Vacation '09 According to Michael

Friday the 24th of April found me in Bountiful, UT, waking up early to go down to Provo to watch Joseph's Convocation.  It was entertaining and enlightening to me to learn about what it takes to be a proffessor of physics at BYU, which I learned at a luncheon provided by the physics department and talking to Proffessor Turley.  Straight afterwords, I went down to 

Joseph's apartment, where we wrapped up packing and attached a super overloaded trailer to Mother's suburban.  It was loaded twice the rating of the trailer.  This would bring issues later on.

We headed off into the stormy sunset, but only got ten miles before we realized that we needed to do something about the trailer, which was

 swaying dangerously anytime we got above 40 mph.  We got a new, ten inch drop hitch, and set off again.  It was much better, allowing for a consistent 45 mph.  This was most encouraging, implying that we may very well actually get to Texas, the trailer's destination.  However, just an hour outside of Moab, UT, our nice trailer decided to lose its left wheel.  It actually rather exploded.  Very interesting to look at.  We were blessed to be right next to a rest area, so we pulled in, killed our

 jack, called in the cavalry (Maren's brother Thomas and friends) who were not able to help, and stayed the night.

The next morning, a very kind man with just the right equipment got us back on the road,

 and not needing to leave the trailer.  We drove to Moab, got a UHaul truck, loaded everything into it, and drove to Monticello, where we left the trailer and got a quick taste of Uncle Jim's motorcycle.  They are really fun, though I personally would be scared to death to actually control one.  Then we were off!  We headed out and in Albequerque, NM Joseph and Maren left our small caravan, leaving only Mother and me in the truck.  The reason for this departure was that all involved felt that they should be in their new ward as soon as possible.  They drove through the night, arriving in Irving, TX a mere two

 hours before church.  Mother and I drove till about one in the morning, pulled off and slept until about 7.

We drove to a rest area where we cleaned up and got ready for church.  We found a branch in a town called Childress, TX.  It was a very interesting, spiritual meeting, and Mother and I both felt the spirit there.  Right after sacrament meeting, though, we headed off to beat the storm and be somewhat timely in our arrival in

 Irving, TX.  We got there about 2-3 ish, and unloaded stuff Joseph and Maren's stuff.  We also had dinner at Joseph and Maren's new home.  I must say that I like their house, and am looking forward to getting a house (and a family to put inside said house) when I am older and probably in graduate school somewhere.  But that is later.  After we ate, cleaned, de-odered and met the neighborhood, we took off for Jackson, MS.  We arrived at 3:00 in the morning, but Uncle Daniel and Aunt Dorinda were most kind and got up to talk to us for an hour anyway.  They also asked us to sleep for a while and eat something, but I had neice and nephew, and Mother had grandson and granddaughter waiting, and we decided to hurry along.

By this time, we only had the suburban, and we had four drivers.  That's right,

 we pulled an all nighter again, taking shifts driving and sleeping.  We got to Columbus, OH just before dinner.  We had Jeeshki, or however you spell it, and were most grateful to Crystal for making it for us.  Mmm-mmm, is that stuff good!  Then we talked for a while, and then went to bed.  Ah, how wonderful beds are.  Mine wasn't quite inflated enough, but it was still a lot better than sleeping on a seat belt buckle.

Tuesday found me with a quandary at 6:45 in the morning, which felt like 4:45 to me.  Either I could sleep in or I could go with Jordan to buy a shed.  I decided that memories and time spent with family that doesn't 

live nearby are more important and valuable than sleep, so I got up and went and bought a shed.  After we bought it, we came back and built it!  It was great.  I really enjoy building things.  That comment might get me into a lot of work in the future, but oh well.  After that, we all piled into several cars and drove to Graeter's Ice Cream, and took a tour.  It was very interesting.  We also found out that Clara is a flirt!  We would have done other things 

as well, but it was raining, so we decided to forgoe those options.  We came back to David and Megan's house and had lunch.  It was way

 tastey, as well!  Then I took a nap.  Or would have, except Clara is

 so fun to play with!  I got a little sleep in, but I think I spent most of the time entertaining and being entertained by my adorable neice.  That night, Mother took us all out to this German all-you-can-eat buffet, and it was overly delicious.  I got rather full that night.  Everything was good (except I wasn't a big fan of the sausage stew), but my favorite by far was the bean and 

bacon soup.  Simple, but soups hit chords with me.  Then we went

 back to Jordan's

 house and watched Planet Earth on Jordan's new 50 inch plasma TV.  Very nice.  Very nice, indeed.  We even watched it on a blueray

 player.  Then I went to sleep again.

Wednesday we got up, and got out.  We took something to a neighbor's daughter, who lived in

 Columbus, OH, took Jordan to school (not correct order) and left town.  We drove straight from Columbus, OH to Bountiful, UT.  That took us all of Wednesday and part of Thursday.  But we got

 there!  But before Mother could get home to her meeting, she was kind enough to drive me to Provo, where my vacation formally ended, and I was ready to get to work!

It's interesting how vacation is so wonderful, because you look forward to it, and enjoy it, but by the time it is over, you are looking forward to work, and you enjoy work more because of it.

That was our vacation, according to me!

Happy Birthday, Jordan!

The End is Near

It is now finals week, and I have yet to take any of my six finals!  For those who don't know, I am going to be taking finals for a Java programming class, a differential equations class, a scientific experimental methods class, a modern physics class, a US government class and a history of creativity class.  I don't know how I will do.  I believe that I will do well, but I rather doubt that I will be getting a 4.0 this semester, but it could still happen!

I am really excited for the semester to end, because I am going to be going to Ohio to visit my brothers and their families there!  I have yet to see where they live, as last summer I was working at scout camp.  This summer I will be staying in Provo and will be tutoring physics.

Life is good.  Oh, for the history of creativity class, I had to make a project.  My project that I did was to teach my younger siblings about relativity not using math.  Here is a clip from it.  I don't think you want the whole thing, as it is about 40 minutes long.

Potatoe Fest #2!

So, this week we did a student designed experiment in my Physics 145 class.  We decided that we were going to find out the internal resistance of a potatoe battery.  So we brought a bundle (26) potatoes and one lemon, brought out the pennies and zink-screws and built a potatoe battery!  When we connected them all together we got a 20.7 volt battery!  Sadly, the internal resistance is huge (we aren't quite sure yet what it is; we are going to finalize it this week) that there is practically no current.  We measured the current in micro-Amps.

This is the full battery, minus the lemon, that we built.  We tried to light a diode with it, but there wasn't enough current.  So, we charged a capacitor for about 12 seconds, and discharged it through the diode, and it turned on for a moment.  It was lots of fun.

Interstate 15

Here is the interstate from my description.

Introduction

Well, this is my first blog that I have created and my first entry, so I suppose that I should explain why I am doing this.

My brothers and sisters have created blogs, but most of them are from my married siblings.  I think this is fine, as I don't get the chance to see them very often, as two of them live in Ohio.  Then my younger sister, Kathryn, made a blog.  She is not married.  I thought, Wait, she's not married, but she still has a blog!  So I decided that it wasn't だめ for me to get one, too.  But I still didn't particularly want one until I got married.

Then came today, Sunday 22 March 2009.  I 

was looking about my siblings' blogs and realized that I kind of wanted one too.  I suppose I finally just caved in.  So, here it is.

For those who don't already know me, my name is Michael Boone Muhlestein, I am currently 22 years old, served and LDS mission to Japan, Nagoya, have a strong and abiding testimony of the truthfullness of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, am currently studying physics at Brigham Young University, trying to date and eventually get married, really like food in general and in specific, come from a family of 11 children, all of whom I love, and two parents, who are amazing.  I have been truly born of goodly parents who love the Lord.

So, here I am, ready to attempt at keeping up a semi-current blog as to what I either do or think.  May it turn out alright.