2013 Pumpkin Patch

Well, last Saturday I planted the pumpkin patch.  Not much to say about that.  Today I had planned on spraying the patch with Miracle Grow but it has been raining all day so I don't see much of a point.  As of today there are seven plants that have popped up, all jack-o-lanterns.  I did take a look and there is one Big Max pumpkin plant that is now just starting to pop up out of the ground.  I decided to plant more jack-o-lantern pumpkin plants this year and less big max.  I figure more pumpkins is better than big pumpkins.

The Witch's Camp

So, this year I decided to try something new with our outdoor Halloween Decorations.  What I ended up with was The Witch's Camp.  I think it turned out pretty good and the boys love it.

Here we have the view during the day.  The witch does talk and cackle when she moves.  It's pretty fun.  I made the Spooky Trees out of branches from our wood pile.  Most of the components came from the wood pile, the dollar store or our pumpkin patch.

There's Collin and Liam hanging out with the witch (one of the few things that didn't come from the dollar store) and a number of the pumpkins from our pumpkin patch.

Here's the view at night.  It looks a little bit different now as I decided to add a little height to the spooky tree on the right.

The 2012 Pumpkins Are Here!

Well, 2012 was a very successful year for Ryan's Pumpkin Patch.  I ended up with 18 pumpkins with a total weight of 201.4 lbs.  That is a personal best in terms of number of pumpkins.  The most I ever got in a year was 15.  It is also the most total weight for the pumpkin patch ever.  So here they are:

From Left to Right - On the Table: The Tardis (28.0 lbs) [This Year's "Big Mutha"], The Dalek (22.6 lbs.) - On Cinder Block: The Bro Code (13 oz.)* - Middle Row: Knucklenose (10.8 lbs.), HooDoo (12.6 lbs), Captain Sneaky Pants (14.8 lbs.), Han Solo (13.2 lbs), Twisted Sister (17.4 lbs.), Challenge Accepted (16.4 lbs.), Knucklehead (12.6 lbs.), August Rush (14.4 lbs.), Sally Slingshot (7.8 lbs.) - Bottom Row: Snickerdoodle (4.0 lbs.), Peter (6.4 lbs.), Susan (5.4 lbs.), Edmund (6.2 lbs.), Lucy (5.0 lbs.), True Story (3.0 lbs.)

So, there you have it.  I know that to many of you the names make no sense.  But, that is simply because you don't watch the right TV shows.  Anyway, Happy Fall!

*Yes, that is ounces, not pounds.  Smallest pumpkin I have ever grown.

The Final Days of The Pumpkin Patch

You know, my last semester of college was both happy and sad.  I loved my time at BYU and the friends I had made and the things I had learned.  However, as I started my last semester I had finished all my linguistics courses and the only classes I was taking were a bunch of random ones I needed in order to finish up the last of my graduation requirements.  In addition to that, it was finally dawning on me that I had majored in linguistics and that I had absolutely no idea or plan regarding what I was going to do with my life.

Much like those final days of my college career, my pumpkin patch is in its final days.  Most of the pumpkins have now been picked and there are just a few stragglers clinging to the dying vines as I wait for them to turn orange.  So, in the next little while I will be picking the last four pumpkins and I will be taking out the pumpkin patch for another year.  It's happy and sad all at the same time.  Much like my last semester of college.  Hmm, deep.

First Pumpkin of 2012

Well, yesterday I picked the first pumpkin of 2012.*  This is the earliest I have ever picked a pumpkin.  Since I picked it on the last day of August and it was clearly in a big hurry to ripen I decided to name this 14.4 lb beauty . . . wait for it . . . August Rush.  I know; my creativity knows no bounds.  Sometimes I'm amazed my brain doesn't explode under the weight of all this creative genius.

*Technically, the first pumpkin I picked was the one that had gone rotten.  This was the first intact pumpkin of 2012.

Pumpkin Patch Update

 

Well, I am happy to say that the pumpkin patch has been doing incredibly well this year.  Due to an unusually hot summer the pumpkins have grown faster and become ripe earlier than they usually do.  I actually have several that I could pick right now if I wanted to.  As a result of this heat and fast growth I actually have new pumpkins starting up even now.  In fact, I hand pollinated two female buds just this morning.  If things keep going well with these new ones I could actually end up with somewhere in the area of 20 pumpkins this year.  That's more than I have ever gotten in case you were wondering.

The pumpkin shown above is Pumpkin #23.  This was one of the later pumpkins.  I actually almost snipped it off thinking that I should stop any new pumpkins from starting so the plants' energy could go into to the pumpkins I already had.  But, I saw that the pumpkin was already staring to grow so I let it alone.  I'm glad I did.  Even though this one started somewhere in the area of a month later than most of the others it grew like crazy and may very well end up as the biggest jack-o-lantern pumpkin I get this year.  I'm sure there's some kind of Sunday School lesson in there.

Above is Pumpkin #13.  It should probably end up as the smallest of the batch this year.

 This guy (Pumpkin #18) decided to hide behind the butterfly bush.

These are Pumpkins #15 and #16.  Not much to say about them.

Here we see Pumpkins #17, #5 and #22.

On the left is Pumpkin #8.  This is the one competing with #23 for the distinction of being the biggest of the jack-o-lanterns.  On the right is Pumpkin #4; one of the three Big Max pumpkins I got this year.

In the front you can see Pumpkin #1.  This will undoubtedly be the biggest of this year's Big Max pumpkins.  Pumpkin #7 can be seen in the back and should be the second biggest.  Now, this picture is missing something.  Pumpkin #6 is not here.  A few weeks ago I came out and looked it just to discover to my dismay that it's bottom had turned to mush.  As a result, I had to pick it.  It weighed in at 8.6 lbs and I named it Oh Potter, You Rotter.  It seemed appropriate.

Collin's Excavator Cake

So, back on August 7th our little Collin turned four.  Since Alisa took care of all the presents I decided that I would take care of the cake.  Alisa found this excavator cake online and I baked the pound cake and turned it into the above.  It was a big hit with Collin.

2012 Pumpkin Patch - Engage!

Well, back on May 9th I planted the Pumpkin Patch. As you can see from the above picture I planted three hills. The one in the middle is your regular jack-o-lantern pumpkins. The other two are planted with the seeds from the 36 pound and 26 pound Big Max pumpkins I grew last year. I have high hopes that I will set a new personal best this year. My goal is to get a 50 pounder. We shall see.

Oh, so you noticed the newly redesigned pumpkin patch sign. Now some of you may be rolling your eyes and saying; "Oh no he didn't." Well, yes he did! You may feel inclined to point out; "But Ryan, that show ended 2 years ago. When are you going to move on." To which I say: "NEVER! Indeed you are correct, it did end 2 years ago. But, I have the complete series on blu-ray so for me it shall never end!!"

Anyway, if you think that's nuts check this out. As you know, I love to grow my pumpkins and I just feel like I could never really ever have enough of them. So, I decided to try planting some pumpkins on the roof. I'll let you know how this works out.

In case you were wondering this post has been backdated. I actually wrote it 8/2/12. I decided to show the date I meant to write it.

It's Been A While

OK, so it has been just over 4 months since I last wrote a blog post. Here's a summary of what happened.

• After being out of work for month I got a job at a 3PL called Pro Star Logistics.
• I finished my yearly reading of Harry Potter.
  
• My new favorite currently running show "Once Upon a Time" premiered. (LOST is still my all time favorite show in case you were wondering)
  
• The 5th and Final Season of "Chuck" Premiered.
  
• We had a fun Halloween in which I dressed up as a member of The DHARMA Initiative, Alisa was a witch, Collin was a dinosaur coming out of an egg and Liam was a pea-pod.
• We had a fun Thanksgiving at Grandma Norberg's house and one at my in-law's house in Idaho.
• I began my yearly reading of The Lord of The Rings.
  
• We all celebrated Kari's return to her family.
• Season 19 of "The Amazing Race" concluded.
  
• The first season of "Terra Nova" concluded.
  
• Collin (or one of his little friends) threw something at my TV and cracked the screen causing an annoying black line that extends from the crack to the edge of the screen.
• We had a wonderful Christmas.
• 2011 ended.
  
• 2012 began.
  
• I began watching the 4th Season of "Merlin" via iTunes
  
• I lost my job at Pro Star and became unemployed again.
• "Alcatraz" premiered.
• Liam turned 1 year old.
  
• The 5th and Final Season of "Chuck" Concluded.
• Alisa and I started watching the show "Prison Break" on Netflix while up in Idaho and got ourselves hooked.
  
• I finished my yearly reading of The Lord of The Rings.
• Season 20 of "The Amazing Race" began.

So, that's about it. At the moment Alisa and I are waiting for the next few DVDs of "Prison Break" to arrive at the library but my main focus is job searching. Things are going pretty well. I have had several interviews and one coming up tomorrow and I'm actively networking. More posts soon.

The Pumpkins are Here!

So, here we have it. Ryan's record breaking 2011 Pumpkin Patch. In spite of the fact that this year there were only ten pumpkins I broke my own personal weight record, grew my first white pumpkins and produced my first truly successful Big Max Pumpkins. So without further ado, here they are: From Left to Right - On the Stove: Super-Sonic Sucker Punch (12.0 lbs), Megatron [This Year's "Big Mutha" and new personal best] (36.4 lbs.), My DHARMA Lady (10.6 lbs.) - On Chair: Starscream (26.8 lbs.) - On Shelf {Top Shelf}: Fighting Whitey (4.0 lbs.), Cookies (11.0 lbs), They Might Be Pumpkins! (5.4 lbs.) - On Shelf {2nd from Top Shelf}: Wannabe Softball (2.4 lbs.) - On Shelf {3rd from Top Shelf}: You Will Be Assimilated (5.2 lbs.) - On Shelf {2nd from Bottom Shelf}: Goobermeister Meistergoober (9.0 lbs.)

And We're Back

I suppose that most, if not all of you out there are aware of the fact that I am once again unemployed. A little after 4pm on September 20, 2011 my manager came into my office and let me know that they were going to have to lay me off. I was in a state of shock for a few seconds in which time though I didn't really think it was joke I did kind of hope it was. My manager was very upset about it as well and the next day she actually called me up with a job lead. Lisa, if you are reading this; thank-you.

So, for the past 2 weeks I have been working on trying to find employment. I don't really want to spend to much time on this but I do want to say that even though I didn't expect to be in this situation again so soon I am much more optimistic than I was back in 2008 when I got laid off before. I know a lot more about how to effectively job search so I won't waste nearly as much time as I did before.

So, in order to help myself not to get too stressed out I have prepared a list entitled: The Top 5 Ways that this Unemployment is different than the Last One:

5. Last time I was out of work I referred to that period as "The Dark Time," borrowing a phrase from Star Wars. This period of unemployment shall be known as "The Second Darkness." A phrase borrowed from The Lord of The Rings.

4. While I search for jobs I get to listen to the same annoying, noise-making toys as I did last time. This time however, they are being played with by a different kid.

3. Alisa is not working this time. This is a down side in that we don't have her income but it is a plus since this means I can devote more time to job searching and networking and less time chasing babies.

2. I have two more years experience in shipping now than I did then.

1. There is no way in $&#@ that I will allow this unemployment to last 14 and a half months!

White Pumpkins

I have picked my first two white pumpkins. The one on the left weighed in at 10.6 pounds and is called My DHARMA Lady. I picked that one last Saturday. The one on the right weighed in at 2.4 pounds and has been dubbed Wannabe Softball. I picked that one this morning. There's still one more white pumpkin out there. I'll probably pick that one pretty soon.

Ten Years Later - Where are we now?

I remember that day like it was yesterday. I was at BYU and I woke up the same as I did every other day, got ready for class and headed to campus. I got to my Hebrew class and heard people talking. Something about some plane crashing in New York. My teacher got there a little later and gave us a bit more information. However, I don't think anything could really have prepared me for the shock that came when I found a TV on campus, surrounded by my fellow students where I first saw the footage of the attack that none of us will likely forget.

We all learned a lot that day. We learned that in spite of what we may have long thought, our country was not invulnerable. I think that we realized that maybe we needed to look a bit more at our priorities and spend a little less time focusing on the trivial and more time concentrating on what is most important.

Now, 10 years have past and I have to ask the question: Have we forgotten those lessons we learned that day? The Washington Post printed a series of articles written by religions leaders of numerous faiths about the effect that the 9/11 attacks have had on the nation. One of those articles was written by Thomas S. Monson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He spoke of the "remarkable surge of faith following the tragedy." But, after that he wrote something that I think we would all do well to think about:

Sadly, it seems that much of that renewal of faith has waned in the years that have followed. Healing has come with time, but so has indifference. We forget how vulnerable and sorrowful we felt. Our sorrow moved us to remember the deep purposes of our lives. The darkness of our despair brought us a moment of enlightenment. But we are forgetful. When the depth of grief has passed, its lessons often pass from our minds and hearts as well.

It makes me think about the Nephites spoken of in The Book of Mormon. Throughout their history we see cases in which they boast of their own strength and take it for granted that they cannot be hurt by their enemies. They are than attacked and lives are lost and the people turn back to their God with renewed fervor. But, without exception, within a few years after the initial shock of the tragedy has worn off they forget God and go right back to their lives as they had been before and forget all the lessons they learned.

Are we really much different from them? I sincerely hope that the answer is yes.

On this tenth anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in our country's history I hope and pray that we will not just remember those who lost their lives but that we will really remember all of the lessons we learned. I pray that we will never let our devotion to God, our families and all those around us waver. We should not need a tragedy like this one in order to remember what is really important in this life. When we say that we will never forget, for heaven sake, let's mean it!

May God bless us all.

First Pumpkin of The Year 2011

So, back on Monday September 5th Collin and I went out and picked the first of this year's pumpkins. This pumpkin had actually been ripe and ready to pick for weeks but I didn't really see any good reason to pick it in the middle of August. However, on Labor Day I just couldn't resist any more and we went out and picked it. This is actually a really nice looking pumpkin that weighed in at 12 pounds. Considering our less than stellar crop of pumpkins last year I should note that this pumpkin, which is by no means the biggest one out there, is almost 2 pounds heavier than the biggest one I got last year. So, after picking this and weighing it the next task was to decide on a name for it. Since I picked it about a week earlier that I picked the first one last year I contemplated calling it something along the lines of Early Bird or some such other descriptive name. But, in the end, my good old Hobbit sense kicked in and I picked a much simpler name. I therefore dubbed this pumpkin Super-Sonic Sucker-Punch. OK, there's no real practical reasoning behind the name but hey; it's pretty cool!

Pumpkin Patch Update

As you can see from these pictures, all our "pumpkins" are growing well. The pumpkin patch has been doing remarkably better than last year. In the pictures above and below you can see that the big max pumpkins have actually been a success this year. The one that Liam is sitting next to will most likely turn out to be the biggest one I've ever grown. The one in the picture below should also be pretty huge.

One of the best improvements this year is the fact that, for the first time, I have not had problems with the dreaded powdery mildew. This has come about mainly because of a combination of changing the watering schedule and some homemade fungicide spray.

The above is currently the biggest of my jack-o-lantern pumpkins. We have several more but this is the one that is the furthest along.

I tried my hand at growing white pumpkins this year as well. The above is the biggest one we have. Anyway, if all goes well we should have between eleven to fourteen pumpkins of various sizes and colors this year.

LOST: Still Awesome

Back at the end of February I made a purchase. An Epically Awesome purchase! I bought LOST: The Complete Collection on Blu-ray disc. So, over the last nearly four months I watched through all six seasons of my favorite show as well as a whole bunch of special features. I just finished a couple days ago. And yes, I did find the hidden bonus disk that was cleverly concealed inside the box lid. You see, you shine the DHARMA black-light on the map of the island on the underside of the lid to reveal a picture of the donkey-wheel. Than you turn the island to get to the disk. Isn't that such a LOST thing!? Anyway, watching it all through again just reconfirmed for me that LOST is still the greatest show in the history of television. Now, I just need to learn to play senet and I'll be all set. Namaste.

Father's Day

As you all know, yesterday was Father's Day. First thing in the morning I got a very nice gift from Collin & Liam. They gave me a new set of cuff-links. Our camera is broken but fortunately, I had no problem finding the above picture of them online. I wore them to church and I was so pleased with them I showed them off to everyone who would listen to me. All and all, yesterday was a very nice Father's Day. Alisa (who I suspect helped Collin & Liam get the cuff-links) gave me a nice card and cooked one of my favorite meals for dinner. I am very fortunate to have the wonderful family that I have.

Farewell to THE EV∃NT

A little over a week ago I watched the finale of Season 1 of The Event. Unfortunately, it was also the series finale. The Event has been canceled after only one season. Do you know what it feels like to watch the first season finale of a show you really, really love when you already know that the show has been axed? I think it might be a bit like the way you would feel if you watched the dinosaurs go extinct. Or maybe, if you stood at the Grey Havens and watched the last ship sail into the West knowing the elves were gone from Middle Earth and they were never, ever, EVER coming back. OK, the analogies aren't perfect. I mean, both the dinosaurs and the elves were around for more than one year. As sad as it is, I have to admit that I can understand why NBC chose to cancel it considering the below chart showing the shows ratings. Can you say nosedive?

However, in spite of all of this sadness there is one very slight ray of hope. According to this article, the creators of the show are looking for a way to possibly keep the show going on a cable network or through a service like Netflix. I really have no idea what kind of chances something like that has so, though I will keep my eyes open I shan't be holding my breath.

Anyway, this show was good. I really think it could have even been great had it been given a chance. The show reminded me a lot of LOST in terms of the story telling and level of complexity. I guess that's probably why I liked it so much. Interestingly enough, the season finale turned series finale of The Event occurred on the one year anniversary of the LOST series finale. I know; I'm a nerd for knowing that. So, I must bid farewell to The Event. Hopefully, the efforts to keep it going will succeed. If they do you can bet I will be watching.

Oh yeah, and ABC canceled V as well. Grrr!

Oh the Nerdity! - The Big Bang Theory Season 4

How can you not love this show?! I discovered this little gem last season and I've hardly stopped laughing since. I love the idea of a show where the socially awkward Star Trek, Star Wars, Lord of The Rings geek getting the hot blond? I can appreciate that; it happened to me too. Granted, Leonard and Penny are currently broken up but lets be honest; we all know they're gonna end up back together eventually. And, since the show has already been renewed for 3 more seasons it looks like there will be plenty of time to do it and have lots of fun getting there. Of course, Sheldon makes the show. And now the addition of the almost as awkward Amy makes it even better. With the season finale they had the next season should be great.

The Office Season 7

Not a whole lot to say about last week's Season Finale of The Office. With most seasons of this show the finale is a bit of a letdown. However, this one actually felt more like a finale than usual. There are actually a few things that I'm wondering about for next season. Who will end up as the new manager, will Andy and Erin get back together? Than there's the mystery surrounding "The State Senator." So, there is more to look forward to for next season than there usually is. The show has been renewed for another season but I think that, now that Steve Carell has left the show, there's a good chance that the eighth season may be the show's last. I guess we'll see.