Hidden Treasures of Knowledge.

I just skimmed through a term paper from last year to find some citations I wanted to use again. I'm pleasantly surprised and a little impressed at what I wrote. It's not like I forgot what I wrote about, but I didn't remember the particulars since it was written in the mush of final classes last spring. Now that I've read it 5 months removed, I feel more qualified to judge the quality. I won't lie. It's a dang good paper, and interesting too. That can't be said for all anthropological theory term papers. I wrote about the theoretical implications of what constitutes a home, why we feel the home is part of identity, how it figures into human and non-human relationships, and why that is all pertinent to why we bring people to our homes when we want to get to know them better. I kind of enjoyed reading it again. I'm so proud of myself that I'd post it here for you to read, but it's almost 3,000 words and a bit long for a humble blog. Just take satisfaction in the fact that I'm satisfied with my effort. I'm glad about that. It gives me hope in my ability to write as one having authority to form a legit opinion based on my own primary and secondary research. Hope is a nice thing to possess as I brace myself to begin actually composing my undergraduate thesis paper based on my qualitative research from this summer in southern Utah.

Oh, by the way got an A in that class.

Ice Cold Lemonade. No, seriously.

*note: there's another post below this one that I wrote first. I'm finally catching up on life.


I have a good friend (actually a buddy from my semester at Nauvoo) we call Jared W who gets great ideas. I feel fortunate just to be able to participate in some of his schemes. This time it was setting up a free lemonade stand on top of Mt. Timpanogus. Why? Well, why not? Jared's philosophy is that any place can be bettered with a lemonade stand. I'm inclined to agree. Besides, what sounds better than an ice cold glass of lemonade after a 6 mile hike and a 4000 foot elevation change? Nothing. My roommate Jackie and I both happen to independently know this kid, so we both got to participate. We set out early Labor Day morning with several other friends and had an enjoyable hike up the mountain in the fresh morning air.



Near the top of Timp is a glacier lake called Emerald Lake that is super cold year round. After reaching it we selected an open area on a small peninsula that juts out into the lake and set up camp.



Jared W and his brother came prepared with a sign, 6 containers of Country Time Lemonade mix, plastic cups, pitchers, wooden spoon, and water filters. We all brought some food to share too including some delicious cookies Jackie brought. We all took turns pumping water and preparing the lemonade.



At first the response wasn't too overwhelming because despite the warm sunshine a bitterly cold wind was blowing so we had a lot more requests for hot chocolate. We had to huddle for warmth ourselves.
As the afternoon wore on and the wind died down, we got more "customers." I think some were a bit wary and suspicious, but most thought it was a great idea and greatly appreciated the refreshment. We actually made a few friends that hung around for a while.
After a while I decided to hike to the saddle with a few other people which is where one can overlook all of Utah Valley (the lake is on the back side of the mountain). All the way up to the saddle we'd tell people to stop and get free lemonade at the lake, and most people didn't believe us. They'd say things like "Yeah, and there's hamburgers at the summit too" or "There's soft serve ice cream at the saddle." We did our best to convince them but we can't help if they choose not to believe. We saw mountain goats along the way.

We didn't have time to get all the way to the summit, but it was still pretty cool to be that high up in the world. We stayed for 10-15 min and took fun pictures before we had to start our hike back down the mountain.

This picture was taken with my phone, so that's why it's a little grainy.

Jared didn't accompany us to the saddle, but he reported great success back at the lake. We figured we ended up making about 15 gallons of lemonade altogether, and served at least 150 people. All in all, I'd say it was a good day, and the perfect way to end the summer.

Hello again

Summer in Idaho is great. I wish it was still July and I had a month more of fun to enjoy. I had a lot of fun seeing lots of family and friends during the brief couple of months I had to be home this year. When I first got home I spent a blissful week not working. That weekend my brother and his family came to visit from Colorado for a few days before the Lee Family Reunion over the Fourth of July. The reunion was hot and fun. I got plenty of rafting in on the Clark Fork River this year as I was neither recovering from surgery nor suffering from debilitating injury--yet. I did end the reunion with a bang...and a skinned knee, scarred face, bruised hip, scraped foot, and sore muscles. My consolation is the assurance that running into that clothesline with my cousin looked AWESOME. Only five or ten of Grandpa's posterity was missing from the reunion. Josh and Chiu-Yi couldn't come because Josh has been having some health issues, and my cousins Kristen and Jimmy's families respectively were unable to attend. We all had a lot of fun.

I spent the rest of the summer working at Dad's dental office again. It's nice to have a job whenever I go home if I need it. I stayed active hanging out with friends, playing frisbee, and attending single adult activities with my single's ward. My brothers and I also crawled our way through the Lord of the Rings movies. We never did finish the last one. The summer ended with the North Idaho Fair and the world famous Elephant Ear booth. I only worked it 2 days this year because I had to leave to come back to Provo in the middle, but it's always a fun time seeing cousins and friends.

Yes, I'm back in Provo for my last year of my undergraduate education. I moved back into the ward I lived in before I went to Jerusalem, so it's been a lot of fun seeing old friends and making new ones. I have great roommates too. I knew one of the girls from the ward before, and the other two are new to me. The football season is off to a great start and if you haven't heard, BYU is #7 in the country right now! Boo-yah! Provo went nuts after we beat Oklahoma: people driving around honking, cheering without restraint, spontaneous partying in the streets till the wee hours of the morning. It was great to be part of it. Our first home game is next week and I'm excited.

That's all for now. Life isn't super exciting right now, but it's good. My title claims this is about my adventures too. With a long semester of intense academia ahead of me that you probably don't want to hear me complain about, I'll try to keep future posts restricted to true adventures for the sake of entertainment. I always appreciate reading a fun blog post.