8/30/12

    The last week has been a rough one for the most part. Kels has been dealing with a bladder infection. She has had issues with her bladder and kidneys for the last couple years. We went to the local urgent care and got a prescription for antibiotics... but they didn't work very well. We went again to try a different round of antibiotics and it appears that it is working this time. It has been tough, because she likes to run with her runners but due to this issue she hasn't been able to run with the group. Her and her high school xc team have their first invitational of the season this Saturday in Scottsdale.

    Kelsey's mom and sister came out here to Arizona this week. It has been a fun change of scenery and makes our games like boggle fun with more people. 

    I completed my second week of classes. I only have classes Monday-Wednesday so it's a little different then Mon-Friday like back at BYUH. Sure I have reading assignments on the other days but my schedule is a whole less crowded. I have my first Anatomy & Physiology test next week. It appears that it will be challenging, but the question will be how challenging... This will be a good indicator to how difficult the semester will be. So far the main issues I foresee are the requirement to memorize the parts of the body with correct spelling & correct identification of tissue types and their parts (epithelial tissue seems especially tricky).

    I took the GRE test this last week and did all right. I got 144 verbal, 152 quantitative and not sure about the writing section yet (it takes about 3 weeks for the actual grade to come out). The math score is okay, but I may need to retake the test to boost that verbal score. 

    In the world, Lance Armstrong was stripped of his 7 Tour De France titles due to testing positive to performance enhancing drugs. If you do much research about the issue lance has had not just one or two teammates-but handfuls-of training buddies tell newspapers that their group used performance enhancers. So I personally believe that Lance has used drugs... Having said this I have no personal distrust with Lance as a person. Amazingly he formed the will-power to not only overcome cancer but take on the world's best and defeat them. Why do I think this is fair (having already acknowledged Lance as a doper)? Mainly all of those riders dope. The system is flawed. For example, if I wanted to take epo legally I could easily get a medical prescription from a doctor and as long as I say that I need it for heath purposes and smooth talking I would be approved. It may be hard to get the approval from a doctor, but when your training team has their own team doctor... things seem to get a little more grey, especially if money is there to support your argument. I predict future developments will come out to uphold this perspective's veracity. To conclude my thought, Lance is a positive influence due to his recovery from cancer and a little from his bike riding skills. 

     What else is going on in my life? I had an experience at Central Arizona College which concreted my belief that college faculty workers everywhere malinger. My latest example of their avoidance of  responsibility concluded will a lady telling me that I would need to pay off my tuition before I could fill out my paperwork to get a student loan. Which doesn’t make any sense… I need a loan to pay off my tuition. We are on a payment plan, so this issue may not be essential but the thoughtless procedures of schools never seem to surprise me.

      Kelsey had an interview yesterday with the City of Casa Grande for a video production position. She gave her interviewer an online collection of the video she had produced while being the editor-in-chief of multimedia back at BYU-H. Unfortunately a whole collection of her videos she produced entitled “The Daily Dose” had been deleted from the archives of the schools system. We are not sure who actually deleted them (Kels knows all the employees and has her suspicions) but it’s a sad situation especially since earlier videos are still stored on the site and all of her 70 or so videos are nowhere to be seen.

    I can’t really think of too much else going on. I rode my bike yesterday to return a redbox and noticed that there were a bunch of rabbits out yesterday. When I returned to the house I got Beta and took her out to the desert next to our house and let her chase some bunnies. For those of you who don’t know Beta herself she is only about a foot tall and about 2 feet long due to her pedigree (Shi tzu / Basset hound mix). So given that one of these days she actually catches a rabbit (which is unlikely due to her 15mph max speed compared to 30 or so found in the rabbits), she probably won't hurt them due to the size of her small mouth; she isn’t that nice to the crickets though. Crickets have become a new play toy for Beta.

   Overall things are good around the house. Life’s challenges have been, and most likely will continue, to be eclectic and educational. I wonder what the future will have in store for us for the coming week.