My 2014 Christmas Card

Merry Christmas!

and hello again to anyone out there who only hears about my life through this blog. Anyone checking this site for news about me obviously knows that this is my first, and very likely only blog post for the year 2014. In part I blame that on my life being a little busier this year, both professionally and residentially (see last year's notes on our HOA situation).

In any case, I always enjoy having these Christmas posts to look back on, so unfortunately that means that I have to actually sit down and write them at some point.

One highlight from January was a gorgeous snowshoe day, where we hiked from the Spruces campground through the woods over to the Donut Falls trailhead and up to the falls.



Also in January, I went up to Midway to see the Ice Castles. Very picturesque, but also very crowded on the night I was there.



A highlight of February was the night that I took my nieces, Lucy & Elise, to a gymnastics meet at the U, and then the spent the night here at the house.



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Best Book (Non-fiction): Creativity, Inc
Best Book (Fiction): The Passage

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In March, Ben and I took a little road trip down to Moab during his spring break at the U. We hit some classic hikes (Delicate Arch, Corona Arch, and Landscape Arch), checked out some other classic sights (Balanced Rock, the North & South Window Arches, and Double Arch), watched Utah basketball games via the internet, and ate at pretty much every place that looked semi-decent.


That's Ben down there under Delicate Arch


It was interesting to see where I had to get to, in order to recreate this shot I'd seen in promotional materials.



March also brought spring and the beautiful buds on the trees outside my windows.


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Best TV Show (Drama): Sherlock
Best TV Show (Comedy): Brooklyn Nine-Nine

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In April, I stayed up way too late watching the lunar eclipse and taking photos from my deck


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This year in Work Involvement

I'm continuing to work at Intermountain Healthcare as a Medical Informaticist (it'll be 6 years in a couple weeks).  Things have been busier and more stressful due to a complete overhaul of our computerized medical record systems, and working to ensure that the project areas I am responsible for make it into the new system.  I feel very grateful to be able to work for a great boss, and to have co-workers that I enjoy spending time with.

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A couple highlights from May were a pair of concerts I went to.  The first was Augustana with Twin Forks.  I was pretty excited to see Augustana again, given how great the acoustic show was that I'd seen last year, but was pleasantly surprised by Twin Forks, a new project from Chris Carrabba, previously the guy behind Dashboard Confessional.



The second fun concert of the month was a trio of rocking sisters going by the name of Haim (that's their last name).  Loved their debut album, and it was fun to see them live.



In June, I started dating a great girl named April, who I'd briefly dated a bit earlier in the year. We dated for most of the summer, and while ultimately things between us didn't work out, we definitely  had a lot of fun.


At Strawberry Days rodeo in Pleasant Grove

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Best Movie: X-Men: Days of Future Past
Runner-up: Guardians of the Galaxy
Runner-up: Edge of Tomorrow
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In July, I went with some friends to a little spot outside of Cedar City called Kanarraville and did a hike up a little slot canyon there called Kanarraville Falls. It was beautiful scenery and a fun, quick weekend trip with friends.  Definitely worth checking out if you haven't been there before.





Also in July, we had a family vacation at a place in the Uintas called Spirit Lake.  They had some cabins and restrooms, but no electricity, so kind of like camping but with a little nicer accommodations. We had fun fishing, playing, and hiking for a few days.







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This year in Church Service

I started out the year serving in the Elders Quorum presidency in the ward that my home is in, and that kept me pretty busy until June when I decided to move my records to a "mid-singles" ward (ages 31-45) that meets over in Sugarhouse.  It's definitely a big change, as my new ward has just over 800 members, and has 6 Relief Societies and 6 Elders Quorums.  I've been pleasantly surprised to run into lots of old friends there, and make some new friends along the way. For most of my time there I was serving on the Sealings committee, doing proxy work for deceased persons once a week. I was recently called to organize some sports activities for my Elders Quorum, so that will definitely be a change of pace. Its been many years since I last played church basketball.

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In August, surprisingly, I found myself back in Hawaii. On Oahu, even.  Some of April's family lives there, and she invited me to come visit for a bit while she was out there visiting them for a couple weeks.  I rented a little apartment right on the beach in Laie, not far from where she was staying with family.  Having done most of what there is to do in Oahu, there weren't too many surprises, but it was really fun to be right there on the beach. I also tried paddleboarding for the first time, and caught several good waves while boogie boarding.  Oh, and I even got to be part of the Tongan village show at the Polynesian Culture Center.


The view from the entrance to my apartment





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Best Song: "I Wanna Get Better" by Bleachers
Best Album: Strange Desire by Bleachers

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One highlight of September was going down to the Spring Canyon ranch for Labor Day, something that's become a bit of a tradition the last few years.



Utah football is another fun fall tradition. I think this was my 6th year of having season tickets (5th year sitting next to my mom and dad). It was fun to see the team do a bit better this year, after missing out on bowl games for a couple seasons.  One of the highlights of the home games this year was a last second win over USC.



In October, I took a quick weekend trip out to Washington, D.C. with my roommate Brandon and a couple friends. We rented a basement apartment in Maryland and took the train into town every day.  And walked about 50 miles in 5 days.  Always fun to see the monuments, and also got to see a few things I'd never seen before, like Mount Vernon.


On the Speaker's balcony of the Capitol Building




I'm always humbled by the sheer number of grave markers at Arlington Cemetery

Another fun time in October was carving pumpkins in Mountain Green with George & Kimi, and the kids, with grandma Liz joining us as well.



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Best Concert: Augustana & Twin Forks
Runner-up: Haim

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In November, I headed back to D.C., for work this time, which meant not much time for sight-seeing, but I did manage to take a hike out to the National Cathedral on a Saturday morning when I had some free time, as I'd heard it was worth checking out.  Unfortunately there were church services going on when I was there, so I couldn't see much of the interior, but I did get to go up to a viewing area, and found out where to look for the Darth Vader gargoyle on he exterior.









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This year in Home Ownership

If you remember last year's Christmas post, you might recall that I'd recently been through a crazy December dealing with a big embezzlement and mismanagement mess in my Home Owners Association.  Well that certainly didn't clear itself up overnight, and in some ways continues to keep me busy from time to time, but thankfully nothing like last December.  We were able to round up some money from our insurance company, and some more by asking people to pay monthly dues that they had missed in the past, and by doing that we were able to get some breathing room, and also do a few bits of needed maintenance, like repairing our fence that was falling down in a few place, and doing some paving work on our road.  We also hired a management company, with the hope that it would alleviate some of the work that the board was doing.  In some ways it has, and in some ways it hasn't, but for the long-term good of the community, I think it's best that a third-party is now managing our funds.

Personally, I acquired the aforementioned roommate (Brandon), and while it's taken some getting used to (the smell of fresh produce isn't one that was common before), it's been nice to have someone around, and probably healthy to be in the habit of accommodating someone else living in the house with me. And the rent money's not bad either. :)

I don't recall making any major purchases, but I did get a rusty hot water valve replaced, and added some pre-lit garland to my collection of Christmas decor. I keep thinking if I ever get the HOA straightened out, I can get around to doing a few odd jobs around my own place. Guess we'll see.
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December has been probably the craziest month of the year between busy times at work and lots of fun things going on with friends and family.

I made it downtown to check out the lights (it was lacking a little something without any snow, but it was nice that it was a little warmer than usual)


I went with Ben to the Utah-BYU basketball game


We had an Advent Sunday Christmas program with friends


I went to a fun Christmas concert performance by The Lower Lights


All in all, it's been quite a year. Each month seems to fly by, but looking back there was certainly more than enough time to fit a lot into the year. I'm grateful to have a good job, and great friends, and to have all of my family just a short drive away.  When I'm tempted to be frustrated or discouraged with any of the challenges or struggles that arise, it's easy to find reminders of the many ways that I've been blessed all around me.  I'm looking forward to another year of excitement and growth in 2015. Hope to see you there!

My 2013 Christmas Card

Merry Christmas!

I'm putting this post together at pretty much the last possible minute to have any hope of getting it out by Christmas. Typically I'd like to have gotten this finished a week or more ago, but this year my December was anything but typical, and I got quite a bit behind on a variety of things. More on that in a bit.  But if this is less thorough than it was last year, I guess that's probably why.

In terms of where I'm at these days, I continue to work for Intermountain Healthcare as a Medical Informaticist. My job level was changed from "staff" to "senior" this year, but as best as I can tell, the only result was that I'm no longer one of the only 2 staff informaticists, and I get a few more days off.  I've been in my house for just over a year now, and other than some things I'll mention in a bit, it's been a great year. Fun to be able to have people over for movie nights, or to watch a game, or whatever.  I was called in October as the 2nd counselor in the Elders Quorum Presidency in my ward. I continue to be unmarried and available, though the folks in my ward are hard at work at finding other single mormons for me to date. :)

As is my tradition, I wanted to share some photos of the past year and tell a bit of what's been going on with me, along with some of my favorites things from the year.

I started out the year buying a new camera with some of the Christmas money I got from my parents, one with a fancy 20x zoom lens. That's been a fun addition throughout the year.



In January, we got lots of snow at my house (and the rest of Salt Lake as well), and one snowy night, I went downtown to see what turned out to be my favorite concert of the year: An acoustic show by Augustana, which turned out to just be the lead singer and a fellow musician playing guitar, piano, and accordion. It was a relatively small crowd, in an intimate venue, and we were able to be pretty much right up front.



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Best Book (Fiction): Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Best Book (Non-fiction):  Moneyball

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I got some couches for my basement in January, and finally had a housewarming party on Groundhog day.




Pounding some angel food cake in Bill Murray's honor

Later in February, I took a week off work and went out to Hawaii to help babysit the grandkids with my mom while Kimi was here in Utah looking for a house to buy.  Mostly we stayed around the house and played with the kiddos, but I did manage to get to the beach one afternoon, went snorkeling one morning with George, and Lucy, mom, and I signed up for a "whale watching" cruise, that ended up mostly being a "whale looking-for" cruise, though we did briefly see a whale fin or two for maybe a few seconds.



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Best Song: "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark" by Fall Out Boy
Runner-up: "Can't Hold Us" by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

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As football season ticket holders at the University of Utah, we were offered the chance to buy tickets to the first round of March Madness games that the U was hosting at Energy Solutions Arena.  It ended up being 6 games, I think. 4 on Thursday and 2 on Saturday. 3 of the first 4 games we saw were upsets, so that was kinda fun.





The weekend before Easter, I made my first ever trip to the Moab Jeep Safari. I have some friends who go every year, and this year, I made it down Thursday night to hang out Friday and Saturday.  I actually only ended up going on one jeep trail with them, but I got to watch a bunch of jeeps going on the Moab Rim Trail which was within walking distance of our campground, and it was fun to hang out with some friends.




This one didn't end well.  There was a loud noise when it came back down and then it didn't work any more.

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Best TV Show (Comedy): Community
Runner-up: Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Best TV Show (Drama): Breaking Bad
 
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In April, I made it down to Phoenix to visit Julie for a weekend.  I'd planned on going earlier in the year, but then family was in town and it didn't work to go until it was already as hot as I'd care for things to be. :)


I didn't take many pictures, except at the Maricopa County Fair, where we saw this baboon, who at one point was in a Super Bowl commercial. How the might have fallen.

In May, those of us Tripps living in Utah at the time (mom, dad, Natalie, and I) planned a little weekend trip down to St. George.  We hiked Angel's Landing at Zion, saw Brian Regan at Tuacahn, and had a pretty nice time.







We had such a good time, we almost felt bad that Ben didn't make it home from his mission to Hawaii until June. :)





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Best Album: "Days Are Gone" by Haim
Runner-up: "Let's Be Still" by The Head and The Heart

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At the end of June, I took my first trip to Capitol Reef National Park (Utah's least visited National Park, apparently), and went on a fun hike with some friends there.  It was called Upper Muley Twist Canyon, and featured a great view of the Waterpocket Fold, a geographic formation that runs for about a hundred miles.





In August, we made one final pilgrimage to Kaneohe to spend time with our Hawaii-dwelling sibling and his family, so we could attend my niece Lucy's baptism.  Ben, sadly, couldn't make it, as he'd just started a new job with the Utah Athletics department, but we somehow managed to enjoy ourselves pretty well without him. I've blogged more about this already, but here's a few photos:


One of the two octopuses (octopi?) we found while snorkeling


Watching the sunrise at Bellows Air Force Base beach


Group shot


One last wave goodbye


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Best Video Game (Online): Card Hunter
Best Video Game (iPad): Simpons Tapped Out (I guess I really didn't play too many games this year)

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As mentioned before, we had season tickets to the Utah football games again this year, and despite not having the best season ever, we still managed to enjoy some good times at the games. You can see more of my football stuff from this year here.


Ben hard at work


I might not look like much now, but I'm drinking milk...


Celebrating an upset victory over eventual PAC-12 champion Stanford

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Best Concert: Augustana - Acoustic show (see above)
Runner-Up: Guster/Ben Folds Five/Barenaked Ladies

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In October, George and Kimi and the kids moved back to Utah.  They've been doing their best to adapt to the cold, but the rest of us I think are more than happy to have them living closer. It's been lots of fun to be able to see them more frequently and have little get-togethers without it needing to be a huge event.  The night before Halloween, Natalie, Ben, and I drove up and helped carve pumpkins with the kids.



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Best Movie (Action): Captain Phillips
Runner-Up: Gravity
Best Movie (Comedy): Monsters University


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Toward the end of November, my dad let us know that he'd been having some chest pains, and that his doctor had recommended he get a stress echo test done.  After that test, an angiogram was recommended, and after that, the doctors all seemed in consensus that he ought to have a cardiac bypass surgery.  This all in the course of a few short weeks.  He ended up going in for was eventually was a quadruple bypass the day before Thanksgiving, and despite any worries we might have had, the surgery went as well as could be expected, and after about 5 days in the hospital, he was home again, and on the road to recovery.  On Christmas Day, one of his presents will be that he can have his car keys back and start driving again.  Very grateful he was able to have his problem detected before having a heart attack and that his recovery has gone well so far.


Out for his first post-surgery stroll along with his physical therapist and a rack full of pumps, drains, and other good stuff

The day after dad headed home from the hospital, serving in my volunteer capacity as vice-president of our Home Owners Association, we discovered that the fellow who has been managing our finances and most of our other affairs (the treasurer's long-time live-in boyfriend), has been embezzling from our bank account.  That was a pretty crappy/busy week as I spent every waking hour gathering information from our bank, and various creditors, and then working to do all I could to get our affairs in order, and work with various organizations to try to see what we could do about things.  That is only just now starting to slow down a bit, mostly because I've done what I can do for the moment and am waiting for others (the bank, our insurance company, the police, etc) to do what they can do.  I did about 2 weeks of full-time work on that (in addition to my other paid full-time job) and that's why I'm just now, on Christmas Eve, getting around to putting this Christmas Card post together.  Definitely not something I ever envisioned having to deal with, and it certainly hasn't been too easy either. I'm grateful that things aren't worse than they are, and it's been good to have friends and family to talk things over with as I work through them.

I'd hate to end the year on such a dour note, and thankfully things have settled down enough that I've been able to get things ready for Christmas (I had to shop at stores this year instead of getting everything ordered online in time), and I've been able to spend some good quality time with my family this week with more to come soon.  I'm grateful at this time of year for the principles of the gospel that help to guide me and keep me out of trouble for the most part.  Despite some troubles that have come primarily from one person's actions, I continue to see plenty more good people doing what they can to help.  And after looking back over the last year, it's really hard to let a few bad weeks keep me from feeling what a great year it was.



Thanks to all of you for your friendship and love. Here's to another great year!