So this post has two parts. One is for my sister’s graduation and the other is for my brother’s release from incarceration.

My sister graduated from the University of Utah with her Bachelor’s degree in Business Management. She immediately got a job at the University hospital administration department. She is so smart! I’m so proud of her! My whole family came in to town to have a barbeque in her behalf. It was lots of fun! We played volleyball and hacky sack, which I hadn’t played for years. My brother-in-law then barbequed some cheeseburgers and hot dogs. Yummy! It was nice to have my entire immediate family there. It’s been a long time since we were all in the same location. We took lots of pictures. This brings me to my second part of this post.

My brother has been incarcerated for the last 3 years so we haven’t seen much of him at all. He finally got out and seems to be doing very well. He seems to have his priorities and goals in order more. I really hope he stays out of trouble. I’d hate for him to go away again. I missed him. So it’s nice to see him and spend time with him again. He’s so big now…he worked out a ton while locked up. He helped me move a washer and dryer into my apartment and he carried the whole dryer by himself. Just picked it right up and put it over his shoulder. Crazy!!!

My family and I went to the drag races in Las Vegas on Saturday, April 12th. It was a blast! I had so much fun!

I got 3 autographs from some drivers and my picture taken with one of them.

It was so hot, though. I placed sun block all over my face, neck and arms, but I missed a spot. I didn’t get any in my hair line above my forehead. I’m so mad…now I have this dark red line on my head! Oh well, lesson learned.

I haven’t really followed the NHRA Drags, like on TV or anything, but I love to go watch them live. I follow NASCAR instead. The rest of my family follow the Drags, and I follow NASCAR. Oh well.

So I’m sitting at work, formatting and re-installing all my software on my computer because my hard drive crashed yesterday. As you can imagine, it’s very boring so I voiced my boredom to my coworkers and one says “Solve the rubik’s cube in 2 minutes!” Well I can’t do that, but i can try to come close, so he makes it 3 minutes instead. I haven’t tried to solve it quickly in a long time. I’ve been taking my time when solving it lately, taking like 5 minutes or so. So I mixed the cube up and he started the timer and off I went solving it as fast as I can. I got jumbled up a little for a minute and thought “there is no way I’m going to beat 3 minutes, especially with this snag I ran into”, but I kept at it. When I finished it I yelled “Done!” and my coworker told me my time. To my amazement, I had finished it in 2 minutes and 35 seconds! I’m not sure if that is my fastest time, but it felt good to solve it timed that fast. I think I’ll work on getting faster and beating that time.

I went to a Linkin Park concert a few weeks ago. It was my first concert to ever go to. I loved it! They were so awesome! I got some free tickets from my friend Robert. He bought a suite with a great view of the stage. I invited my best friend Ian from St. George to come with. Me and him were the designated drivers for the group. It was kind of fun baby sitting a bunch of drunks. Of course there was a little drama, but nothing that needs mentioned here. Anyways, I had a blast and am looking forward to the next concert I attend.

I received my copy of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard today. It’s so awesome! It’s like having a new mac. The new features are incredible. I especially love the new Spaces app which gives you multiple virtual desktops support. I haven’t tried the Time Machine yet. My plan is to purchase a new external hard drive to use with it.I also bought iLife ’08. I mostly use iPhoto and am starting to use iWeb. Both these apps have a ton more features in this version than in the previous version.

I’ll continue to play around with these new software titles and update you with any more thoughts I have later.

I recently changed the look for all of the blog websites I manage: jasonruesch.com, demonomy.com, rueschfolk.com, and ruesch.name. Check them out and let me know what you think.

This labor day weekend I traveled to Cedar Mountain near Cedar City, UT.  My family has a cabin that we built there.  We’re still doing the finishing touches on it.  It’s almost done!

I hitched a ride there and back with my sister Sharee and her family.  They just bought a new car, a 2007 Subaru Outback.  It’s way nice.  It was a comfortable trip.

We worked on the fireplace chimney while we were there.  The pipe came out of the side of the cabin and up through the roof.  We boxed it in with wood and siding.  It turned out really nice.

We also rode 4-wheelers.  My dad and brother Rick each have a couple and my brother has a dune-buggy which is also fun to ride around.  It’s really fast on straight aways.  Two of my nieces kept me busy asking me every time I turned around to let them take me for a ride on a 4-wheeler.  I didn’t mind though.  It was fun.

 I also started to teach my brother Steven how to solve the Rubik’s Cube.  I have a tutorial I started to write here.  I’m still working on it.  The moves are all correct, I just need to redo the images.

Anyways, I can’t wait until I can go to the cabin again.  I love spending time with my family.  I don’t get to see them as often as I’d like to.