Summer fun-

So..... the time came for me to go camping with a few dude friends... We went up American Fork Canyon and did some 4x4ing.... It was quite amazing. Way short trip considering we were not even gone for 24 full hours... So above is a picture of me and Brad in front of an abandoned mine at probably 7800 FT - What is amazing is that people used to mine this area way before the invention of the car. It took us 2 hours to drive up to this mine in a jeep equipped with 4x4 capabilities and some wicked suspension- Below is another shot of Brad and I looking at the top of the mountains we were exploring- The point we were looking at was the VERY top of the mountain...so SUPER cool!  Enjoy.... I do need to take my little family camping at some point.. Nature is too cool to go un-explored.

The Race I didn't Run :(

Yes...Most of you know I did not get to participate in the good old fashioned Ragnar Race last weekend. I decided it was not worth risking long term injury, so I sat it out. It sounds like the team had a decently good time as they are very close to signing up for next year. The crazy thing is they have to sign up on Monday or there will be no "next year." I think I have a spot on the team next year and it sounds like the team will be expanded to 2 teams... I believe the Otter Pops will have 2 teams. I am very hopeful that I have a spot and starting today.... I will begin training for reals. I now know what not to do in order to stay healthy and not over-train too close to the fact. I have less than 1 year to get into Ragnar shape- Along the way I hope to get in half Marathon shape as well.. since I intend to run a half marathon as well.... It all starts with the Neff Family Run for fun run of fun runnning just for the fun of it 10 K 2012 July @ Wolf Creek...!!!

On a completely different and totally unrelated note - I also lived out one of my dreams this morning. Have you ever seen a movie where the main character is locked out of a room? Usually there are 2 ways to deal with the problem. 1) Take the gun and shoot the door open. 2) Kick the door open by kicking right where the door knob is... So I don't have a gun and this seems a bit overkill. I do however have legs of steel and Raw power...so I did what any rational sleep deprived man would... I kicked the freaking door open >:) I am sure my wife will not be super pleased to hear this news...and I am sure there will be some sort of backlash. Oh well! There is a lesson to be learned here - If one doesn't respond to a text stating that the bathroom door is locked there is a good chance that a door might become a victim of sleep deprived and tired..RAGE!

I am in trouble...I think-

So, as many of you know I am preparing to run this insane race thingy called Ragnar. I have been training and Saturday (yesterday) was a big test for me. I decided to run UP Millcreek Canyon for 4.5 miles and then attempt to run back down the same distance- This I did attempt, but not without some heartache. I got up the canyon just fine... slowly, but I made it up without too much trouble. Midway down (around Mile 6.5) I felt this sudden SHARP pain in the left (outer) side of my knee.. not on top..the outside. I stopped running and decided to see if I could stretch it out (maybe I pulled a muscle in my knee? I don't know I'm not a Doctor) As I was stretching a couple of runners stopped and asked me if I was OK.. I told them about the pain and they suggested I messed up my IT band? They recommended a few stretches and a few minutes to cool down and then to try running again..
I did as they suggested, and to my surprise it seemed to go away after 10 minutes of stretching...so I started back down the canyon.. around mile 7.75 it came back WITH A VENGEANCE!!!!! This time I couldn't stretch it out, or rest it out...I couldn't hardly walk. I then decided to call it quits and have Eva come and pick me up.
I got home and took some pain killers... this helped a little bit and I decided it might be a good idea to go for a bike ride to work those IT band muscles. This I also did with little to no trouble. We rode about 10 miles on the Jordan Parkway. And everything was good, still soar and mild pain...but good.
Last night I went to bed with mild pain in the Iliotibial band area of my knee - I slept until about 6:00 am and then woke up to the most dull / achy pain I have ever felt.. I decided to try something... Just answer a simple question- Can I run? The answer....^&%(*&^& no :( I really can't , it HURTS like the dickens! I have 2 weeks until Ragnar? Will I be able to recover from Iliotibial band syndrome? Or should I bail out of the race?? Maybe I should see a medical professional??? 


...To be continued

Long Time....Sad times (ish)

Dear Blog - I used to think that the world of Sports talk radio was a safe Haven from unnecessary change and childish selfishness and 0 Loyalty to the "listeners." Well.....I was WRONG...dead wrong! Tuesday was one of the WORST days I have had to deal with as a fan of OBJECTIVE sports talk radio. My favorite station 1280 the zone (97.5thezone FM) announced that they were essentially ending their reign as Utah's only independent and objective radio programming. 1320 KFan (the subjective home of the Utah Jazz) as directed by LHM media group bought out the only voice of independence and has turned them in to Utah's ONLY voice for local sports radio. [no offense to ESPN700 home of the Utes and RSL #soccerissuperlame] - but they are barely local programming. 1280 the zone was all day from 6:00 am - 6:00 pm local independent sports talk. Nobody @ the old 1280 was paid by any sports team. Now the new 1280 #weareallJazzhomers is being paid by the LHM media group which is part of LHM which owns the Jazz. Here is my list of why this all sucks!

1) No more Kyle Gunther...he was the best Sports Talk Radio Host in the state hands down - not only that but he is Hilarious and really makes Sports talk entertainment-
2) I CANNOT STAND DJ AND PK... now I will try to be more precise- Hans Olsen and Sean O'Connell were 100% better in the morning than DJ/PK --PK has got to be one of the biggest TOOLS on this earth. I would rather listen to silence than hear him talk about how great he is...he is not great PK is THE SUCK!!!!
3) Gordon Monson is the EPIC creeper behind this whole thing. I used to be able to tolerate Gordon because Jake Scott made the show fun. Gordon is a MASSIVE Hypocrite!! He sold out his independent voice to be part of the Machine. A machine that I will rage against every time I get in my car. I guess I need to start learning Spanish in the car as opposed to staying informed in the Sports world now that there is no objective voice in Sports...this includes you Mr Gordon! It is a very simple equation -> you are now paid by the Jazz you are the voice of the Jazz...subjective...PERIOD!

I could go on...but I won't. I just want the record to state that a part of me died when 1280 the zone was laid to rest and then resurrected and the 1280 the zone the sports leader was created from it's ashes only without the TRUE talent that they had before this murder was committed. AAAAAARRRRRRGGGHHHHHHH!

I never thought I would see the day..

1999

 Two words....but first a story -> So as many of you know I am a fan of a very few television programs. One of which is NBC's The Voice, so I am watching this show and they announce a guest appearance from a group called The Wanted.. They sang a song that sounded familiar. I suppose I had heard them on the radio at some point. But it wasn't the song as much as it was the sound and even more than that it was what I saw. The Wanted a group of 5 dudes...singing a song together, each with their own mic. What was happening????? Has it really been that long that the powers that be have decided to bring back "the boy band." I had to consult with the interwebs.. Sure enough according to the wikipedia and I quote "The Wanted are a British-Irish boy band. " There was one last thing that I had to see to prove my theory...a music video. So I fired up youtube and searched for the wanted. Within about 5 seconds of watching the video for a song called Heart Vacancy.. I knew that my fear had been confirmed- 2012 is the year that we DIG so deep into the bag of old redos that we are back to boy bands?? One word- REALLY????? REALLY?????? It's bad enough that Hollywood can only muster sequels and crappy re-makes of 80s movies. Now music is running backwards? How long before disco pops back up on us? I am a fan of Glee but their disco episode still just...sucked! I hate disco and disco...SUCKS! Ok- I am going to hop off my soap box, but be warned...boy bands are not sustainable music- one day we will hear these songs at the local supermarket Or in an elevator. The proof is in the pictures...

1999

 

2012

10K Plan Update!

Hello there all of you all-- Last week I was up @ Wolf Creek staying in my parents time share (many thanks to my parents), and I wanted to see if I could find a good route for a Neff Family Summer Fun Run for Fun 2012 Family Vacation Run for Fun (NFSFR4F2k12FVR4F) <- Sweet Acronym... and as it turns out the great city of Ogden has provided the perfect trail for us. It starts at the bottom of Ogden Canyon (Rainbow Gardens Area) and goes to downtown Ogden- 3.2 miles in 3.2 miles back = 6.4 miles total! Which is a little more than a 10K! So...Eva and I are going to make some shirts for all of you who want to participate (if you can't come because you are in PT Grad school...have no fear - we will still make you a shirt). What I need from you is a shirt size preference so we can get rolling on this :) And PS-- running 6.4 miles is a long run, if you haven't run for a while it may be time to start training and preparing to run a 10K.. and if you don't think you can do it- you can run the 5K and go one way-> I am sure we can make it work :) Ok! Looking forward to this- End of July is the go date..which means you all have plenty of time to prepare-- Take a look at the countdown above :)

Running...more Running

So yesterday at work I was talking with one of my co-workers who is a "runner." He has run a marathon before and is planning on running another one this summer. He also intends to run the Ragnar? Which to me sounds like a creature from Star Wars and not a race. So I started talking about that and he has a few vacancies on his team. What is the Ragnar? http://www.ragnarrelay.com/about That gives some insight to what the Ragnar is- It sounds like it is something I could do if I had the right team....Maybe this year that means running with my co-worker- but next year...We should do a Neff Family to the X-tremem Dream Team Ragnar running company!! This gives us a year to prepare to take on this challenge- I think we should do it with 12 people- 200 miles / 12 people = 16.67 miles, which is divided in to 3 legs so approximately 5.5 miles per leg. All of this is done is a 48 hour stretch. My math here is based on averages but I would say if you can run a 6-8 mile stretch you could help make team NF2tXDTRco all winners! So..my challenge to all of you reading this is to think about June 2013 and the Ragnar! Let's commit to it now and start preparing- please comment on this thread if you are interested in making this commitment :)

Running..10K here I come!

Welcome March and welcome Spring! I look forward to spring for a myriad of reasons, first and foremost is the fact that very soon it will be warmer than freezing all the times. So today after a long break from running (like 6 days) I decided it was time to see how far I could run before I just had no more strength left in me. Lucky for me Gold's Gym has the Cardio Cinema! Which makes running for a long period of time more bearable. They were showing some weird movie with some weird people in it, believe it or not they were also doing weird things. Like this dude was trying to save the minister's daughter and so he basically murders everyone in his stinking way and then gets the girl. At any rate- I ran! I warmed up for like 3 minutes and went a distance of .15 then I ran for the next 47 minutes straight. In that time I was able to run 4.70 miles! So 10 K (which is like 6.2 miles is not that far off). I had to prove to myself that I could run for a long span of time and put some serious miles on the treadmill. Well I did! Basically I should be able to hit 6.2 miles by the end of the month at the rate I am progressing. Moral of the story.....watching movies in a theater like room makes running somewhat less of the suck.

Family is the Awesome!

This will likely be my last post for this month..unless something AMAZING happens in the next 3-4 days. I do want to take a moment and say that Family = the AWESOME! What a brilliant concept that we all exist in a unit together. I am SUPER lucky to have not only a great family, but a really good/open/honest/real relationship with them all. To be in a partnership with my soul mate and have a family of my own is also just brilliant. I truly feel like I had a tender bonding type moment with Brighton (my 5 year old). He is a fairly large fan of a silly video game called plants VS zombies, and he always talks about how he and his uncle Christopher play it on the PS3 out in Riverton. Well...I have an Xbox 360 which has the same version of plants vs zombies as the PS3 does. So the other night I decided to purchase it and download it to my Xbox 360. When I showed Brighton that we could now play it and play it together he was super excited! We played for about 1.5 hours and it was swell- He must have told me a dozen times that he Loved that we could finally play together. On the way home from Riverton he told my wife a few more times how happy he was that he could "play plants vs zombies with daddy."

I think that is one of the few times where Brighton and I were able to just have fun doing something we both enjoyed. There is a massive difference between us playing through in a co-op mode and him forcing me to play the game while he watches..  I can say that anyone who wonders why people decide to procreate and have children has not experienced the joy that I felt as Brighton told me how happy he was that we could play "together." I think that the key to this is that it didn't really matter what we were playing it was the fact that he, as a son go to play with his dad. I know I am getting a little soft on this post, but guess what? This is my blog and I can go soft if I want to. And the road I am going down right now leads to a very soft place. On a side note I may have found the solution to my flat feet issues. Kent is an Orthopedic Massage Therapist and seems to think he can take some of my pain away..I have a visit with him on Thursday and really have high hopes. He worked wonders with Eva so here's to the future :)

Glee...yes I am a Gleek-

Holy cow Blog-0-sphere! I was sitting here on a Friday night after watching the mid season finale of Glee and being completely burned out from a LOOOONG week at CSD and I had an a-ha moment...Glee is one of the best TV shows I have ever seen. Now some of you out there are laughing at me for openly admitting I am a massive Glee fan, that is fine- Do you want to know why Glee is the best? MUSIC!!!!! The music is brilliant- Right now I am listening to a mash-up from Tuesday night.  “Fly” by Nicki Minaj and Rihanna and R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly.” Was one of the most brilliant songs they have ever put together! WOW! There are always a few songs every episode that are simply the "suck." Yet there are others that are just incredible. Generally speaking the music makes me feel good. and that is really that! 
On another note- I had more to say but I am too tired to say them...so you will all have to wait, until I gear up and Blog again-

PS- I take NO credit for this sweet picture- It is awesome and I didn't create it, all the credit goes to Alexisneo?

Zachy is the suck at sleeping

By now, I have learned 1 thing about child #3 -> Zach has proven that he hates sleep! I don't know how this happens or what would cause a 19.5 lb 7 month old baby-head to think that sleep is a waste of his time. It's not like he has anything better to do with his time. He can't crawl yet, he cant's roll from his back to his stomach, so he is not what I would call a mobile baby yet. He scoots around on his can-can from time to time but rarely gets very far- so I ask you Zach...WTH do you have against sleeping? It is 8:34 pm and he hasn't had a decent night sleep in 4 days- I am SOOOO tired my eyes are burning while I write this blog. My head is pounding because of sleep DEPRIVATION. It's like my bed has a set time that it needs me to be in it sleeping and instead, because of the "taco-baby", I have to abscond from that meeting and stay up. Absconding from my bed is also...the suck. So...please Zach...I beg you with every fiber of my ever living being to sleep tonight. And if you choose to wake up..do so quitely so I don't have to wake up with you. If anyone out there reading my BLOG would like to take mercy on me and let me sleep somehow- I welcome it, I welcome you, I welcome not absconding from my appointment with my bed to sleep. That is all I want right now-just a baby that isn't a sleep H8TR!

Last Saturday was a FIRST!

Yes Friends... Last Saturday (Feb 4th, 2012) was a first for me. Actually, now that I think about it, there were a couple of firsts. How many of us out there have actually ever seen a Segway in person? I never had, until Saturday. One of the demo's was a test drive on a Segway. Even though I was merely providing tech support I decided to take a break and check the Segways out. For the first time in my life..I saw a Segway. That wasn't enough for me though- I wanted to ride on the Segway. I pretended I was in that session and I got in line. They had about 5 Segways and I got a turn to ride one. Holy Cow! Those things are crazy- It feels like the Segway is mentally connected to you as the movements to get them moving are very subtle. Lucky for me there was a teacher there that I knew and I asked him to get some footage of me riding the Segway- and now I am putting it on my BLOG :) Enjoy the video clip which I spiced up thanks to good old Windows Live Movie Maker and an iPhone 4- If you ever are presented with the chance to test out a Segway, I highly recommend giving it a try. Needless to say, you will NOT regret it. Good bye for now friends-

Zachary Ryan Neff

Yes.. I have 3 boys. Eva and I have not figured out how to make a girl.. Zachy is my little Tank child. He is 6 months old and weighs almost 20 LBS..He also is off the charts in height. He likes to cry, he loves his mom, he hates not being mobile, and he loves eating solid Foodz.. Indeed he is a real live Taco baby-

Austin "Jimmer" Neff

Austin James Neff is 3 years old and is also FULL of energy. He loves his older brother and his younger brother- He also enjoys pretending to be his favorite characters like Ratchet from Ratchet and Clank, Clank from the same game, Kirby, and a Zombie. One of my favorite memories of Austin is when he used to say sponge bob like this  "ro-bop"..it was EPIC!!

Brighton K Neff

I have 3 Kids... this post is a silly picture of Brighton Kenneth Neff. He is 5 years old and gets easily obsessed with things (mostly games). Currently he is in Kindergarten and he loves Portal 2 Co-Op, Plants VS Zombies, reading his books from school, and playing with his Brothers-

Welcome to my Blog!!

Dear World Wide WebERzz-:> I was reading in my mission journals and realized how much value there is in a written record of life/events and what have you. I looked at my last journal entry in my "book of life" and the date was SHOCKING!!! Ready? March 22nd..2009!!! yeah Almost 3 years has passed since I recorded anything to the world. So??? who cares? does anybody out there even care? Well one day, maybe..just maybe Brighton/ Austin / Zach may care to read about my life and who I was. Reading my mission journals has taught me a few things-
1) I was a paranoid schizophrenic Psycho-Hosed-Beast on my mission at times.
2) I wrote way too much CRAP about girls who are completely IRRELEVANT to me and my life as it is currently.
3) I also wrote enough good stuff that I can now look back and see how I became the man I am today. My mission actually did shape me into a semblance of who I am today.
4) Lastly, if I had not written those things down, they would be completely LOST for the rest of this earthly life.
All in all, I think blogging will be a good use of time when I am looking through my Steam games library and nothing looks appealing to play. (Like tonight) - I will never give up, What am I fighting for? There must be something more...for all these words I write, do you feel anything? Song Lyrics...why express myself when other artists do it without me having to actually think?

In the end (or in this blog the beginning) I will try and blog when I have time so that my thoughts are now part of the VAST expanse that is the World Wide WebernetZz--