No, it's not just a whim

So I told Melody this week that I want to buy a pet tiger. She wasn't enthusiastic.

No, seriously... this is not as obtuse as you might think. A few facts from Wikipedia:

"The Association of Zoos and Aquariums estimates that up to 12,000 tigers are being kept as private pets in the USA."

"Only nineteen states have banned private ownership of tigers, fifteen require only a license, and sixteen states have no regulations at all."

Doing a little bit of research, it looks like Utah (as one might expect) prohibits private ownership of tigers. However Idaho and Missouri, among other states of interest, only require the proper habitat and care, along with a federal license. And who better to hold such as license than yours truly, with a Bachelor's Degree in Biology? 'Nuff said.

So, with the logistics down, I found an interesting Website: buytigers.com. Sounds reputable. A female, 5-month old tiger is only $13,400. That might be a little pricey, but to make the deal a little sweeter they include an ivory collar, some tiger toys, and the original "Hello Tiger" guide.

I think I'm sold.

Pictures

This is deceptive because you might think that you are going to see new pictures, when we actually have nothing new to show. I was just so excited about some new things that I learned (computer/geek like things) and so I put them on our Website. Since most people don't look at that very often anyway, I figured that a few more people might appreciate all my hard work if I brought it to your attention here. Anyway, enjoy looking at some old pictures in kind of a new way. See them here.

Every last inch of 254 square feet

We moved around our apartment this week to fit in the newest addition to our family: the graduation piano. Melody has mixed feelings about the piano because I've been playing it often and she isn't getting enough attention. I've been trying to figure everything out, and I'll still play it often but it'll be more reasonable after I've had some time to get a handle on my new toy.

So, to make it fit we had to do an entire "renovation" of our current apartment setup. Melody took the opportunity to clean the place from top to bottom while we could vacuum underneath moved furniture, and I didn't mind because I was just excited to have a piano at my disposal at any time that I wish. So here are some pictures out how it turned out. It's too bad that we didn't take a before picture to compare, but that's okay. We lost a little space in the room, but mostly it worked out pretty well. Hopefully you can see well enough how it all came out.

In other news, I started my racquetball class for the first time this week. Two hours of aerobic sport was a little bit of a shock for me compared to the past months of lethargic library studying. I'm a little sore now, but hopefully that won't last long. Melody has worked hard to help me get in shape by dragging me along on some of her runs for the past month or so.

As a kick off to the summer months, we went to Park City yesterday. Mostly we just wanted to get out of Provo, but we took the chance to visit the outlet malls there a found a good deal or two, which we are pretty proud of. If you haven't ever been out there, then we highly recommend it. Anyway, that is about the gist of our week.

Graduation

So school is finally over, sort of. Graduation was excellent, since most of my family was in town. Melody's parents came for commencement on Friday. We spent the rest of the weekend taking as many pictures as our memory cards could hold, and then moving any piece of furniture or spare box that we could find including beds, dressers, pianos, and Ben's 7 ton safe.

Now that Spring has officially started, Melody and I are looking forward to reading more books, going on picnics and hikes, and shooting guns whenever possible. I'll still have one final class this spring to keep me in shape, a racquetball class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Other than that and work, it looks like we'll have a party every evening and eat lots of ice cream.