A Coupla Halloweenies

My insurance offers a discount for an annual wellness visit, so you already know I took advantage of that at my earliest convenience. My doctor said she was sorry I am too healthy and she can't help me more. I am not. My insurance also only covers a flu shot from my PCP, so I figured I would do it if offered. BUT LET ME TELL YOU - bad idea. I am STILL suffering from that and I was very careful not to exercise for 24 hours because that usually helps. Nada. 

Our pumpkin this year. 

With my sickness, I still played on my city league team and subbed for someone else's. And won. That pickup was really helpful for my swing and my sanity. But less helpful for my recovery. I did skip my gym workouts and boxing class this week. And I went to my YW's volleyball game and happened to come across free tickets and free food on my way over. 

Weenie Roast 2021.

It really put a damper on my Halloween plans. We ended up swinging by our ward party and grabbing some chili (also a MISTAKE) and carved a pumpkin and watched Young Frankenstein. And then Roger abandoned me early in the morning to help a friend track a deer. And we watched George's Island and had a Halloweenie Roast.

Roger's Birthday Week of Fun.

City League starts this week, so we had our last Monday night pickup for a while and our first set of games. (Where half our team wasn't there...) We have some new players from the PT program and appaa couple of flaky old players too, haha. We're 1/1. 

I worked on my videos - I now have 3 subscribers. And working on adding new neuro content, which I'm excited about. But it might take a minute to get it up. (That's what she said.)

I had an enlightening gym session this week where I practiced my cleans. And I even filmed myself, but don't tell Brian. I like the gym. Time isn't real there. 

My jousting activity was postponed again because Tim forgot he was busy. Lol. Men.

Pianist creepshot on the L.

It was Roger's birthday and he had a fun morning hunting and was ready to go on our surprise scavenger hunt by 5 sharp. JK. About the scavenger hunt. We saw a good movie with Tom Hardy and went to Black Bart's - which is a nice steakhouse with live musical entertainment (and a freaking bomb pianist). 

We spent Roger's actual bday watching Stake Conf online and having a chill day at Carol's with games and piano and part of a football game. It was nice. Happy 26th. Do you care about getting insurance? We're not sure.

Hunter or Hobo (part 6)

Well folks, I've done it. I survived the Cottonwood initiation and am now officially OUT. It was nice to be able to attend a staff meeting in person. Somehow, I've been tricked into driving out to Williams again (which makes me a little salty) but it's better than Cottonwood. 

Sitting in a blind in the cold. 

We had a good turnout for volleyball. It's fun to play more consistently and with decent setters, because my hits are more consistently kills. And I have a little more directional control. Our city league starts this upcoming Wednesday, so this Monday will be our last week for a little bit. 

Marshall said Frank was a good name. 

My side hustles are going well. I now have 3 subscribers on my YT channel, more and more on IG, and I make $10-30 a week on Etsy without having done anything for the last month. So that's nice. I just finished working on a PT Reference Book that I'll be posting soon, so I'm hoping that goes over well. (And I might dig into physical copies of some of this stuff if it does.)

She looks small from here, but Rog estimates 600+lbs after the gutting.

I'm still doing bimonthly boxing classes - and my new favorite moves are the "wallop" aka the overhand punch and the spinning backhand. Classics. I like learning new tricks like that. I'm also working on getting a class set up for the YW in our ward. 

She only broke a few ropes before we triple tied her.

I have a patient who INSISTS on feeding me for lunch and Rog and I for dinner on all days that she sees me (twice a week). And the food is delicious. BUT she also insisted on providing food for our hunting trip, which is how we ended up with 5 breakfast burritos, 4 sandwiches, and bread with chicken salad to make so ourselves so it doesn't get soggy. Needless to say, we were well provided for on our trip. 

Cleaning it up. 

Friday, Rog glasses on top of a hill in the FREEZING cold and saw nada. We hiked around at a different location and saw 80+ deer. And a lot of them within 20 yards of us at points. They know it's not their turn yet. We then drove up a sketchy road and sat a blind (aka took a nap in the cold), bought a car, and shot an elk at 70 yards with a kill shot. She was dead within 30 seconds and only ran about 100 yards, so she was easy to track. Rog showed me how to gut her and we had to call in the cavalries to lift her and get her into a bigger truck so our axles wouldn't bust. We hung her and skinned her and went to bed. 

Profiting.

Saturday, we carved her up and prepped all the meat and had some bacon-wrapped T-loins for dinner. Sunday, we did Zoom church and packaged her up and helped Collin with his wife's elk. (She was mysteriously absent for the majority). We're only doing burger, ground jerky, and steaks because that's what we use the most. And we have plenty of it. Any friends who are getting married soon (cough cough Trev/Jaimie or Lindsey/TJ) may have an idea of what they're getting for their weddings...

smungry

We sadly decided that we will be pausing pickup vball because Gaye wants to start a team in the Monday night league. We haven't been getting tons lately anyways since city league is starting up, and I didn't want to have to commit to anything, so I told them that I would be on their reserves list.  

LANCES are not LIGHTSABERS. 
(But if they were, I would still win)

The other problem is that my volleyball league is Wednesdays, which is when most of the YW can do activities. We did our practice jousting this week, thanks to Tim and his horses. We worked out some kinks, got the girls on a horse for the first time and had some fun. 

Flagstaff, present day.

I found out that I'm no longer traveling down to Cottonwood (at least for the next 12 weeks or so.) The news came just a day too early, as I was planning on an early drive through Sedona to check out the fall colors and to drop off the rest of my paperwork. Alas.

Me and my favorite adventure buddy.

Instead, I spent Friday evening relaxing with my new pumpkin apple candle, nature sounds, and working on my new Etsy project - a quick reference PT book that I will unfortunately have to print/ship. But they're pretty popular in other realms, so hopefully this works out. 

The Fall Color*

Rog and I had a pizza, wings, ice cream, and Black Widow night since it's on Disney + now. It was okay. The fighting gets a little over the top at points, but loved seeing Rachel Weisz in something different. 

I'm thinking about starting a finsta called BogerMandall
with all the model shots I take of him. Thoughts?

I went for a run on Saturday and decided that before I do a half marathon, I should be running a little more. Not that I have any concrete or immediate goals to do so, but in the next 2 years maybe. It was a 5.5 miler and I am sore, so that's embarrassing. 

Getting excited. 

Then Rog and I went on a 4-mile hike in the aspens to collect his cameras and check out the trees. They are pretty, but they are no New England. Goals to get back there in the fall with a nice camera and editing software to really do it justice. Oh and we heard a coyote and almost shot it. 

Then we had milenesa again with ice cream and a move - this time Robin Hood (2018) with Jamie Fox. If you want a medieval ages film with Avengers-style fighting, bad acting, and serious potential with a flat script - this is the film for you. It could have been so much better. 

Picnic. 

After church today, we went on a drive for a picnic in the wilderness (where the bees ALMOST got me). I practiced shooting for my upcoming hunt. All around, I've got a decent pattern, even at over 200 yards. BUT I have a deadeye shot if I am thinking about killing something instead of just hitting the target. Still, I hope I can get closer than 100 yards (just in case). 

Girls Night

Fall is here and there is no quality apple cider to be found. If any of you have homemade recieps TDF, please let me know. 

Work. There's a new PT in Cottonwood who will hopefully be trained soon. He's driving up from Phoenix, so his commute isn't any shorter than mine. But he has experience in home health and the support of the PHX offices, so hopefully he'll be set. 

MVP Taylor Bush. 

Sports. City league VB will be happening. Unfortunately it is on Wednesday nights, which is also when my YW leader wants to do all our activities even though our day is on Thursdays. So I'll figure that out. In the meantime, Monday night VB is still happening, every other Thursday boxing, and Friday basketball (for when the swelling in my knee gets back to a reasonable amount). I love physical activity. 

Health. I've been trying to get everything taken care of that I haven't been able to while in school with crappy insurance. My teeth are cleaned. I have my contacts (finally). And now I have a new retainer that is in the works since I grinded through my old one in the last 10 years. 

Thanks for agreeing to this party.

Best part of the week was a long-anticipated Girls Night at the Museum Club. Becky and I bought some tickets for the group and had some last minute cancellations, for which our friends Marissa and Taylor filled in - and were WELCOME. What a party. We need to do stuff like this more. It's nice to have friends outside of sports. 

AND we turned around real quick for this year's edition of General Conference. Which has, so far, been a 10/10 and emphasized a lot of thoughts I've been having lately. More to come, but just know it was more enjoyable for the cajun boil, milanesa, muffins, and surprise visit by Grandma Sandall. P-A-R-T-Y.