions! Yaay!

1 // We’re headed into fall, which means cooler temps for most of us…are you a warm weather or cold weather kind of guy?
Cold weather.  Heat and I are not good friends.  Ideally, I would like it to be in the 55-70 degree range year-round if possible.

2 // What's the best Halloween costume you've ever worn?
I had a Captain Jack Sparrow one that was pretty good.
I had a Victor Creed one set up but never executed due to a fortunate/unfortunate job interview I had to shave for.

I'm also working on a killer Two-face / Jekyll-Hyde combo styled one. (Tayler: HECK NO is he allowed to shave any part his head)

3 // What's your favorite Halloween candy?

Is that any different from my favorite candy period?  Snickers.  Hands down.

4 // What are your favorite parts of fall (ex: football, the weather, Thanksgiving, etc)?
Football, Thanksgiving, Crunching Leaves, and the cool breeze.

5 // How do you feel about pumpkin spice lattes? (As a joke question hahaha)
There is a far better fall-time beverage available.  Its called Apple Cider.

(Tayler: I'm joining up with some great ladies to give you guys a giveaway! You're welcome!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The First Guys Behind The Blog!

(Don't forget about the big Giveaway!)

I am so excited that Betsy decided to create another boys linkup! I love having Justin answer questions! So, without further ado, here he is!

Well, as a brief intro, I'm Justin. I married Tayler. I like all-you-can-eat fries, video games made in Japan that have terrible English translations, sports not named soccer, and making people laugh by telling ridiculously embellished stories about my life.

Since this is the first iteration of this link up series, I'll be kinda serious. This is the 3rd set of this kind of series I have been a part of, and I normally answer with funny GIFs and sarcasm.

1. Have you ever had a blog, or have you ever considered starting one?
Yes I had a blog. It was called Hypotheically Speaking. I'd recommend checking it out, but it has like 4 posts all within a 3 month period about 4 years ago.

2. If you could be a member of any band, which one would it be?
I'd probably be a member of The Black Mages. For the likely 99.5% of people reading this that have no idea who the Black Mages are, its a rock band started by Nobuo Uematsu, the lead composer for Square-Enix, the video game company responsible for Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Star Ocean, Dragon Quest, and countless others. The Black Mages pretty much just takes Nobuo Uematsu's best works from the Final Fantasy series and rock-band-ifies them. I'd be apart of that band simply to meet Nobuo Uematsu. If Koji Kondo had a band, I'd want to be apart of that one too. (He did Mario and Zelda games).

3. Valentine’s Day is on the horizon…are you the date-planner type or do you fly by the seat of your pants? Do you have anything planned for Tayler this year?
Valentine's Day, or as I like to call it, Valentine's Week, is a very hard time for me.

 First off, I spoil my wife. If we are in a store and she wants something, more often than not, I get it for her. So when it comes down to a holiday based on gift-giving, its hard to come up with something nice, something she likes/wants, that's also something I haven't already gotten for her already.

The reason I call it Valentine's Week is because her birthday is Feb 10, just a few days before Valentine's. When we were dating, I thought I would be clever and get her something for her birthday, take her out to a romantic dinner on the 12th of February (midway between her b-day and Valentine's, that way there's no traffic at restaurants), and then I would get her something on Valentine's. Little did I know, once you do something big, you have to at least match it every following year. So, now Tayler essentially gets gifts and romantic gestures pretty much the whole week.

So, long story short, Yes, I do have something planned for Tayler. For her birthday. I still have to plan out the rest of the week.

And despite my annoyed tone that I wrote this in, I love every second of it. Tayler means everything to me.

4. Tell us about a date-night-gone-wrong for you and your wife/fiancé/girlfriend. If it’s funny, all the better!
I have a hard time with this question, simply because I rarely think that things go wrong, they just go not as expected. Sure, I've had my plans quashed, but we always ended up doing something else that was just as fun.

5. And let’s cover all the topics…sports…who are you rooting for in the Superbowl and why? (if you post after the big game, then your guy could tell us if he’s happy with the outcome!)
*Begin football rant*

Alright. First off, I am not a fan of either of the contenders this year. I haven't liked the New England Patriots for quite some time, and I never paid attention to the Seahawks until recently (just like everyone else in the entire nation. No one was a Seahawks fan until they started winning). I dislike both coaching staffs. I dislike bandwagon fans, and the Seahawks are full of them.

That being said, I want the Patriots to win. For these reasons:

1.) Tom Brady is a phenominal Quarterback. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a bitter troll who probably is that 1 dislike you see on all of the really inspiring youtube videos.

2.) I know with all of the Deflategate stuff going on, their victory would be in question. Do I think they cheated? I don't really care. Does cheating happen in football? Absolutely. Just ask the Seahawks coach himself. He does it all the time.

And last, but not least:

3.) I want Richard Sherman to shut up. Richard Sherman is the star Cornerback for the Seahawks and he proclaims he's the best one to ever play the game. I don't really care if he is or not (I still think Deion Sanders is better), but it needs to be said that you don't brag about being the best ever. Jerry Rice is the best Wide Receiver ever, and he doesn't bring it up every time he's on TV. Sherman can never seem to shut up about it.

*End football Rant*

Sidenote: If you ask me sports questions, these rants tend to happen.

(Mis)Adventures of Labor Day Weekend

First of all, wowzie am I stressed--6 lesson plans per day to prepare, 2+ paper per student to grade every day, last weekend full of adventures, this weekend taken up my Comicon, family moving into town this week, laundry, shopping...too, too much to handle! 

So, I apologize if I get a little behind on the blogging community. I still haven't read some posts from Tuesday! Yikes!

But, I want to share with you Justin and my (mis)adventures from Labor Day weekend! Justin's sister and her family live in Virginia, BYU was going to play UVA, and his parents and other sister were driving up from Georgia. Perfect opportunity for a vacation!

Friday

I took Friday off so we could fly to Virginia (a sub taught for me). We got up super early that morning to get to the Salt Lake City airport. We check in and board our early morning flight. 

Boarding the plane, we saw this cute little guy:

I discover there is, in fact, no free wi-fi like they used to offer on few Delta flights. So, lesson planning went down the hole. But, I was able to grade a bit. So, a pretty boring flight (I didn't even think to bring a book because I thought I'd be so busy lesson planning). I also got a huge headache. Let's just say the flights continued in that pattern: bored and headache getting worse.

We landed in Virginia around dinner, got a rental car, got dinner, and headed down to my old hometown, Stafford! I was so excited to be back in the Maryland, D.C., Virginia area again! But, the headache was turning into one of the top 3 worse headaches I ever had. We quickly toured Stafford: my two homes, my highschool. Then, headed to Charlottesville to Justin's sister and quickly went to bed after.

Saturday

My headache is gone! Miracle of miracles! Because this day was the day I ran my first race ever! Now, I am a runner. I like to run. I consider it fun and yes, it helps me maintain my weight. Well, with school starting, I've been stressing on that and haven't been working out. And I was to run a 4 miler....in humidity (which I've never run it--I didn't run in high school) and with hills. Jill (Justin's sister), is a racer. Her daughter is starting to follow in her footsteps. So I was a little nervous. It also didn't help that I had a terribly upset stomach that morning! But, I ran it. I loved it! The first two miles was pretty, but the hill at mile 3 was the hardest for me. I am very disappointed in myself by admitting that I walked about 100 yards up that hill to the next drink station. Poured that on me, turned around, and finished the last descent and ascent to the finish line. With no training and new conditions, I am proud to say I finished 4 miles in 38 minutes! Woot-woot! I immediately called my dad who is a marathon runner to tell him. And then I realized I was shaking all over and could barely walk!

We all got cleaned up, grabbed some Chick-fil-a and rested. Then, Justin, his parents, and I donned our BYU gear, Jill's family donned their UVA gear and we headed to my very first tailgate. It was with Jill and her husband's friends, so Justin and I had no idea who anyone was, but we ate food and Justin talked football, and we were happy.

I was very excited to go to my very first football game ever! During college, I worked for Concessions, so I was always at the games, but never watched because I had to work. At the beginning of the game, the stadium was about 3/4 UVA fans, and 1/4 BYU fans. Mormons and BYU students from Utah came, as well as Mormons from all over the East. 

Then, at the end of the 1st Quarter, it was announced that everyone would have to leave the stadium due to severe thunder storms in the area. One the one hand, I was excited because I have missed Virginian thunderstorms. Yes, Utah has them, but they aren't nearly as beautiful or amazing or powerful at Virginia's. So, we left (went down into the underpasses of the stadium) to wait out the rain. And boy did it rain. No one's wi-fi really worked, texting and calling was even difficult. Many left to seek shelter in their dorms or cars. There was supposed to be another storm on its way, but it went another direction. There was also an issued tornado warning. Pretty intense weather!

Finally, after about 2 and a half hours, we were able to sit back down and the 2nd Quarter resumed. Weirdly, Justin and I bumped into a friend of ours from our apartment complex as singles! We sat with him during the 2nd Quarter until it started to rain again. So we moved to other seats in the stadium that had shelter because a lot of people had left. After the rain, after half-time, only 2/3 were UVA fans now rather than 3/4ths. They could go home and watch, but BYU fans traveled and we were going to stick it out (if you look in the picture right above, you can see we are in a sea of blue!).

Yes, BYU lost. Yes, many people (including Justin) were upset about it. Yes, we were razzed. But, I don't really care for football politics and stats. I just had fun!

Sunday

First of all, I trip the fire alarms throughout the house while showering. It was lukewarm with no visible steam and the fire alarms tripped! Crazy! Jill and her husband hate them.

We went to 1 hour of church, then back home because Jill and Corbin were hosting a BBQ for their friends who had traveled to see the game. The food was delicious! I ate so much chicken! Thanks Corbin for making me gain like 5 pounds on Sunday!

Monday

We pack up and leave. I wanted to get some Dunkin Donuts for breakfast because it is soooooooooo much better than Krispy Kreme. But, the two closest locations, according to our GPS, took us to not Dunking Donuts. The first was a residential neighborhood house. The other was a random business. So we went to Panera, instead. I actually had a gift card from 2008 when I drove a couple friends to school every day. But, I haven't been able to use it because I moved to the West. Well, guess what. I left it at home in Provo! Bah!

About 15 miles later, I saw a Dunkin Donuts, so I made Justin turn into it. We had already eaten, but I didn't care. I wanted a Dunkin Donuts crueler before I left Virginia. I ate it and was in ecstasy.

The flight home was pretty uneventful. The drive home was pretty uneventful. We stopped at Winco to buy some groceries and by the time we left, there was a pretty heavy thunder storm. We were about 10 miles from home and had to drive in a torrential downpour, our windshield wipers going as fast as they can, about a centimeter of running water on the streets, in the dark. It was kind of scary. Not going to lie.

But we finally got home, no worse for ware, unpacked and went to bed. 

Only to discover the next day I lost my wallet at Winco. It took until Wednesday to get it back.

So, sorry for the long post, but there is our interesting and fun (mis)adventure in Virginia!

Headed to Comicon tonight and tomorrow! Super excited! Have a great weekend and wish me luck in grading and lesson planning!