The Waste Management Phoenix Open (formerly known as the FBR)

16th green

So Heather had some free tickets to the final round of the Phoenix Open (golf) this past Sunday... despite the rainy conditions, we went, getting there around 10:15am... just in time to see Phil Mickelson (my boy, and ASU grad) tee off. We followed him for about 4 to 5 holes, seeing him make a birdie on the first hole. After that, we had started to hear roars from Hole 16.... in case you don't know, Hole 16 is not like any other hole on the PGA tour... it has a stadium around it... literally it is encased. You sit in grandstands as golfers enter a par 3, 162 yard hole. People gather there all day to drink, party, and heckle... and this is ok with the Tour and the golfers I guess.... although I have heard some golfers don't come to this event because of this hole, including Tiger, but he had other problems this year to deal with.... anyways, we arrive and sit in the party section near the tee, where a bunch of guys and girls (who look like ASU students) are yelling at caddies and players... yells include "you're pants look like a dish rag", "pink shirt", "argyle", "Don Johnson (the guy looked like he was from Miami Vice)", and "slammin' salmon (pink shirt)", etc... most golfers laughed at themselves or at someone in their pair. We also yelled stuff about their college to get them riled up... the Florida Gator chop came out and I yelled Boomer Sooner to Anthony Kim.... Some other kids were yelling Aussie Aussie Aussie, oi oi oi all day for the Aussie golfers. Also, every threesome that came through, the crowd cheered Caddie Race, in which we were egging on the caddies to race to the green... ridiculous.

Likely after a Caddie Race

Oh yeah, and 2 boys ended up streaking in their underwear, which Heather said she had never seen...they made it to the stands, but who knows if they got caught. Anyways, we stayed there for a while and then went and followed Phil, to find out that he was shooting low round of the day basically while we were gone, but only to miss every putt once we watched him more... too bad! That was basically the day... 8 am to 5pm... amazing how tired you can get just sitting outside watching golf,... wears you out.

Valentines Day

So not to get mushy, but me and Heather had a pretty good Valentine's Day weekend last week. Each of us had a day to something for the other....On the Saturday of that weekend, Heather took me for a picnic on a beautiful day at the Scottsdale Civic Center. It was near a bunch of outdoor art and water features. We had some delicious tofu, kale salad, smoked pasta with mozzarella, and bread with Brie. Afterwards, she took me to the local arts center, where they had an interactive music display. One of the pieces allowed you to DJ, but alas, we were supposed to bring our own records. This was really a downer, considering that I want to learn how to DJ for some reason. After an uneventful visit to the bathroom (hint hint), we took off to eat some good ole ice cream. I got the dulce de leche, which literally was chunks of caramel on a cone.... a great end to a great day.

On Monday, it was my turn. The date officially began at 8pm, but first I had an intramural soccer game. Our team won 4-2; my fantasy stats looked good with 1 goal and 2 assists. I could have had 3 assists when I kicked a corner (that's right a corner) to the center and the header was missed high. Anyways, the reason I tell you this, is that after the game I had to run to the School of Sustainability and take a shower on campus. Our building has a shower because it is encouraging people to bike to work rather than drive in the heat.... Anyways, I digress again. After I showered and got ready, I took Heather to Studio Vino for a wine tasting. Although this wasn't your average wine tasting.

Smelling Oak Chips (see story below)

When we arrived, we met our friends Colin and Jenny, and were introduced to the owners. They informed the girls that we were here to taste 10 wines, eat appetizers, and select one of the wines to make. We would make the wine that night, then come back, bottle it, and design a label. Pretty cool huh? So we conversed through the tasting, enjoyed our company, while making the owner and our host laugh quite a bit... someone mentioned Indian Leg Wrestling, and all of a sudden we have the owners and girls asking us to do it in the studio... funny, but I lost both matches.

the leg wrestling

Anyways, we then proceeded to make the wine, which involved us pouring the grape concentrate into a bucket, mixing it with warm water, and oak chips (which we smelled), and stirring it with a huge power drill. Lastly, we poured the yeast in to make it ferment and we'll be back in a few months to bottle and cork it. Pics of are visit are soon to come, as soon as Heather shares them with me.

Feel free to leave your thoughts on what to put on our label design... my thought is to put some obscure country like Estonia and a year like 1962 on the label, to make it look vintage.

Odd things my girlfriend does...

(4) While it hasn't happened for probably 3-4 months, she'll meet me sometime in the afternoon or evening, and say, "Are you hungry?" If I say "Yes" or "why do you ask?", she'll pull some sort of leftovers (pizza or quesadilla) out of her purse... her PURSE.... and ask me if I want it. Of the 2 or 3 times she has done it, it has either been in a napkin or a plastic bag.... a louis vuitton doggie bag.

What's been happening?

Been a while here on the Nomadic Ute... sorry for any die hard followers (ha)! The month of January went by quickly... when I got back from Utah, Heather basically took my planner from me and wrote in all the dates and events that I had with her... I guess that comes with the 'leaving her for 10 days' situation... we had a launch party, housewarming party, and oh yeah, I went to Vegas with her for her friend's bday. I experienced my first sports betting, and I lost on 3 of 4 prop bets, which will likely discourage me from doing it again. Also, Vegas is just not worth doing anymore unless you have plans to go to shows; showing up and figuring it out only results in me losing money :)

We also went to Barret Jackson a few weeks ago... for those, like me, who had never heard of this, it's this huge car auction, where people with a lot of money congregate to ogle over fancy cars. A Shelby went for $350K.... and Rusty Wallace sold his NASCAR stock car for like $130K. Heather told me there is always a party atmosphere with celebrities galore, but there was not.. I was told that Kerry Wood (the ole Cubs pitcher) was there by a few her Dad's friends, but come to find out, it was some other Cubs pitcher I'd never heard of..... they pointed him out to me and I was like "that's not Kerry Wood." They say, "oh, so who is he?" I don't know, it's your pal. If I didn't go, Heather would have saw me later that night and been like, "Riley Riley, guess what? We saw Kerry Wood!" Pssshh

Other than that, I organized an intramural soccer team for our Grad School. We are the Flying "SOS"ers. Most of us on the team haven't played soccer since we were in 4th grade, but we won our first game this past Monday 5-3... surprisingly, I scored 3 goals, a hat trick. I wouldn't put too much on that though, as my 2 other frontline teammates did all the ball handling and just passed it to me beautifully so I could kick it in. For the next game, there just might be some celebrations, like tearing the shirt off and diving on the ground.

(3) Odd things my girlfriend does...

She cries during the Biggest Loser and screams/yells at the dimwitted girls on the Bachelor. :)

(2) Odd things my girlfriend does...

While out for lunch in Flagstaff, Heather is looking at the drink menu, searching for a fruity beverage. She comes across the Bramble Berry Brew (BBB), a beer. Mind you, she does not drink beer. After asking the waiter a few questions, she decides to go with the BBB. Upon getting the drink, she sips it, and yells "it tastes like beer... and it has a yeasty aftertaste!" Well Heather, I don't know what you were expecting. Soon after, she switched it out with a cider, for a more fruity taste.

What have I been up to this holiday break?

Well, where do I start? The holidays started for me in mid December, around the 18th. I had just finished writing a good 1/3 of my thesis and would spend the next 3 days or so with Heather doing Christmas parties (one at the workplace & one at the family). The workplace party was a bit awkward, but there were fried bananas.... B-A-N-A-N-A-S! The family party was much better, including good food and good compnay. Afterwards, me & Heather visited the family house in Flagstaff, where we were able to have our own little Christmas. We exchanged presents, hit the town, and lounged around. Presents included DJ Hero, clothes, Arizona book, art book, smell good items (ie soy candle), and a few other things. I have in that time, become quite good at DJ Hero, and Heather believes that I've already beat the game basically.

After Flagstaff, I began my journey home by heading to San Diego to visit Will and see the Utes play Cal in their bowl game. As I have told Will many times, the day of the 23rd was well executed in terms of time and activities. We began with a hike at Torrey Pines, catching some good vistas of the ocean and landscape. Next, we picked up our cheap Field Level tix (row 23 ironically enough) for $30 a piece. This was followed by a game of Frisbee golf, which I had never played. I can't throw a frisbee, and it doesn't help when the holes intersect one another, meaning that frisbees are flying over your head at any time. However, I logged a few pars.
Finally, after a brief stop at Chipotle (love the vegetarian burrito), we began our travels to Qualcomm Stadium, where the Utes would easily handle Cal for their 9th straight bowl win, the longest active streak in NCAAF. Don't get me started on this stat, as I might ramble for a while!

[Need to insert pics Will took of the game here]

Amazingly enough, we decided to leave the game at 9pm and begin our drive home to Lehi, so we didn't arive the evening of Christmas Eve. We got to Mesquite by 2:30am and woke up in time to finish the drive off by 3pm the next day (including the time change into the MW time zone). Again, I was impressed by our brief 36 hours together.

In Lehi, I have stayed busy. I have played some pick-up bball twice now, went snowboarding (soon to be twice), went to Wendover with the Entourage and lost some money, and obviously spent time with the family during the holidays. Christmas was great, even though some say it gets boring with age, I still find the giving and receiving of presents to be quite enjoyable. What awaits me for the rest of the break will be less fun and more work... I am about to continue my work on my thesis and further my jumpstart on getting done by April/May, in time for graduation.