Today, August 21st, is National Spumoni Day. I bought some Spumoni ice cream yesterday to celebrate with today at work but I forgot to bring it in to work. Thanks to Mel for being so dang amazing, she went to the Spaghetti Factory on her lunch break, and bought a big gallon of Spumoni ice cream for us at work. She is the best.

I highly recommend getting the Spumoni from the Spaghetti Factory, and not getting the Dreyers brand. But for the sake of pictures, I am showing the Dreyers stuff I got.

Here are some more pics of me getting my hair put in cornrows. Me and the nice lady who did it, named Nefina (or Nephina, I'm not really sure), had a nice chat throughout the whole process. You may see me smiling in some of the pictures, but don't be fooled. It really hurts pretty bad when they do it, because to get nice tight braids, you have to pull the hair pretty hard. It was still totally worth it. Tons of people have given me really strange looks. Especially when we went to Raging Waters the day after. Anyway, enjoy the pictures, even if i did go overboard, and put too many on here.

Here are a couple of pictures from Raging Waters. My friend Nate reminded me of a funny truth. That truth is, as a kid, you just don't notice certain details because you are completely distracted by the fun. As kids, we never realized how run down and kind of dumpy Raging Waters looks in certain spots. Besides that, it was still really fun to spend a day there, messing around, and getting some sun.

One last pic of the cornrows taken out. For some reason I'm reminded of Lionel Richie. I don't know why.

I enjoy changing up my hair and appearance on a regular basis (heck, look at my profile pic). I've always said that your hair was something to play around with. I usually go through the cycle of buzzing my head and then growing it back out long again. Once the hair is long, I like to do funny haircuts, with the Mullet style being one of the funniest, in my opnion. Well this time, I decided that I would go and get my hair put in some cornrow braids. I just wanted to at least try it, and see what I would look like with them. I think it looks sweet.

There are few things better than going to Lake Powell. You really can't beat just relaxing on the houseboat, playing in the sun, and getting some early morning skiing sessions. We usually go to Wahweap instead of Bullfrog, and that is just fine with me. Personally I think the scenery is better at the Wahweap end of the lake anyway. Our spot this year was in Gunsight Bay, near Cookie Jar, and it was a really good spot.

We got shade as early as 5:30 in the evening which was great. Interestingly enough, every evening between 4 and 6, a storm would come by with blustery wind and some rain. After the storm passed, everything cleared up, and it made the evening really cool and refreshing. It also made for some really nice nights sleeping out on top of the houseboat, and gazing up at the stars.

This is the scene I woke up to one of the mornings.

If you have never been to Lake Powell, I highly recommend going. You won't be disappointed. And, you will never want to step foot into another cold mountain lake again. The water temperature at Powell is usually high 70's to mid 80's.

I'm not the best wakeboarder by any means, but I enjoy wakeboarding. That is, when I'm not smacking my face really hard on the water, and getting the wind knocked out of me. It happens more that I'd like to admit. Well enough talking, and on to what you are really looking forward to, more pictures.

Here is Mel skiing it up. Notice Cookie Jar rock in the background.


This was Mel's first time at Powell, and we made sure we got the most of every minute of it. We went on the Molecule tube and i'm pretty sure she broke her thumb while trying to hold on. She's so tough though, she just kept on going.

We went to the Big Sandy Hill one morning too. Pretty original name huh?

Here are some more sunrise pictures that I messed around with the lighting and editing.

I finally finished my custom paint job on my scooter helmet. I had an idea that I wanted to paint the helmet the colors of Neopolitan ice cream, which is chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry colors. When I told my friend Kyle about this, he reminded me of the old Italian ice cream flavor, Spumoni. After searching online quickly to clear up the question of what the exact flavors for Spumoni are, I decided that was the pattern for me. Chocolate, Pistachio, and Cherry.For a very short explanation about Spumoni ice cream, check the Spumoni Wiki page.

I decided to go for the Spumoni colors, since I was going to get the green color for my milk crate anyways(see an earlier post for info). Here are the photos, and I'll get to the process explanation after them.

I started by removing everything possible from the helmet. This meant the visor, the front air vent, and the plastic grommet/seam. Once I had all this removed I taped up the remaining visor snaps and the 4 rivets. These were a little difficult, but that's because I was being too much of a perfectionist. Next I taped up the inside lining of the helmet using a cutout piece of a poly bag. After everything was taped up nicely, I used #400 sandpaper, and I sanded off the clear coat that was already on the helmet. I wasn't trying to sand deep into the helmet, but just take off the clear coat, so I could have something for my base coats of paint to stick to.

After sanding, I measured the helmet and divided it into thirds, one section for each color. Then, with more of the poly bag, I carefully taped off the two outer sections. The first color I put on the helmet was the pistachio(really more of an avocado, but in talking about the Spumoni, it's pistachio). I put on 4 coats of the base coat paint, with the intention that I was going to put on a clear coat at the very end. Then I repeated the steps for the cherry (pink) and chocolate (brown) colors. Each time, I just carefully taped off the sections I didn't want to get sprayed. Actually on the brown, I messed up, and got lint in the first coat, so I had to use paint thinner to remove the first coat and start again. I recommend you don't do that. Just a suggestion.

Finally I got the clear coat with hardener. This stuff is only good for about 12-24 hours in the spray can, so you have to use it the same day. I gave the helmet a medium first coat, and then waited about 30 mins, before putting on a nice thick full coat.

The whole process only took my about a week to complete, and that was mostly waiting time for each coat to dry. I love the way it turned out. For such a simple paint job, I think I came out with a great final result.

This is a request for your help. As you can see from my last post, I have a sweet new scooter, but I now have a dilema. What name do I give my new scooter? I was racking my brain, and I couldn't come up with a good name, so I figured I would open it up to you for suggestions. I was thinking something along the lines of a good Italian name.

Let me know what good names you can come up with and after I get a bunch of ideas, I'll select one and let you all know the name for which my scooter will be known throughout the records of the chur.......wait that's a different situation of name giving. I'll just put another post with the official name of my scooter.

Just about a month and a half ago, I purchased a Genuine Brand scooter. The model is a Buddy International, version Italia. I have to say that it has been a fantastic purchase. Since getting it, i have also added a performance exhaust and air intake kit to boost the horsepower. It's so much fun to go cruising on it, and it is perfect for my commuting.

I went to a local autobody paint store, and had them match the avocado green color so I could paint the milk-crate you see attached to the back on the chrome rack.

Stay tuned to my coming scooter updates, because I am currently custom painting my helmet.