First Win in San Antonio since 1999!

This is my pledge....

Update

Jazz won tonight. 102-90...In Philly. Ok, I'll admit, a W against the Sixers isn't anything to write home about, but it sure is something to blog about!

I've been busy lately. Not necessarily busy at work but I'm taking my next section of the CPA exam on Friday, the 20th.

Work is good though. I'm really enjoying what I do. Plus the people at work are fun to work with. I can't wait until i'm not the "new guy" anymore. We have some more people starting in January, I can hold out for a few more weeks.

I'm sorry if my blog has become increasingly boring lately. But my life seems to have become more boring since I started work....Oh well.

Nice Try Steve

Nice try Steve, but any comment putting down my favorite sports team isn't a way to get a comment past moderation.

Speaking of the Jazz, they won tonight 95-93 in Madison Square Garden against the Knicks. Next up @ Boston on Wednesday.

Moderator

Some of you may have noticed now that I have to approve all comments on my blog now. Last week some anonymous person left a rather inappropriate comment....Luckily I noticed quickly and deleted it. But from now on all comments are emailed to me and I have to approve them. I'm hoping I don't have to make my blog private....but we'll see.

Halloween

Here are the pics from Halloween this year. I'm the big hairy chewbacca in the back. My sister Liz is Princess Leia, Her husband Greg is Han Solo, their little girl, Afton is yoda. Jack is Anakin and Stan is Obi One Kanobi.

And the funny thing is, we don't even like Star Wars. It just seemed like a good idea to dress up together.

Women.....

In case you haven't seen this already, check this out, brutal.

Phoenix

Temperature was in the 80s today. Chances are the weather here is better than where you are. In December, when you are shoveling snow, I'm going to be sinking a 10 foot put on the 18th green somewhere.

So Southwest had a huge sale this week. You had to purchase by this last Thursday. I'm going to visit a good friend of mine, from high school and BYU who lives in the Bay Area, in December. I have another friend who lives in Oakland who reads this blog, so I better say that I'll visit him too :).

I saw Michael Jackson's "This is It" with my sister this weekend. It was really good. The interesting part about it was even though he was old and had gone through all those surgeries, he could still dance really well.

Well time for bed, and another work week.

Updates

So I passed my first section of the CPA exam. I got a 90. Work is good, not so busy anymore now that October 15th has passed. This week I the oppurtunity to take recruit out to lunch as part of the interview process. We took her to the Capital Grille at the Biltmore. Way nice place and great food. It was the same place that Deloitte took me when I interviewed 2 years ago. Today Deloitte catered lunch from Qdoba. It's kind of like Cafe Rio. Really good.

So I tried taking Light Rail to work instead of driving. I told myself if the commute by light rail is within a reasonable amount of my normal commute time then I will do my part and take public transportation. My normal commute is 30-45 minutes. 20 minutes on a good day. Well, both days this week that I have taken light rail it has taken me 1 hr 20 mintues to get to work. That's too long, light rail is out of the question for now. Unless they expand service and have it make less stops. I swear we were stopping every block. I'm not sure who designed the system here in Phoenix but they were smoking something funky.

Plus the people on light rail smelled really bad.

Chewbacca. That is what I'm going to be for Halloween. My sisters family is going to be characters from Star Wars. I decided to join in the action and be Chewbacca. I rented a sweet costume. Pictures to follow after Halloween.

Blog?

So I kind of forgot I had a blog...I'm not kidding. Between work, socializing, studying, sleeping, going to the gym, visiting my sister and her kids and church, I've been pretty busy. I was reminded by the fact that I had a blog my looking through my "bookmarks" tab.

I need a wife, to blog for me (among other reasons). She would be much better at it than me, and frankly more interesting.

On another note, It dropped down into the 90s today after multiple days around 107. It was actually cloudy today on my way to work. I didn't have to wear my sunglasses.

The treat jar at work is my downfall. My desk is right near it (I actually have to walk by it to get to the printer). They have those really yummy Red Vines and Peppermint Patties.

I've started bringing lunches from home, cause frankly, $8 a day adds up. And it is much healthier to bring a lunch from home. Although I will still make the occasional trip to Macayo's.

Blog

So I haven't been blogging for the last little bit, nor have I been reading blogs. Mainly because I've started a new job and have been very busy. The earliest I've been getting home is around 7, but mainly I'm getting home around 8 or 9. Here's to starting as an accountant in the middle of busy season! When I get home I try to study for the CPA for a bit but even doing that has been hard.

One thing about Arizona though, the sun comes up so early here. Every morning I am awakened thinking it is around 10am because of the sun coming in my window. I roll over and my alarm clock says 5:30. Hopefully I'll get used to it and get some better sleep. It also gets dark really early here too, which is kind of annoying.

We have a 46" HDTV, I love that thing. Sports never looked so good!

It's cooled down this week, only a high of 99.

That's all for tonight.

Can you say upset?

In case you haven't heard. BYU upset No. 3 Oklahoma last night 14-13. The game wasn't pretty for either team. Both had fumbles and interceptions. Both teams had major injuries. Bradford for Oklahoma and BYU's No. 1 running back Harvey Unga (who only needs about 800 more rushing yards to become BYU all-time leading rusher) didn't play because of a hamstring injury.

But in the end it was BYU who showed that they wanted it more and showed that despite all of the BCS mumbo jumbo that little guys can play with the big guys and actually beat them.


Here some video of the game.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Goodbye

Well tomorrow morning I leave Utah and head for my new home in Arizona. Earlier in the summer I was slightly sad to be leaving Utah but the closer the move date has come, I have gotten more excited.

Excited to start a new chapter in my life, excited to actually get paid for working hard, excited to make new friends and excited to live close to my sister and her family.

My dad was talking to one of my former tax professors the other day and my dad told him that I can only come home for thanksgiving if I have a girl on my arm. My professor told my dad that if I don't have it wrapped up by Christmas he's going to pull my degree. Looks like I better get my act in gear.

Here's to the next stage of my life.

BYU commercial

5 Days

5 Days till the Cougar-Sooner Showdown in Arlington, Texas

And 89 days till the BYU-Utah game.

I love the Onion!

Is Using A Minotaur To Gore Detainees A Form Of Torture?

Dodgeball!

Whether or not you like basketball I think you'll think the following videos are pretty funny. I sure did! Each one takes about a minute.

12 Days

12 days till I move to Arizona. 16 days till I start my new job.

Funny

I'm not sure if anyone watches videos that I post, but I thought this guy was particularly funny. And there is an element of truth in what he is saying. I tried to watch some of his other stuff on youtube but it is pretty dirty, but this clip is clean.

Slick deals

My buddy Nate wrote about this on his blog a few months ago. It's a website called Slickdeals. It finds great deals on the internet and puts them on the website. There is a lot of good stuff on there, as well as some junk. The only thing I've bought from there was a 3 year subscription to ESPN magazine for a total of about $9. I couldn't pass that one up. It has alot of TV and computer stuff so if you're looking for that it might be a good place to look.

On another note, I'm taking my first section of the CPA exam on Thursday, so it's officially crunch time. I may or may not be blogging again till after that.

Bye Bye Jimmy

Yesterday my parents traded in the Jimmy for the 2010 Camry. The Jimmy was a great college car and I was sad to see it go. Pictures of the new car are below.








And here are some better pictures of the car I bought last week.





And my parents are selling my mom's old car if you live in Utah and are looking to buy a car check out the listing on KSL cars

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?sid=733005&nid=443&tab=list/view&ad=1495066

Pictures of Condo

This is where I'll be living for the next little while....

Apartment

I found a place to live in Arizona. After many long months of debating whether I should live alone or get roommates I decided a happy medium would be to have one roommate. We are going to live in a 2 bed, 2 bath condo in Chandler. I'll have about a 15 mile commute to work. It's better than the other place I was considering which was in East Mesa and was about a 30 mile commute one way.

Car Picture

Here is a picture I took on my cellphone of the car I bought.

Car

So I just bought a car. I'm bringing it home tomorrow so when I get it home I'll take pictures of it and post them.

It is a 2007 Hyundai Sonata GLS, GLS is the basic model of the Sonata.

Good laughs

I had a funny conversation with my dad tonight. We were talking about dating girls after I move to Arizona and the conversation went something like this.

Me: "I've heard good things about the __________ 3rd Ward, I heard it has lots of girls that are about my age (26).

Dad: "No, go to a University ward and get a girl who is....."

Me: (interrupting dad) "Like 20?"

Dad: "No, I was thinking 18."

I had a pretty good laugh about that.

D-Will

Just after I finished mowing the lawn on Saturday my buddy Jeff called me to tell me that Deron Williams was signing autographs in Centerville. So I promptly jumped into the shower, got dressed, grabbed my Deron Williams jersey and my camera and drove down to where he was. As I was waiting in line to get his autograph I tried to turn on my camera to get it all ready to go. But the camera wouldn't turn on! It was out of batteries. In my moment of panic I remembered that I had my cell phone on me that has a camera on it. I had some dude take the picture of me and D-will. It's a little blury but it the only one I have. The second picture is of the autograph on the jersey.

The kid in front of me had him sign a baseball. Deron wasn't too happy about that. It was pretty funny.





And I'm throwing in some action pictures of D-Will just for fun.

Paul Millsap

The Jazz matched Portland's offer for Paul Millsap yesterday. They will pay him 32 Million over 4 years with about 10.3 Million due next week. I read a funny article in the Deseret News today that likened Millsap to four wheel drive, it's a little pricey, but when you need it you're glad you have it.

Welcome back to Utah Millsap, don't worry about selling your house in Sandy and stop looking for houses in Portland.

Eric Maynor

The Jazz picked Eric Maynor in the NBA draft tonight. Here's what ESPN's expert Chad Ford says, "I thought they might go with Sam Young here, but I have to admit that I love this pick for the Jazz. They needed a backup for Deron Williams, and Maynor is perfect for Utah as one of the most NBA-ready players in the draft. He has a high basketball IQ and great leadership qualities. The Jazz fill a need and get a guy that I think is the most underrated player in the draft."

Let's hope he's a better backup for D-Will than Brevin Knight was. Speaking of D-will, my neighbor was working out at the Gold's Gym in Bountiful and guess who showed up in a red Ferrari to work out, D-Will himself. Pretty cool.

Happy Fathers Day!

It's a day late, but better late than never.

Funny sayings from dad:

"If she's cute, she likes you, and can put up with your crap, go for it cause it's not going to get any better than that."

"Quit your yarkin!"

"That's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick."

"What is a farm boy from Idaho like me doing here?"

"Overlearn it."-I heard that a lot while I was in school

"I'm so hungry my belly button is gnawing at my backbone!"

"Nudity is nudity, whether it's native or not!"

"Quit stirrin' the cauldron!"

"My teeth are singing 'Anchors Away'."

"We'll get there faster than two shakes of a dead lamb's tail."

"That's like playing tiddly-winks with manhole covers."

Happy Father's day Dad!

Dumber

I think I've gotten dumber. You would think that since I have a Masters Degree in Accounting that studying for the CPA exam would be fairly easy, just reviewing the stuff I learned in my classes. It's not that easy, for me at least. Oh sure, most all the stuff in my review book I saw while I was in school, it's just that I forgot how to do most of it. However, I do come on the occasional chapter of something that I somehow magically remember and I get to breeze through those chapters, but for the most part it's been a struggle.

Goals for Today:
Pension Accounting
Deferred Tax Accounting
Stockholder's Equity
Earnings per share (including diluted earnings per share)
Statement of Cash Flows

I hope you didn't fall asleep while reading that list :)

The Grass is greener

So our Elders Quorum in my singles ward is having an activity with the relief society in another ward. The title of the activity is "The grass is greener..." when they announced this in church yesterday I laughed out loud. Isn't that hilarious? Anyway, last week I was called to serve on the institute committee in my ward. So far it has consisted of setting up and taking down chairs before and after. It's been pretty intense.

Funny Quote of the Day: "If she's cute, and active in the church, I'll marry her next month.''-That was me talking to my friend on Saturday night about dating. I didn't really mean it, it just kinda came out of my mouth and we both had a good laugh.

That quote is eerily similar to some dating advice that my dad gave me a couple of years ago. "If she's cute, likes you and can put up with your crap then go for it cause it's not gonna get any better than that."

Bootcamp

Just completed my first full week of bootcamp without puking! Booyah! I got measured this week and lost 1.5 inches on my stomach, 1 inch on my chest and gained .5 inches on my arms (nice guns)

Quote of the Day

"Salad? Salad is what food eats!"

BYU Football

Jake Heaps (Skyline High School, Issaquah Washington) committed to play football for BYU today. In case you haven't heard of him, he is the #1 rated high school quarterback in the nation. Here is a video from ksl.com if you are interested.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Bootcamp

I didn't throw up at my boot camp training program this morning! This is the first time that I haven't thrown up or even had the inkling to throw up. Looks like I'm making progress!

Camping

So I went to Zion National Park this weekend to go camping with some old friends/roommates from my BYU days. However, in my rush to pack and leave on Friday morning I forgot to grab my camera. As soon as I get some pictures from those who did have cameras then I will post them. Otherwise you can just imagine what it was like. (It was awesome!)

Bootcamp with Jess

If you want to see what I've been doing the past couple of weeks watch the video below. It's really intense. I've thrown up a total of 4 times since I've started. Here is the website if you live in Salt Lake and are interested.

Bootcamp with Jess web video from Kale Fitch on Vimeo.

CPA

Today I opened my Becker materials that came late last week and started studying for the CPA exam. I went through the first lesson, took me about 4 hours, it's been kind of overwhelming....one bite at a time.

I found out my start date with Deloitte, September 8th (day after labor day).

Trip to Chicago

It is a little hard to see in this picture but while I was waiting at the gate on my flight home I noticed this bag getting soaked in the rain. Looks like it fell off of one of those trailers. Glad it wasn't mine!
It took a while but I finally got my neice Claire to look at the camera long enough to get a good picture
Claire in front of a train and the Museum of Science and Industry
Inside the train


Some barbeque chicken pizza I made at my sisters house
A view of the Hancock tower just before I scaled the face of it (just kidding, I took the elevator up 100 floors)
A view of the Sears tower from the top of the Hancock tower. I have now been to the top of the World Trade Center, Sears Tower and Hancock Tower

A view of the north side of Chicago from the Hancock Tower
In front of the original playboy mansion
This bank is all over in Chicago. I think it is a really funny name for a bank. The only logical conclusion that me and my brother in law can come up with is that the original location was on the corner of Fifth Street and Third street, otherwise, the name makes no sense.
In front of a statue in downtown Chicago. My two nieces Maddie and Claire
Two nephews Aiden and Owen. It looks like Owen is about to kick Aiden in the face but I think he was just jumping on the couch.
Ticket Cubs game: $36.65

Cubs Hat $15

Public transportation to and from the game: $4.50

Super small hot dog at the game: $4.25

Seeing the Cubs play at historic Wrigley Field: Priceless