Freeway speed

Last week a friend of mine posted on facebook that he was pulled over by a highway patrol officer doing 81 in a 75mph zone. When he was asked by the UHPO if he knew why he was pulled over his response was "Yessir, I believe i was doing 80" to which the UHPO replied "i clocked you at 81, please wait here while i run my check". Once the UHPO returned he said i am not going to book you but we do not encourage people going any faster than 5mph over the signed speed limit (which if you knew the UHPO, you would know that is amazing in itself). That whole conversation made me laugh, seeing as though i drive the interstate everyday which is listed as being 65mph but "freeway speed" invariably is somewhere between 70-80mph. Freeway speed seems to be a big thing over here. Its almost more dangerous to drive the speed limit if you are surrounded by mad men!! I figure as long as you have others around you driving faster you should be safe.

This takes me back to conversations i had with Ashley when i first moved over here. I would constantly comment on how she was a lead foot and that once we moved back to Australia she would be in alot of trouble as there is no such thing as "freeway speed". Police in Australia pay alot more attention to speed and road safety than they do here. It makes me wonder if the Australian method is truly to save lives or the fendraising tactic it is said to be. Now that i am a U.S. driving convert i can only imagine how much trouble i am now going to be in when we move. I have also noticed of lat how lazy a driver i have become because of all of the freeway driving i do. This must be corrected.....and quickly!!

Thats a little anti-climactic

As annoying asitwould be, i was hoping for a very white winter. I knew there would be days where i thought i was crazy wishing that - especially during my 50 minute commute home from work which is instantly turned into a 2 hr drive. Seeing as though this is our last winter in Utah i wanted to experience all that wintger had to bring. In actual fact as i sit here and reflect back on the past 5 winters i have experienced since being here i notice that each winter has had less snow that the previous. Even though we havent had alot of snow yet it has still been cold - just not your typical winter cold. Each year around Jan-Feb we have a 2-3 week period where  it is lucky to get above freezing, which also never occured.......and that i am ok with!! Because the cold and the white stuff never came it has felt as though we never actually had a winter or that it is still coming (which might happen yet).
I was thinking the other day about the fact that we are now moving toward March and that means it is fast approaching on a year since my folks were here. One of the first things i remember about that time is the weather. It wasnt warmbut it was anything but cold. Most days my Dad would walk Ava down to the park to play. To think that we are only a few weeks away from that sort of weather really hits home that we are at the end of winter. I cant believe that our final winter here is winding down but am so ready for some warm weather again and plenty of outdoor activities.......Not before i get in a few more trips to go boarding!!

Photoshop(ed)

I have taken it upon myself to learn photoshop. Its a very useful tool to have in my line of work but till now it has all been too confusing. I have found a handful of really useful websites with tutorials but the one i am obsessed with is from a Architect Grad student that takes his sketchup drawings into photoshop and does alot of post processing on them to get an end result which is better than most would think you can achieve using photoshop. Seeing as though i do all my design work in Sketchup i wanted to check out how it can benefit me. You can see from below that it is a pretty drastic change from the standalone sketchup image. I am pretty happy with the photoshopped pictures, especially seeing as though they are very quick first attempts. Now i just have to fine tune a few things and hopefully i will be able to use some of the images inthe portpholio i am hoping to get done prior to applying for jobs back home............

Understanding Owen.....

In my time here there is 1 aspect of living in a foreign land i have learned to live with. You would think that coming from an English speaking country to another country of the same language with similarities all across the board, i would not have to deal with a language barrier.....that is not the case. I can not count the amount of times where i would be having a face to face conversatin with someone where i would speak clearly and directly to them only to have them completely misunderstand what came out of my mouth. Normally they will respond with something that has absolutelty nothing to do with the question posed or on the odd occasion they just chose not to respond. Seriously people - i am speaking the same language as you am i not - listen up or you might miss out on some pure gold!!

What would the Owen of old say??

Tonight is friday night which these days means i am going to get a kick ass workout in at the gym. I have come to love my friday night workouts as it means there is barely anybody at the gym and i can use any machine without having to wait. I can only laugh at that mentality because the Owen of 5+ years ago hated going to the gym on a friday night as it meant that my weekend was off to a boring start. How the times have changed!!

Song of the week........

Gotye = Somebody that I used to know

Family Shoot....

This past weekend we went and had yet another family photo shoot, only this time it wasnt with Jenny as she is no longer doing them. I wasnt sure what to expect going in but after seeing a few of the end results today i have to say i am pretty happy with what was done. Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks!!

Where have you been??

Its been a while since my last post.....I guess its just that time of the year. We dont have a ton of stuff going on right now. Its getting to the tail end of winter so most of our time is being locked up indoors. Its a little crazy to think that we are only a few weeks off it from being a year since my folks were here. At that point my parents were taking Ava down to the park even if they did have to be all rugged up. Just to think that within the month that is a possibility seems so far away right now as we have not had a typical Utah winter and it seems that everyone is waiting for it to come. I was really hoping for a very white winter too.....as long as it doesnt happen on my commute.

We are now satrting to plan for some trips mid year. Today we booked a trip to disneyland in May - whiuch Ash and I are really looking forward to. We decided that we are not going to tell Ava and wake up one morning and tell her to get in the car because we are going to disneyland to see what sort of response we will get. We are also starting to think forward to our yearly pilgrimage to VEGAS!! We are looking to head out for my birthday as it seems to be where i have spent it for the past few years.

Ashley went to vegas last weekend for the George Strait concert which has become an annual trip they both really enjoy, whih left me at home alone to tend 2 girls........and what a handful that was. We had alot of fun but i was extremely happy to have Ash home. Dempsey has had an ear infection and before that she had croup for a few weeks now and it seems like it has been a long time since we had a full nights sleep.......as i type this she is in her room 3 hours after we put her down screaming her head off. I just hope that she gets better soon because she hasnt been her normal bubbly self.

A part of the reason i have not been on the blogging so much since the end of last year is because i have mostly had thoughts running through my head that out of repsect to others i have not been willing to air while it was all so fresh. We informed the inlaws at the end of last year that we have been planning on relocating the family to Australia at the end of 2012. It has been a very strange few months knowing that this is our last year here in the states and i am trying to make sure that i get all of the must do things done. Its a little bittersweet as i have really come to enjoy living here and have some great family and friends, but in the end i just know that life for the family will be better in Australia. It will be extremely hard to leave as this is no longer my second home it is now my other home. I now view my time here differently - knowing that this could be the last time that i am do or see something - i find myself staring at the mountains in amazement just as i did when i moved here 5 years ago...............