Logan

This is about the time during the summer that I am going back and forth between Logan and Salt Lake fairly often, between various retreats, media events and wedding receptions.

It feels like I'm living out of a suitcase, both on the Logan couches and at my parents house.

As I passed the houses south of Logan for the first time about a week ago, a family was putting up a sign to "Welcome home, Elder Anderson." When I went passed again a couple days later, they had added paint to show passersby that their missionary had eight days left. Yesterday, he only had six.

Like I'm sure Elder Anderson is getting antsy to go home to Cache Valley, I have been getting more and more excited for August 20th (which now that I just counted is only 16 days away.)

I'm excited for the schedule I've picked up, even it'll be the toughest workload I've signed up for at Utah State. Officially I'm taking 17 credits, but if I was getting academic credit for various other school-related activities, it would be about 27.

It'll be an adventure.

Vegas, baby

I went down to cover (what was left of) the WAC Football media day in Las Vegas, Nev.

It was a sorry sight.

The year before, it was an exciting time and everyone there was eager to get back to football season. Players and coaches were robust in the diplomatic smack talk, almost promising to knock off Hawaii, Nevada and Fresno State before they left the league.

Reporters were crawling over each other to ask questions, and I sat alongside those writers whose work I had amired for some time (yes, I had stars in my eyes).

This year, there were only a handful of reporters, and the overwhelming majority were there for Utah State.

Idaho and New Mexico State coaches depressingly answered questions about the future of their program with the inevitibility of at least a year playing football independent from a conference. Texas-San Antonio and Texas State coaches were a little more exuberant, but nobody in the room besides themselves expects either of those teams to win any conference games. Utah State and Louisiana Tech talked more about the non-conference schedule than anything else.

In a phrase, the WAC is dead. At least in football, maybe all sports. I mean, there are rumors out there, but it's extremely unlikely that six FCS teams all want to make the jump to the WAC by next season.

The conference ended fairly early, leaving Photogirl and I to eight hours in Vegas on the newspaper's bill.

To anyone else, this would be a heavensent, but what are two mormons going to do in the Devil's city?

Strip clubs? Gambling? Nope. No interest here in getting wasted, throwing my money away for booze, drugs, slots, cards, sex, or perving.

So we ate some overpriced food, bowled a couple games, killed three hours by watching Spiderman, and took the long way back to the airport.

Lame? Yes.

To quote the man in the airport, "The best thing they did in this city was build a freeway around it."