I was on-track to blog a couple of times this last week, but the last half of the week did cooperate with me. Nevertheless, this was an exceptionally memorable week.

The memories started in earnest on Wednesday when I had my first real experience with sushi. I went to Sushi Club with a couple of guys from work, without knowing ahead of time that sushi was on the menu for lunch. I tried to be brave and eat as many different things as I could, but was met with mixed success. I remember trying crab, tuna, shrimp and some kind of spicy tuna roll with avocado. If I tried anything else, my brain already blocked it out. The spicy rolls were the most edible, but the tuna was difficult to eat. While the flavor wasn't too bad, my body rejected it and wouldn't let me swallow it. I had to wash down each chunk with a swig of soda.

The adventure continued Thursday night when I went to Roxy's at the Eldorado with some co-workers that were in Reno for work stuff. I tried a fried quail appetizer since I've never eaten quail before. It was okay, but the breading was so strong that I couldn't get a good taste. The others at the table said it tasted like duck, which I've never tried. For dinner I had a peppercorn steak, which was also okay.

The real dinner surprise came about halfway through the day on Friday. The work morning went along as usual until I had to go to an apointment to have an ultrasound done (my doctor thought he felt a nodule on my thyroid, but forunately the ultrasound proved otherwise). On the way back from the ultrasound I started to feel sick so I went home for lunch. I continued to feel worse, so I took a quick trip to work to grab a laptop so that I could work from home. By the time I got back to the house, doing work was out of the question. I was shaky and had a fever and just didn't feel very good at all. It appeared that the peppercorn steak from Roxy's was "tainted". I had eaten an apple shortly before going to the ultrasound, but it eventually just made be bark at ants. I don't need to add any more details - use your imagination.

Anyway, I'm starving. I ate one small cup of applesauce in the middle of the night on Friday-Saturday. I had a couple pieces of dry toast, half a banana and some more applesauce yesterday. I washed it all down with some watered-down Gatorade. This morning I bravely ate a bowl of oatmeal, but I'm still recovering. Sadly, Lisa's family is in town and I haven't seen them because I've been at home in bed. Bah.

To top off the whole week, we had a super bad situation at work where someone did something very dumb. It's sad because it's someone that I trusted implicitly, as did many others. All in all, it was just not the kind of week I like to have. On the bright side, next week should be much better!

This will be a quick review of life since the last post. When will I ever get back to a regular schedule? No one knows.

We attended the 18th birthday party for one very special Chelsea. There was a very awkward moment when it came to birthday cake. Chelsea is typically the one to make and decorate the birthday cakes for the family, but what do you do when it's a birthday for her? "Hey, Chelsea! Can you please make a birthday cake, decorate it so that you think it looks good, but leave the name blank." How weird would that be? Well, we had incredible Winco cake (I think) and everyone got over it.

The following Saturday (July 8th) I broke new ground by riding the Emigrant Trail. I've ridden this trail numerous times, but this was the first time this year that I rode on a trail other than the good ol' Whites Creek Loop. It was a good ride, but we didn't finish the whole trail. We didn't start until about 5:45p, so we were sort of racing the sun. David and I went about 7.5 miles before turning around and going back, making for a trip total of about 15 miles. I believe the whole ride is 18 miles if you go to the end and back. I pushed myself pretty hard, so we made pretty good time.

Even though I didn't finish the whole trail, I did finish reading Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel--Why Everything You Know Is Wrong by John Stossel. While I don't agree with John Stossel all of the time, he is very entertaining to read and generally provides good information. If you can get your hands on a copy of the book, I recommend reading it.

Last Saturday we broke an unwritten law by attending a ward activity for our old ward. We really like our old ward, so we pretended that we were still in it for a few hours. They had a BBQ and played some games at the Mormon Station park in Genoa. The weather was excellent and everyone had fun. We're not sure if we're going to attend our own ward's celebration because we feel like we would be double-dipping. Oh, well. Double-dipping's only bad if you get caught, right?

After returning to Reno we were treated to a very special treat. The Barnet family stopped by to visit for a couple hours! Richard made some video of me, no doubt to sell on eBay. Jared and Becky enjoyed trying out some toys that Chase hasn't quite grown into yet. The best toy involved balls, a tugboat and a hammer. Can you think of anything better?! If so, maybe you better go into the toy-making business.

After saying goodbye to the Barnets, Emilie and I dropped off Chase with Grandma and Grandpa Carpenter so that we could go on a date. We went to dinner at Applebee's (we had to make it special) and then went to see Superman Returns (starring Superman). It was a good movie, although I felt like it took too long to wind-down. We like Chase, but it was good to have some time together sans baby.

In the personal TMI section tonight, I can happily announce that I refilled my Levoxyl prescription after being out of it since Chase was born. More on that at a later date!

Chase has finally entered a new era of sleeping. He regularly sleeps all night, sometimes not getting up until 7:30a. He'll even wake up and entertain himself for a while before he starts crying.

Have you ever seen the video "A Field So White"? It's a glorious sample of LDS culture (although not made by nor distributed by the church). A quick search revealed very little information about the video; however, some glorious soul posted the entire movie (in segments) on Google Video. Hop on over to Google Video and search for "a field so white". Generally speaking, it doesn't matter what order you watch the videos; however, you should probably watch the intro first. It's not only the most valuable gem, but it also sets the stage for all the magic that follows. If you don't take the time to watch the videos, no one will regret it more than you.

Before going any further, let me share some anagrams of my name and Chase's name.

First, mine:
Crap! Darn beret!
Dr. Try: A Learnable Pecan
Rent a candelabra reply

Now, Chase's:
A rest perchance?
A catcher preens!
Car spa centre, eh?
Secret peach ran!
Secret ranch ape
Crap! A secret hen!

Aren't you glad I shared those with you?

Chase started rolling over. He's been able to do it for a while, but he would usually get stuck with his arm underneath him. On Father's Day we went to see Emilie's parents and he was going crazy with the rolling over. As soon as we layed him on his back he would immediately flip over. Ever since, he rolls over whenever he can. As soon as we put him in bed he usually flips right over. More recently he has been getting pretty good at sitting up. He still launches himself backwards occasionally when he gets too excited and kicks his legs.

Emilie took Chase to get pictures taken at Kiddie Kandids for his 6-month birthday. It's been a while since I posted any pictures, so here's a few recent ones.

My mountain biking has been limited to the White's Creek loop lately. I've been there three times since the last time I blogged about it. Twice I did the same old loop, but on Monday I did the full loop plus the Galena Creek out-and-back. I've been lucky to be able to go three weeks in a row. I just hope that I make it to another trail at least once this year!

My dad, Mike and I hiked the same trail yesterday. I can ride the trail without much trouble, but the hike made me sore. What's up with that?

I hope this brings me up-to-date with events and pictures. Once I'm current I have no excuse to no update more often. For some reason it took me forever just to scan the pictures. I'm a lazy bum.