Scott Chester

Today was long. I could argue I worked 12 hours straight and my feet would attest to that. I really like being able to come home and take off my shoes and I didn’t have that opportunity really today. The ribbon cutting and open house went well, I’ll have to post more on my work blog tomorrow. I then went and worked with Sister Dowden to try and jump-start this social networking and viral marketing campaign. It looks like a lot of work to get all these services going and get the viral marketing going.

I still think that we all need to ditch all these services and everyone just needs their own domain where they can incorporate whatever it is they want. I’ve got visions of having to post the same thing in 14 different sites. I’m hoping there is software that will at least do some of the cross posting for you.

After that crash course - oh, I taught her some HTML and such as well - I went to the a city council meeting to check things out. I finally made it to the Rodriguez’s for dinner and then came home to meet Sabrina and Frank to look at the house. I think Frank could make a great roommate, so I’m looking forward to that in a few weeks.

It seems like there wasn’t much time to think today as I was just running around getting things done. Temple tomorrow night. I’m thinking about the Zoo Friday or Monday and I have to figure out plans for this weekend.

Today was pretty crazy. I managed to mis-order a piece for a system that needed to go out today. Fortunately I was able to drive up to Anaheim to get a piece to make it all work. I do really like the fact that we live in a place where we can typically get anything we need within a few hours. It makes me wonder how people ever get used to living on small islands or in remote places. I’m sure they don’t lead as complicated lives and I know they enjoy themselves.

The great thing about having to run to Anaheim is that it meant I got to be in Anaheim around lunch time. You all know what that means, right? For those that aren’t geographically oriented, Anaheim is very near Buena Park. Buena Park is where Fuddruckers is located. Anaheim + Lunch time = Fuddruckers! It was so good; I mean soo good. I think the Buena Park location is just better than Oceanside. Maybe it is the bold and spicy A1, maybe it is just the years of history there. Maybe it is the grill has been seasoned to perfection. I just love it there! I got some brownies (not the cream cheese ones since they don’t have them anymore) and some buns to take home. Now I need a plan for the buns.

As I was driving back from Anaheim, I hit some traffic on the 91, as always. Shortly thereafter I saw a Caltrans marquee that said some to the effect of don’t speed, save lives, save gas. Well, as soon as we passed this sign (going well under the speed limit mind you) we were able to resume normal operations. I wonder if people slowed just for the sign or what.

I had dinner tonight with the Lee’s. This is originally what I got the buns for as I thought we were going to BBQ. Sister Lee decided to make lasagna instead, which I would never complain about! It was good to be there and I nearly lost track of time to go home teaching.

Work was pretty busy today and I didn’t make it over to the Dowden’s tonight. I called Diana on my way home and left her a message which she didn’t get until 8:30 at which point Lauren was already here. I enjoyed catching up on some blog reading and made a good number of comments out there. I don’t really have much to report though for today, so I think I’m going to sign off and get to sleep! Hopefully Shelly doesn’t try to wake me up at 4:30 again.

I second your thoughts Hilarye. It is bad enough to get stuck between two large men on a flight in the middle seat. Can you imagine if they were both talking on the phone the whole time, or if the whole flight was? I imagine that just text messaging would be bad enough since most people can’t figure out how to actually put their phones in silent.

Dotting the Map » Blog Archive » Cell Phone Usage on Commercial Airlines Banned For Good- For Now

I just have one question. Why is it that people can’t seem to control their volume when they are talking on the phone? I for one don’t want the whole world being part of my conversations typically, but I know lots of people that always get loud when they get on the phone. Is it cause we can’t see the person that we think we have to talk louder?

President Mattson was released today. It was a very emotional Sunday. When I first got to church I found his office open and empty. He had taken down all the art and the oversized comfy chairs were gone. The place was just dreary and it matched how I was feeling. I felt like a chunk of me was being taken away. President Mattson really feels like my bishop to me. He is definitely the one I have been with the longest and the only one I have gotten close with.

I was thinking back to the first time I really met him, when I interviewed him for my leadership class. I think it was then that I really determined to come back to church. I had been coming for a few weeks, but interviewing him is what got me hooked. I haven’t missed a week since. I think that is pretty remarkable coming from someone who hadn’t been in essentially a few years. I think I need to pull out a copy of that paper and give one to him. That was actually an interesting semester all around. I went through so much and learned so much. It was the only time I found LDS friends at Fullerton, both of them in the same class.

I remember taking the calling as Sunday School President and being worried about the time and having to go to meetings and so forth. I quickly learned that I never want a calling where I’m not in branch council. Even though I may not participate much, I love the insight from President Mattson and the others and the opportunity to serve with them. President Smith said today that this branch has never been about marriage; it has been about service.

President Mattson asked me what has been the most fun thing we’ve done in the branch. I wasn’t thinking spiritually and answered eventually that I’m just too busy taking pictures to really have fun. But taking the pictures is fun to me. The spiritual journey has been thrilling and really just taking it day to day has been fun. Are there things we could improve on, sure. Is this the best branch I know of, yes!

I’m happy that President Mattson and Brother Rigby are both being returned to their families. They are destined for greatness and while it will be hard for all of us to adjust, the Lords work is progressing under His direction. While I feel like I am loosing friends, I hope this just means our friendship can grow.

I’m looking forward to getting to know President Clegg and his counselors and families. This will in and of itself be an interesting and new challenge for me. Zach is leaving soon and I’ve been asked to carry forward with the elders quorum until they learn of a replacement. I guess it really is true: I was just getting comfortable, maybe too comfortable for comfort!

I went to the Dowden’s briefly this evening to make an appearance. I haven’t seen most of the Dowen clan for at least two weeks, so I felt we needed some time. Sister Dowden and I are going to work this week on getting some social networking going for CBC and I’m going to help her get a store running online for her pole vaulting tips. I came home and wrote cards to Stephanie and Tara. I really felt like writing more, but I don’t want to be a distraction. I figure smaller items more frequently are better. I do really miss Stephanie. Seeing pictures last night - and this morning in the clerks office - as well as having Chris back around have made me realize this. I hope she is doing well. Brother D and I need to make good on our threat (?) to go and see her soon.

Maybe before people decide to advertise on electronic screens they should inquire as to what is powering them. I mean, why pay to advertise how horrible windows is? We already know it crashes constantly - is it really necessary to advertise that at the gas station? Insist that your advertising displays run on a Mac. Maybe people will see what you are paying for.

I spent some time this morning catching up on blog reading and still trying to figure out twitter. I think I’m starting to get the idea behind it, although I still can’t understand what it does for me more than the status in facebook does. I guess it is just another one of those independent services we all have to deal with. I wish everyone could just have their own domain with whatever works best for them running on it sending out RSS feeds. That would I think essentially solve the need for all these different sites we have now. I realize it will never happen, but I think that is one of the reasons why I am so slow to adopt some of these new technologies/sites that others jump on right away.

I spent a good chunk of the day cleaning the house. I also spent time working on this console situation for the show this weekend among other things. I watched some TV, made some phone calls for home teaching and made orange chicken for dinner. It was essentially a pretty quiet day at home. I thought Lauren was going to come up, but she never did. Alison and I were going to try and meet for lunch, but that didn’t happen. I thought about going to dinner with Bouse, but he wanted to go to Outback and I’ve officially given up on that place. It’s hard to believe it, but I’ve actually stuck by it when I said I wasn’t going back. I can’t stand that they can’t figure out how to cook the meat right.

In fact, I would have spent the entire day at home if Maegan and Larilyn didn’t drag me out of the house to have dessert with them at Johnny Carino’s. I decided to try something new - the cannoli i think it was. It was actually pretty good, although Maegan will attest that the cake something or other she got was amazing and much better than anything I could possibly have chosen to get. This is why we had to have two desserts - so she could have the cake and I could try something new. They invited me to the movies as well. I just came home to finish off my boring day at home, home alone. I ended up watching an episode of CSI, which surprisingly, I hadn’t seen before!

And now, I can get to sleep at a reasonable time instead of still being locked in a movie theater for another 40 minutes and not getting home until tomorrow. I’m very anxious to find out what is going on tomorrow with President Mattson being released. From the calls I made today regarding home teaching, I can see that we have a lot of work cut out for us with people leaving. There were also a few who didn’t know they had assignments, which I think means that I must have never gotten the new assignments to them. I guess that is where calling comes in!

Hilarye says you can do Disneyland in one day! That’s probably true if you set your mind to it and are willing to spend a long day. I like to just go occasionally for shorter periods of time so as not to run myself into the ground.

Dotting the Map » Blog Archive » How to do Disneyland in a day

I was always under the impression that you couldn’t get a new fast pass until your current one expired. Maybe I’ll have to take some more chances and see what kind of swiping I can do. I did just learn the other day (from Larilyn) that you apparently can have one fast pass in each park which is good.

And the best time to be on a ride is during the fireworks as most of the people are lined up on Main Street to see them! I guess I’m just not all that fascinated with fireworks. You could try to do an outside ride so you could watch them at the same time though.

Today seemed pretty crazy at work. I’m still just falling farther behind on my email, although I am taking care of the important things, I hope. My desk is starting to get a bit cleaner though so that is a good thing seeing as how I need to get things ready for next Wednesday.

I came home from work and nearly fell asleep on the couch watching TV. Just as I started cooking some dinner Sister Rodriguez called and told me they were having chicken enchiladas and I said I’d be right over. I was ready for a nice quiet evening at home, but I figured a nice evening with the Rodriguez’s and the Dunagan’s would be just as good. Or maybe even a bit better since Alyssa was there tonight and I rarely get to see her. The enchiladas were amazing, so much so that I had to stuff myself with even more than I should have possibly considered eating.

We sat around and looked at old pictures and such till about 10 and now I’m working on getting to bed. Alyssa invited me to the movies tonight, and I almost went even though it would have involved being out way past my bedtime tonight. Since tomorrow is going to be a longish day at work, I figured I probably should try and get a good nights sleep. I get to work a wedding for the first time in a while, woo hoo! And on that note, I’m going to bed, before I get busted for being up just as late as I would have been if I had gone to the movies!

So it turns out that some Verizon newbie decided to just unplug my fiber the other day and that’s why it wasn’t working. The repair guy had it fixed in seconds and then mentioned that there were some other houses out as well. This guy had unplugged about five of them. It really makes you have to wonder what was going on in the guys (or girl’s) head when he was unplugging the fiber lines from the switch.

I was fairly productive working from home today until about 2 and then went to Disneyland. Larilyn and Jessica were going and they invited me along. It was pretty crowded, but I think we all had a good time. I hadn’t been in months, either since I was there with Ashley or with Kelsey and Mandi.

In any event, I need to get to sleep, so that’s all for tonight!

As I have received multiple requests for this recipe, I figure I’d better post it for everyone else who was too shy to ask!

Dot’s Blondies are a mom’s secret weapon | The San Diego Union-Tribune

Dot’s Blondies With Chocolate Chips

Makes 2 dozen

• 2 sticks unsalted butter (plus more for greasing the pan)
• 1 pound (2 cups firmly packed) light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour (see note)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped pecans, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch-by-12-inch baking pan well with butter. Set the pan aside.

Melt the two sticks of butter in a 2-quart microwave-safe bowl covered with a paper towel. Remove the bowl from the microwave, and add the brown sugar. Stir well. Add the baking powder, salt and vanilla extract, stirring until completely incorporated. Stir in the flour, again stirring until it is well mixed.

Crack the eggs into a small bowl, and beat them well with a fork or whisk. Add the eggs to the batter and stir with a spoon until they are completely incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips (and the nuts, if using).

Spread the batter in the greased pan. The batter will be stiff and sticky. You may have to spread it to the edges of the pan with the back of a spoon, but don’t worry too much about getting it exactly even, as the batter will spread as it bakes.

Bake until the top begins to get golden brown and the blondies just begin to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 20 to 25 minutes. (Baking time will vary depending on your oven and the type of pan.) Do not overbake. Cool for at least 20 minutes, and cut into small squares. Store in an airtight container or cover well with plastic wrap. These bars freeze very well and improve in flavor after the first day.

Note: To get the proper texture, do not use an electric mixer. You do not need to sift the flour, but spoon the flour into the measuring cup so as not to pack it down too much. Use the spoon handle to brush away extra flour and level the top of the measuring cup.

Start to finish: 7 minutes preparation, plus approximately 20 to 25 minutes baking time and 20 minutes cooling time.

Per blondie: 216 calories (41 percent from fat), 10 g fat (6 g saturated), 38 mg cholesterol, 2 g protein, 31 g carbohydrates, 1 g dietary fiber, 59 mg sodium.

Note: For the housewarming party I doubled the receipe and put it in an 11 x 13 glass pan I believe. I cooked them for much longer than the intended time, trying to get the inside cooked and pulled them out when the edges and top looked like it couldn’t take any more time in the heat. I also made them the day before as I think they need about 12 hours to cool so they don’t fall apart as you try to eat them. They are great hot out of the oven as well though!

This funky looking huge thing just went rolling up the street with a semi pushing it as well as pulling it! It had 4-5 police cars escorting it and some truck driving in front making sure the path was clear high enough for it as well. I didn’t get a really good look at it unfortunately though to figure out what the heck it could have been. I’m almost guessing it has something to do with the new overpass they are putting in just up the street, but that is only a total guess and maybe not much of a good once sine I didn’t see anyone working there tonight.

Today seemed to cruise by in the office. Batch and I went to the chamber for lunch and I won free advertising in the lobby. I went to the Rodriguez’s for dinner tonight and then went to try and do some home teaching with Zach. The three people we tried to visit all seemed to be MIA.

I was thinking about taking tomorrow off and going to Disneyland, but I couldn’t find anyone to go. Actually, I guess I never tried that hard as I think I only talked to Kelsey about it and we pretty much determined that she has no time for me. I told her we could make a quick trip in the evening, but I don’t think she thinks it would be worthwhile. I guess we’ll just have to see.

Verizon may be forcing me to take the day off though. My Fios wasn’t working when I got home from work today. The fail light is just flashing. I called tech support and they didn’t know what was going on with it. When it was working at 10 o’clock tonight, they decided they had better send a tech out, sometime between 8 and 2 tomorrow. That’s essentially the whole day! Now, trust me, I’m game with playing hooky tomorrow, I just want someone to play hooky with!

Today seemed like a long day at work. I miss doing Tara’s job, it is so much more fun than my own. I did start to get my desk cleaned up a bit, which was good and am starting to catch up on my email. It was just a boring day though.

I came home and got started with laundry. Batch came over and we made spaghetti and meatballs and then watched The Illusionist. I had watched about half of it Saturday night before watching videos of Natalie Wiess. I must admit I was a bit busy text messaging and not paying too much attention to the movie the first time around either. I was really impressed with the movie tonight though and was not expecting the end at all. There isn’t much to say that wouldn’t ruin the movie, let’s just say I was happy that I couldn’t see the ending from the beginning.

President Smith talked today about how we don’t need to be perfect, we just need to have our life in order. I have the exact quote downstairs, I’m just not going down to get it now. Zach had earlier pointed out that the church isn’t a retirement community for saints, it is instead a hospital for sinners. How true both of these statements are and yet how often do we not think of it that way.

Today went pretty well. There was some disappointing news I would almost have rather not received. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan though and we just can’t see it from here. President Mattson is going to be released next week. I almost felt this was coming recently and when he said something about changes in the office during branch council this morning I almost knew it for sure. For some reason I didn’t think about that when I saw President Smith on the stand, I think I just had too much on my mind at that point.

The rest of the day went well. My family came over for dinner tonight. Well, they brought the pizza and just wanted a place to eat it. I really enjoyed walking to branch prayer tonight. I almost felt as if I was in rexburg walking down the street to prayer. That was great! I had a good time talking with Brother Lee before anyone else got there as well.

Let’s backtrack a bit here. I don’t remember much of Friday other than the girls wanted to come over for a quiet night at home. It was just Larilyn, Maegan and I to start it off. Melissa joined us and then so did Megan. They kept me up way too late and then I did not sleep well all night. Lauren says it is cause I was thinking about her, which is probably true.

Lauren came up after building cleanup on Saturday and we hung out together for most of the day. She was supposed to be coming up to go to the activity, but when we got to that point of the day, she decided she didn’t want to go. There were lots of people at the activity, although I don’t think most of them were actually doing anything on the inflatables.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints just released a full statement on the marriage proposition (Proposition which aims to amend the Constitution of the State of California to define marriage as between a man and a woman.

I don’t have much to say on the matter other than we need to do all we can to support this and I probably haven’t been doing all that I can do. California voters already voted eight years ago that marriage should be between a man and a woman and four judges from San Francisco possibly put their own interests above that of the voters and ruled that unconstitutional. We need to turn out and vote to make sure this proposition is passed so we can protect marriage.

The Church and this proposition are not against gays. This measure is not intended to attack or take away rights as some may incorrectly believe. We are simply trying to define marriage as being a union between a man and a woman, as ordained by God. Gays will still have the rights they have as far as domestic partnerships, the advantages of tax law, etc. We are worried about what will happen if marriage is not clearly defined. What will our kids be taught in school? How is the next generation going to be raised? What are they going to be learning?

Please get educated and pray about the appropriate action to take on this measure. This document from the Church is a great resource to start to understand what is at stake.

The Divine Institution of Marriage - LDS Newsroom

I only recently came to understand how serious this measure is. Some have asked about the seperation of church and state on this issue. First, I think that when government tries to interfere with a religious institution or right such as marriage, the state has already gotten things messed up. However, it was pointed out to me that even if this is as issue that should be separated, that simply shows how much this means that The Church and other churches are willing to cross that line to do all that they can to support this proposition.

Vote Yes on Proposition 8 to protect marriage in California this November.

Not much to report today. Things were pretty quiet in the office. I’ve been talking about blogging for work for a while and I think I am going to actually get started. I wrote my first post today although it was more of a note and less of a post, congratulating the guys at Quantum for earning rep of the year.

I had a nice quiet evening at home tonight and am hoping to get a good night’s sleep tonight as I was really tired today. I think I’ve determined that the mood I’m in when I go to sleep has a huge effect on me the next day. I guess it is true that you should never go to sleep angry. Monday night I was excited/happy and I think it was the best night’s sleep I’ve had for a while. The rest of the week hasn’t compared and this morning I even got up late. I think I totally slept through my alarm.