Intramural Sports

BYU has some of the best intramurals in the nation. Not that I've participated in any others, I've just had a good experience and I've heard that from other people. If you do a Google search for "intramurals" BYU's intramural homepage comes up as one of the first one's on the list. Here are the intramural sports that I've had a chance to participate in since being here:

-Men's Racquetball Singles
-Men's Tennis Singles
-Mixed Doubles Tennis
-Coed Soccer (full field, 11 person team)
-Coed Ultimate Frisbee
-Men's Softball
-Coed Volleyball

-Men's Volleyball

-Coed Wallyball (it's volleyball in a racquetball court. You can bounce the ball off of the side walls.)

In all of that play I have yet to get the coveted intramural t-shirt. The prize given to the champion(s)—the single player/team that wins it all. I pretty much have two more chances before leaving Provo. I am currently playing on an amazingly good men's softball team. We are in the top division for the tournament (there are three divisions) and ranked #2 overall. We haven't had our first tournament game yet. We have a good chance of winning. I am the least experienced (worst) player on the team, and just landed on a team with so many good players cause a few of them are in my ward.

The other chance will be a two-day tennis tournament in July. Unfortunately with these, it always seems that people assess themselves as worse than they actually are in order to get in lower divisions and have a better chance of winning. But I'll get some practice in before then and hope for the best.

CPA Exam!

Most people don't know anything about the CPA Exam. The tests you hear of more often are the GMAT, MCAT, LSAT, or the GRE. Hey, I didn't even know what a CPA (certified public accountant) was before college.

The CPA Exam is divided up into four sections. I have taken two and am taking one more tomorrow. Each section ranges from 2 1/2 - 4 1/2 hours. I graduated in December, but since February I've been studying for this exam and taking different sections of it. Once I really got serious about it towards the end of the March I've been studying at least 4 hours a day (usually not including Saturday and never Sunday).

The reason for this whole post is because I found out that I passed both the sections that I have already taken!!! I'm so excited about this!! Each section costs about $200 to take. My future employer, Ernst & Young, will reimburse me for my first attempts. So that gives me extra incentive to study hard and pass the first time (as if grueling exams wasn't enough). I took Regulation (taxation and business law) in the middle of April, so it's been a long wait. I had major doubts after taking it whether I had passed. The other one I took is called Business and Economic Concepts and found out a few days ago I passed.

Tomorrow I'm taking Auditing and will have to wait a few more weeks to find out the results. June is a blackout month and you can't take tests then, so early July I will take the last one (and my most feared), Financial Accounting.

P.S. I heard that only 10% of those who sit for it (which you have to have an accounting degree to do so) pass all four sections their first time. I'm not quite sure where I heard that statistic, but it makes me feel better nonetheless. And I do know that less than 50% pass each time they take a single section of the exam, so the 10% stat would make sense.

Bike Route

I rode my bike to work today for the first time. It's really good exercise. Today the temperature was only 65 degrees. I'm not looking forward to it being in the 90's. Here is the route that I took, it's 3.6 miles each way.

 I chose to go down University because it's a direct route to my work. And it has really big shoulders, so I thought that it would be perfect. I was wrong. For those who live in Provo, you know how University is really bumpy while in your car. It's even worse on a bike.

While looking up how far it is I discovered that Google has an option for bike routes. Here is what it came up with.

It would be nice to ride on the Provo River Trail (as shown above), but it seems a little out of the way (it's 4.4 miles each way). Maybe I can take some more direct streets and join the Provo River Trail a little later. If anyone knows of some good streets for biking, let me know.

FYI, to get from Provo, Utah to my parent's home in Washington it would take:
    14 hours 40 minutes by car
    3 days 17 hours by bicycle
    12 days 11 hours walking 
    (of course that's if you don't sleep or stop)

I bought a bicycle!

On Saturday I bought a bicycle. I bought it used, but the guy had ridden it very few times. It still looks great. All I had to do was fill up the tires with some air. Along with the bike I got a helmet, lock, and spare tire for the bike. It is a Specialized HRXC Sport. 

I found the bike through Craigslist after looking there and KSL Classifieds for the past week or so. I was able to practice my negotiating skills. I got all of it for less than he was asking, but I had to be willing to walk away. I made the mistake of asking if he was willing to negotiate instead of just offering a lower price at first. He said he was set on his stated price, so I was kind of in a pickle. I decided to offer for less anyway. He didn't accept. I told him I had another friend's bike I still wanted to look at, but that he could get back to me if he wanted to sell for lower. He e-mailed me back shortly after. It definitely helped that he didn't seem to have had other people come look at the bike (which is kind of weird, cause it was a good deal). 

I'm excited to start riding it to work. Unfortunately, because of the constant rain, I wasn't able to today. Whenever I can't ride I go to APX with Christina and eat lunch there with her. She ends up being a 1/2 hour early, but she just reads. Then I go to work and pick her up when she gets off. 

Summer Movies 2010

People who know me really well know that I like film. I thought about going into it my Freshman year. So here's a posting of the movies I'm most looking forward to this summer (Right-click on the title to and bring up in a new tab or window to see the trailer and keep this window open).


1) Toy Story 3 - June 18th
Pixar is the greatest. I am so excited for this new installment of the Toy Story films. Usually with sequels you have to worry (Shrek 4, are you serious?!), but not with Pixar. Toy Story 2, in my opinion, was a little bit better than the first. So Christina and I will try to be there opening night (at least opening weekend) for this one.


2) Inception  - July 16th
The trailer gets me excited. I don't know much else about it. It could end up being really unique and amazing, or unique and weird. 


3) The A-Team - June 11th
A classic 80's TV show turned into a big-budget action movie starring Liam Neeson. What more could you ask for? Really, I loved watching repeats of the A-Team when I was little (I am too young to have seen, or at least understood what was going on during it's original run).


4) Robin Hood - May 14th
I'll have to check this out on one of the parental review sites when it comes out. But it looks like it could be really good. Reminiscent of Gladiator. 


5) How to Train Your Dragon (in theatres already)
We'll wait for this one to come out in the dollar theater, but I'm excited to see it. I've heard a lot of good things. The fact is, we'll probably wait for a few of the ones above this to be in the dollar theater. Movies are too expensive. I'll miss the dollar theater when we move to California.

Happenings

Just an update on what's going on in our lives:
-Christina worked for about three weeks substituting in the Provo School District after her student teaching ended.

-She then decided to accept a summer job from APX Alarm in their call center. Not the most enjoyable work, but a lot more consistent than substituting, which would have ended in 2-3 weeks anyway.

-I'm still working 1-5pm at a small CPA firm. If I ever put it on a resume I'll write down "Office Assistant," but I'm really the secretary.

-I have taken 2 out of 4 sections of the CPA Exam. I finished the second one, Business and Economic Concepts today and am pretty sure I passed. I took Regulation (covering tax and business law), and have no
idea if I passed. I may not find out for another month. I hate the suspense! You can retake sections individually if you don't pass. Each section is between 2.5-4.5 hours.

-We will be leaving Utah the end of July and going to Washington for three weeks, then to Brazil.

-I'm playing intramural racquetball and softball. I won my first racquetball game this week. Somehow I got on a really good softball team, and we have won our first two games 26-2 and 29-4.

-Christina and I have started hosting a games' night every Thursday at 8:30pm. Let us know if you're interested in coming. So far it's only married couples, but it doesn't have to be.

Manti Temple

(I didn't take this picture, but I couldn't find a copyright.)

On Saturday Christina and I went to the Manti Temple. It is a beautiful place. We even got to see the spiral staircases they have there afterwards. I'm not sure exactly why they're so special. Something about them being big and each step supporting the weight of the one above it. It was cool.

We forgot our camera. But here is a picture taken of us with my phone as proof that we actually did go.