The Muhlestein Family

Why mothers stop breast feeding.

What’s left of Tim’s last bottle:

Add comment October 16th, 2005

Pretty colors in the mountains.

Saturday Jed and I rode motorcycles up above Heber. We were at the very top of the mountain if you go up past Tibble Fork in American Fork Canyon. We rode a good 2 1/2 hour loop around some of the peaks up there. We wanted to make sure we got at least one last good trail ride before the beautiful fall colored mountains become winterized and unrideable.

Here are some of those pretty fall colors. We had a great ride. It’s worthy to note that whenever I ride with Jed, I don’t have to wait for anyone. There was one part where I was ahead of him and got to test out a slippery hill. He had to wait for me to get out of the way for a tiny bit there. There were patches of snow on a lot of the North facing slopes and for some reason, I couldn’t seem to get quite enough speed at the bottom to make it up all the way. Jed was sure to get a picture of me pushing my bike up the last part but I’ll leave that part to your imagination.

We saw lots of other people (considering the weather) up on top of the mountain. There were a few hunters on horses and a few other people riding bikes. Some of the guys on bikes (coming down the trail) didn’t think we could make it up the ice trails but they, having never met us before, were unaware of our history of going places that other people say you can’t.

All in all, we had a fun time. Just as we got back to the truck, a few drops of rain started to sprinkle. I suppose our next ride may be down at a little lower elevation.

Add comment October 13th, 2005

Finally sold the laptop!

Yea! Horray! It took a few tries but I finally sold the laptop.

Here is the secret of my success this time over the previous times.

1. Use the buyer protection tools. This is the most important one I think. eBay has a newly implemented feature that allows you to limit certain buyers out. You can check a few different options like: “Limit buyers in countries I don’t ship too.” and “Limit buyers with negative feedback.”. The most important one, and the one I think saved my Laptop from being bought by a Nigeria Scammer was “Limit buyers who don’t have a Paypal account.”.

   I still got all kinds of offers from scammers who wanted me to ship the laptop to their sister attending College in Nigeria but they couldn’t actually click the buy-it-now option.

2. Use a reserve. A reserve costs 1% of the reserve price but the fee is refunded if the item sells. My reserve price was $13.50 but since the item sold eBay gave it back. This protects you from the next item.
3. Start the bidding low. The low bid attracts buyers at the start. Once they start competing, the item should go up to a fair value. It’s cheaper to start the bid low too. My initial cost was about $5.50 to list the item not counting the reserve fee. If you start the bid higher, the listing cost is higher and it isn’t refunded.

Summary:

Listing Fees: $18.90

Final Value Fee: $35.31

Refund Reserve Fee: -$13.50

Total: $40.71

That isn’t the real total though. You can’t accept more than $500/month with a Paypal account unless you upgrade. Upgraded accounts charge you 2.9% on received money though. We have a new Paypal account that we upgraded (goes to an old bank account) so that we can use it only on large items. That way my current on we can still use as is and not pay 2.9% every time we get money.

Paypal fee: $43.00

So all in all it cost around $83 to sell the laptop. That doesn’t count the FooBar first attempt!

Edit: I payed for shipping too, that cost another $63.33 for UPS 3 day Air.

Add comment October 5th, 2005

Flat Tires

For some reason, we can’t seem to keep the air in any of our bike tires this summer. When I say any, I really mean ANY too. I’m not sure how they got flat, but at the start of the summer I had to replace both of Gayla’s (actually Holly’s bike that Gayla is borrowing) tires and one of the kid carrier tires. I have a patch kit too. We bought too tubes and I thought that I’d just use one and patch the other one and then we’d have an extra tube. That worked for a while, but within a week or so, the tire was flat again so I just put the new tube in.

One of our neighbors gave us a bike for Scott to ride. He has a smaller one he learned to ride on but has outgrown it. We’ll just save that one for Dallin. It wasn’t long after he started riding it around that it had a flat back tire. I think the tire just had too many miles on it. It was quite bald and the tube was pretty thrashed. (He rode it a bit after it was flat.) I bought a new tire and a new tube and fixed that back up.

Then the other day, I had the kid carrier with Dallin and Tim. Scott was riding around with me following to supervise. We rode over by some dirt so Scott could play around on. I didn’t notice until a couple days later, but there were little brambles or sticker things that had stuck in the tires. (There were just way too many holes to patch this time.) Gayla went to K-Mart to buy two more tubes for her bike and a new tube for Scott’s bike. While replacing those 3 tubes, I noticed that the other tires were flat too. That’s right, 6 tires were flat not 3. We didn’t go ride bikes that night.

A couple nights later, Gayla bought 3 more tubes, I did the grunt work and we were able to finally ride bikes again.

Well, it’s been a few days since we last rode bikes. I wandered by the bikes in the garage and noticed that Gayla’s back tire and one of the kid carrier tires are flat again. There were so many stickers in those tires that I was bound to miss one or two. Hopefully I’ll get them all this next time around!

1 comment October 2nd, 2005

Trying Something new with the Laptop

I decided to try something besides eBay for selling the laptop. For whatever reason, Craigslist.org popped in my head. I was able to list the Laptop and set everything up surprisingly quickly. I didn’t even have to create an account. All I had to do was verify my email address. That’s pretty cool. We’ll see if there are any takers.

Add comment September 23rd, 2005

Fathers and Sons

This last weekend I went camping with the boys on our Ward’s annual Fathers and Sons campout. Here is us getting ready to leave:

As you can see, we have 3 little boys and a motorcycle in the back. For some reason, Scott wasn’t very happy at the moment I took this picture. I think it was taking too long to actually leave or something.

Scott and Dallin and Tim all had a great time camping. They played in the dirt, rode on the motorcycle, and even slept through the night fairly well. We didn’t have tables, so it was sort of a problem feeding Tim. I did have his portable chair that is supposed to hang on the edge of a table. I just sat him in that in the back of the truck and it worked ok.

During the night, Tim wasn’t very used to having to sleep in a sleeping bag. He kept trying to kick it off of him. Finally, I just gave up and pulled him over by me. He wasn’t too bad but I didn’t sleep that well. In the morning, Tim woke up first and just sat up and looked around. Probably 5 minutes or so later, he finally starting making these little grunting noises and laughing at himself. Then he went over and trampled over Scott and Dallin until they all got out of bed too.

We had a good time and plan to have many more camping adventures.

Add comment September 22nd, 2005

I’m beginning to hate eBay

Well, I decided that I should relist that laptop. Here is the newly listed (and newly ended) item.

Guess what, the outcome was the exact same as last time. Some Nigerian Scammer used the buy-it-now option again. The funny thing is, they used a pretty much canned response exactly the same as the last scammer:

Hello,

Compliment of the season to you. I am Mark Tunnell from Mesquite,USA.But Presently i am leading a conventional church program in London. I saw your item advert on ebay and i’m interested in buying it for my daughter who is studying a Computer Science Course in the University of Lagos (Nigeria) and i will handle the shipment expenses.I will send you my personal fedex account number after the payment so that you can ship the item to her without paying any shipment fee. I will be sending you payment via PayPal,So kindly send me your (PAYPAL EMAIL ADDRESS) so as to immediately make out my payment to you. Make sure you get the package ready for immediate or next day shipment okay?.You can ship the item as soon as you receive the paypal confirmation mail. Expecting your reply so as to immediately make out my payment for this item purchase.Mail me back it’s urgent.

Regards

Mark.

So now, I have to get my money back AGAIN. I find it funny that people trying to do this Scam can’t come up with something on their own. Heck, if they were going to really try to pay with PayPal, why don’t they just not mention their Daughter in Nigeria? I suspect if I were stupid enough to send this guy my paypal address, he’d just send a forged paypal email that appears as if I had received payment. Who knows? Who Cares?

I just want somebody legitimate to bid on the item so I can get rid of it.

1 comment September 21st, 2005

The Big Purple Spot

Sometimes, something happens that is so stupid that you can’t help laughing. This time, Gayla couldn’t help laughing. I’m sure you’ll enjoy too.

At one point or another, every child has one of those stick on basketball hoops. They have great big suction cups on the bottom so that you can slam dunk the foam basketballs and they won’t pop off whatever wall or bed they happen to be stuck to at the moment. Well, Scott and Dallin have one of those, but they had pulled it off the bed it was stuck too. Only one of the suction cups came off with the hoop though, the other stayed stuck on the bed.

I thought to myself, those things really do stick pretty good. So I pulled it off myself. The boys and I started to have fun with it. We tried sticking it on the walls, mirrors, whatever. Then I stuck it to my forehead. Wow, that thing could even stay stuck on my forehead pretty well.

Scott and Dallin thought it was really funny to give it a good tug pop it off of my forehead. Well, laugh away, here is the result of our play:

So Today, being Sunday, we had a few things scheduled. First of all, the Ward Secretary called and asked if we could say the opening and closing prayer in church. Next, I had to teach Sunday School. Finally, We were supposed to take family pictures with all Gayla’s inlaws after Church. Not a bad day to have a big purple spot on your forehead.

Things turned out ok I guess. I made Gayla run to the store and buy some cover-up stuff. (She didn’t have any). Also, not everyone could be there for pictures so we didn’t have to worry about that. It’ll be interesting to see how many days it takes to get my normal color back.

Add comment September 18th, 2005

We rode with Nathan Woods and Ty Davis

Monday I had the chance to go out on the "Industry Trail Ride". Dad, being heavily involved with all the trails on Blue Mountain, was selected to be the guide for all the riders after the weekends races at Bull Hollow (by Monticello if you don’t already know where that is.) Since it was a holiday, we made sure that we could be down there too. Who could pass up an opportunity to go riding with Nathan Woods and Ty Davis. If you don’t know those names you better click the links.

Well, things started off fast and slow. We all took off with Dad leading the way and not all the riders ready to go. It’s a good thing someone in the rear knew which direction we were heading. Not too far up the first little road Jed hit a big rock and landed on his rear. I saw it. Ty Davis saw it too. Lots of people saw it. I’m sure Jed is excited I remembered to point this out.

A little later, we all waited at the top of the mountain (by the towers if you are familiar with the area.) Dad made me wait for all the people in the rear. I waited and waited and waited. Then I decided to coast back down the hill. I found a few riders 1/2 a mile or so down the hill also waiting. They said they knew where to go and were waiting for someone who had a breakdown. I’m glad they broke down there because we weren’t in the middle of the boonies yet. I took off to catch the rest of the crowd.

At the head of the Spring Creek trail I got assigned to wait again. (Good grief I’m missing all the action.) After a bit, the slow crowd all showed up and we started to catch up again. When we found everyone, we started on a new trail. This time the people who were slow riders were separated from the people who were just slow because they were waiting for people. I still had to wait a bit for some of the guys in the rear. It took way too long to get up the hill and I saw some big ruts from all the people spinning around the switch backs. Of course, my trusty CR500 didn’t need anyone’s help but my throttle hand to get up the hill. I had to help a few people push though and ended up walking up and down the hill a few times.

Finally, over the mountain, past Shooters Rock, and into Robertson pasture, we caught up to Dad (Only because he was waiting though.) I convinced him I had ridden at the back long enough and needed to head on down the trail. So I had the 6 guys with me that didn’t need waited for and he stayed and waited for the slow riders. We headed down the Red-Ledges trail and caught up with the slow pack from the first crowd. Avalanches this year created a few places in the trail that most riders aren’t used to riding across.
One guy got stuck on the wrong side of a tree and had to have a couple guys help lift his bike over to the trail again. Nothing me and the 500 couldn’t handle here though.

Here is a picture of most everyone waiting at Indian Creek. The #1 rider is Nathan Woods and the #2 rider is Ty Davis. After catching up to the crowd at Indian Creek, I was finished riding with the slow crowd. They decided A-Riders go down the Indian Creek trail and all the rest go up to Aspen flat directly. I took off with the A-Riders. I must admit I wasn’t rubbing my front tire on the back of Ty Davis’ but I did keep up and left most of the pack a ways back. We came out the bottom of the trail, rode to the head of the Aspen flat trail and then waited for the rest of the crowd to show up.

The picture here is of Jed and Ty Davis waiting too. After a bit, Dad came riding up and said that he got to ditch the slow riders too. We all took off through Aspen Flat as quick as we could go. At this point, we had spent too much time waiting for slow people and needed to get back so we could have lunch. Some of those guys had to drive a long way too and were supposed to leave. (Dad’s adventures usually take at least an hour or two longer than planned though.)

There was a little more slow going when we caught up to the other group that had gone the short way. Also, one rider ran out of gas and I had to give him my extra. Good thing I brought extra. I never did need it anyway. He ended up running out again and had to borrow from someone else.

After Aspen flat we headed up the road and were fed a great lunch at the Halliday’s cabin. We took this picture. You can see how many riders came on this ride. I’m the one on the far right.

I also took a picture of my face so you can tell how much dust there was. It really wasn’t too bad on the trails but the roads were quite dirty after than many bikes went past.

After lunch on the way back to the truck, one of the riders hit his face on a stick. We thought he broke his nose. He landed in the ditch and had to recover for a bit, but in the end he made it back too. All in all, I had a great time.

Add comment September 7th, 2005

More of my handywork on the internet again

My handywork has popped up on the internet again. If you follow the link back, you can check out a little video of me drawing an X-Wing in addition to the completed work:

Add comment September 7th, 2005