November Update

As most of you can tell, I have been a pretty big slacker as far as keeping my blog up-to-date (the position of Personal Secretary is currently open if anyone would like to apply). So, I am going to do a quick rundown of what's been happening with us since my last post.

Home Improvement
We finally got a sprinkling system for our lawn. No more spending hours each night going out and moving the hose 8 times a night. Also no more lawn dying when we go on vacation. Even though is was installed later in the season, our lawn has shown marked improvement in the green department.
We had a soft water / reverse osmosis system installed in our home. The installer said we had even worse water then Magna (for those of you who haven't drank Magna water, you will probably live longer). The system works okay, but after I gave the salesman our credit card # over the phone, they've dropped off the face of the earth. They have yet to give me a receipt of sale, manuals for the equipment (so I can take care of it) nor the package bundle of soap / detergent that they promised us. I've never been able to get someone to answer the office phone and the salesman (who is next to impossible to contact either) when he answers says he's sorry that we haven't got the missing items and promises to get back to us about getting them (but he never does). It's now been a month and a half and I've submitted a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. As of right now, I highly recommend you do not do business with Alpine Water Systems of Utah.
When our soft water system was installed, the installer said we should try out our dishwasher with it as it's supposed to help the dishes come out cleaner. We had used the dishwasher probably twice shortly after we moved in - but as I recall there was soap gunk left inside the dishes on the upper rack. As it's just Liz and I, we've just hand washed all our dishes because it's easier for our situation. I tried to do a load of dishes in the dishwasher, but after it was done, I opened it up and all the water was still in there. We tried to figure out what the issue was, but put it down to the dishwasher being broken. We just barely bought a new dishwasher and my dad and I installed it, and after the first wash, it didn't drain either. We eventually discovered there was a blockage in the drain tube. Now that it's been cleared up, it works just fine.
I switched out our regular light switches in our house with the big flat ones. In several areas like bathrooms and our bedroom I put in the ones that illuminate when the light is switched off so it's easier to find it in those early morning bathroom runs.
I also trimmed the bushes that were getting out of control (but you probably don't care as you haven't seen our bushes).
I also finally gave in and got cable TV so that I could watch my BYU Cougar football. It is the one sport I actually like to watch. The cougars have (for the most part) had a pretty good season. I think they have a good shot at taking down the U for our final regular season game.

Activities
Halloween was pretty fun. The day before Halloween (Friday) my work had it's annual Halloween day. It's pretty much a day where not too much work gets done, but there is dressing up, decorating of the office, costume contests, and trick-or-treating for the employees families. I really liked the team that dressed up as Mario characters (Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Princess Peach, et cetera). They also decorated a whole room like a Super Mario 3 dungeon (complete with all the square blocks and rotating flame thingies) and had the game playing on an old school Nintendo.
Being as I am part of the Activities Committee at church, I helped out at the Chili Cookoff (Halloween evening) and the Trunk-Or-Treat in the church parking lot afterward. I was surprised at the number of people that came. I ran out of candy halfway through and had to run home (impossible to get the car out at that point with that many people) to get another bag of candy. It was pretty hard to run in my costume and I got some funny looks.
Speaking of our costumes, I bought Liz and I our costumes for this year. She had no say in what I got her (though I gave her the option of returning it and getting something else - but she kept it). I was a giant penguin (mostly because my guild in WoW is the "Order of Angry Penguins", and because Linux's mascot is a penguin, and also because penguins are just downright awesome). Liz got to be a giant hotdog. I know - you may think it's silly (and what Halloween costume isn't?) but there is a history here. One of her favorite phrases to say (like when she just remembered something) is "hotdog". So I thought it appropriate.
We went to 2 Halloween parties. The first was at my Cousin Brice's home. They did silly things like "donut on a string" in which Liz and I just about tied in eating the donut off of the string. There was also pin the face item on the pumpkin, bobbing for apples and stuff. We also went to one of my co-worker home for a party. There we played rockband. I tried the singing part, but my voice was thrown off a little bit by my allergies to the cat (when I mean a little bit, I mean very much so).
I also went to a BYU game with my brother-in-law Mark. It was against Colorado State. The beginning was a little tense, but they eventually won the game.
We went to a campout with our ward at a place called Aspen Meadows. It's a pretty nice place (a building for bathrooms, a pavilion, amphitheater, volleyball court. I spent most of the night trying to tend the cobbler - which took forever to cook.
We also helped out with the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. We were ushers, helping people take the tour of the temple. Liz also volunteered a few times as medical personnel (in case someone had any medical issues during the open house).
I have gone a couple of times rock climbing with some friends at Momentum. I used to go climbing quite a bit when I was in college, but time and people to go with became scarce when I moved up to Salt Lake. I've been going with my cousin Brice and some co-workers. It's a great way to exercise!

Addition And Deletion
My sister Marie had her baby. His name is Jack. He is the first child of either Liz or my siblings.
The father of one of my college friends (Jenny) passed away. I flew out to California to help out with the funeral. It was kind of sad, but he had been dealing with health issues for some years (and had even outlasted the doctor's life estimate).

Conclusion
Well, to conclude, I must say this has been a pretty long post. I know most of you never made it here. For those of you that did, I'm sorry - no refund on the time you lost reading this. I am sure that I haven't covered everything we've done, but at least I got in a few highlights. Some of the things (such as climbing and Halloween) I am planning on posting pictures when I get time to do it. Anyhow - ta-ta-for-now!