To Fong's, Thanks For Everything

So Lesley and I have found the Draper jackpot of Chinese restaurants. Sure, that's a narrow category to start with, but we love this dump. It's not in line with the Biggest Loser competition, but what the heck, sometimes you gotta live a little. One of Lesley co-workers said he likes this place, so we thought we'd give it a try. We arrived and asked some random person leaving with takeout if it was good. He said yeah, and that they'd take good care of us since there was no one else in there. We thought he was joking. He wasn't.
We were the ONLY customers in the restaurant. I'm not exaggerating. It was just us and the Fong boys. We took a picture to prove it. This was around 8 p.m. on a Thursday night. We walked in and were greeted immediately by one of the hosts. They sat us down and brought us these chips. It's some sort of fried won ton type stuff served with sweet and sour sauce. It's Chinese chips and salsa essentially. Very good. Then our awkward waiter came. His English wasn't the best and he was amused/offended (I couldn't tell which) when I asked him if he was Mr. Fong. He wasn't. And he really didn't get what we were asking when we wanted him to recommend something, but that's what gives Fong's its character. Poor English, awkward service, and GREAT food.

We went with the sweet and sour pork and their walnut shrimp. It got to us about 4 minutes later (the chefs weren't too busy). The walnut shrimp is the best shrimp dish I have ever had in my entire life. I couldn't get over how good it was. Really. It floored me.

This may be a random/boring post, but we thought we'd share our recommendation with you. Think of it as another installment in our Travel Tips. So if you're ever in Draper and get the craving for some Chinese food, or just need a good family doctor (see sign), just swing by Fong's. You're guaranteed to have a short wait, great recommendations from the staff ("pork good"), and amazing food. It may be a hole in the wall and the lack of customers may scare you, but take our word for it, Fong's is worth every awkward moment.Satisfaction guaranteed.

Dear Joshua Stark,

(This blog post is in response to this post )

As BYU's acting secondary approval committee, Trevor and I would like to give you your totally official acceptance to Brigham Young University.


The reasons to accept this acceptance are many, but the facts are few. Actually just one, Trevor has decided that we can have a baby if you come to Utah. Your wife is always so great with her not so inconspicuous encouragement to jump the baby wagon, so if you do indeed decide to come to Utah, we will honor your arrival with destiny - offspring that can play with your offspring.

There you have it. You know all of the other excellent reasons to take a couple year excursion to Utah.

We look forward to having a back-to-school barbecue with you guys come fall!

Rise and shout!

(ps. for anyone that might possibly take what I just wrote above as truth, may this be the disclaimer that it is not. It is returned sarcasm for my dear cousin.)
(pps. we would die to get the Stark's out here, that is not sarcasm. That would be heaven on earth.)

The Photography Blog

So, the sole purpose of this blog post is to tell everyone that we, meaning mainly Trevor and our friend Jason, have a blog dedicated to their new hobby of photography - Life Through the Lens.

I'd like to take a moment to not only encourage readership of this blog, but also call out a few folks whose work we would like to highlight as a guest post. Yes, that's right folks. This photography blog is a forum for all we know to highlight their work whether they're an aspiring photographer, professional, or nothing really (which would be where I fall).

Here are the first 3 folks we are "calling out" to give us photography posts that cover a day-in-the-life of-whatever-their-life-is, or just any pictures:) The first 2 have already been commissioned, the last has not.

1. Eliot.


2. Whitney.


3. Marci.


We look forward to seeing and sharing your work.

Eminem Fans

I just found this little gem while cleaning out some old folders. This is from when Les and I were driving home from Oregon after our wedding and honeymoon. I found it quite entertaining.

Biggest Loser Update

Many of you have asked for an update on our "Biggest Loser - Couples Style" competition, and you are about to get it, although there will be no before and after pictures posted. This week's weigh-in was the halfway point in the competition. 6 weeks down, 6 weeks to go.......

For the past 4 weeks, Lesley and I had been maintaining first place, but with Lesley out of town and eating out for work, and me home alone and eating out for laziness, we had a bad week. Because this competition is so cutthroat, you can't have a bad week, and Adrienne and Steve passed us up and have taken possession of 1st place. So as it stands right now, Steve & Adge are in 1st, Lesley and I are in a very close 2nd (by 0.4 pounds), and Brad & Mandy are in 3rd. As a group we've lost a total of 75 pounds and it's pretty much 25 pounds per couple. The last couple weeks have been a little difficult for all of us as our bodies have shed some of the easy pounds and it is now becoming tougher to drop weight. Here's a little snippet of how each couple is attacking the challenge:

Adrienne & Steve
They are attacking their weight almost entirely through food to this point. By merely changing what they eat, and how much they eat (portion control) they have taken over first place and have been the most consistent team. Steve even passed on a fried Snickers bar at work last week. Word from Adrienne is that they plan to add more exercise in order to firm up as they continue. Adge & Steve are expected to continue to consistently drop weight each week as the contest progresses.

Trevor & Lesley
We have been using the shotgun approach, changing from one thing to another in order to not get stagnant. We roughly followed Weight Watchers for a few weeks, drank some Slim Fast shakes for breakfast and/or lunch for a few weeks, and have focused on lean proteins and lots of fruits and vegetables. On the exercise side, we've done the traditional things such as running, biking, basketball, weightlifting, etc. as well as the non-traditional, such as Gold's Gym exercise classes and yoga. For those of you who have ever seen one of those classes, you know that the ratio is usually about 97-100% female, so you can imagine what it takes to get me into one of those. More on this in a later post. We've tried to mix it up so that nothing gets too stale and we can keep going, but we've found that the diet is the most important. Even if we work out like crazy, if we eat like crap, we don't lose a lot. Look for us to center our chi, finish strong, and make a run at the title.

Brad & Mandy
Brad & Mandy have been attacking the weight on 2 fronts as well. From the sounds of it, Mandy is pretty much in charge of the food, and Brad is in charge of his exercise. Brad does cardio 5 days a week at 5 a.m. and adds weight lifting 3-4 times a week as well. Both Brad & Mandy have been individual Biggest Losers of the Week at one point or another in the first 6 weeks, and just need to add a little more consistency. With Brad's regimen and Mandy's cuisine, they are poised for a comeback in the second half of the competition. There's still a lot to be lost, both in poundage and percentage-wise. None of us should count them out.

So far this competition has been the best of times and the worst of times. It feels great to have lost 17 pounds, but it stinks to have to eat so much salad and retrain my body to not eat so much. It feels great to walk out of yoga feeling so limber and fresh, but it stinks to feel so gay and awkward standing by buff dudes that are working out while I try to hide the tights under my shorts and wait for aerobics to finish so I can into the exercise room for yoga. But in the end, I'm sure all of this is for the best..............well, except maybe the tights.

You've got the best of my love...

We're throwing it back old school for this Valentine's Day. My Valentine and I are lucky enough to have some dreamy pictures together that span our lives. As you can see from the pictures below, Trevor definitely "got the best of my love."

7th Grade Students of the Year

High School Graduation

Highschool leadership camp.

Halloween during an initial round of dating.

A trip to visit Trevor in CA sophomore year of college.

Tailgating during a "just friends" stage right after college.

I wish I were home this Valentine's Day!! I miss my Valentine!

Wrestle Mania

Lesley seems to think she's pretty tough, so last night while watching tv, she challenged me to a wrestling match. I accepted the challenge. When she went upstairs to change I quickly grabbed my camera and set it up to record. She did not know I was recording the whole ordeal. What surprised me most was how her toughness quickly gave way to serious concern about whether I was going to hurt her. But I still consider her tough, despite her hesitation. After all, she did "take me down".........