One Short
March 9, 2010
I’ve been doing a bunch of work to finish my office at home. Last night I was installing the wainscoting and the trim. I could not believe my eyes when I found that I had exactly one piece of paneling less than I needed. Now I have to go buy a whole pack of the paneling just to get the one piece I need. Ugh.
Rotten
February 9, 2010
Word: rhabdomyosarcoma
Function: noun
Definition: a pretty nasty tumor found most commonly in children and adolescents
Spencer is seven years old and is a great kid. He is the love of my daughter’s life (as far as eight-year-old’s crushes are concerned), and has been diagnosed with a malignant alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma. The golfball-sized tumor is located at the base of his skull and is wreaking havoc with his head. His parents, Nate and Holly, are fantastic, and are braving this thing as best they can. They are putting their trust in the Lord, as they know that there is nowhere else they should put it.
It appears that chemo and radiation therapies are on the horizon, and we are all praying that Spencer will get better soon. If you want to send prayers on behalf of somebody, Spencer is worthy of all of the prayers you’re willing to send.
Makin’ Out
February 7, 2010
Ryan was playing a board game tonight with Grandma, and his game piece was right next to hers. He got so excited and said, “My game piece is making out with your game piece! My game piece is making out with your game piece!”
Then, after waiting about five seconds, he said, “What does ‘making out’ mean?”
What a funny kid.
8 Years
January 26, 2010
My beautiful Betsy turned eight years old on Monday. It seems like just yesterday that she was learning to crawl, and ended up with stitches in her chin when she was learning to walk. Man, she sure is a gorgeous little girl!
Phone Call
January 4, 2010
I just received a phone call on my cell phone that included the following exchange:
Me: “Hello.”
Her: “Hi, may I please speak with David?”
Me: “Uh … my son, David, or some other David?”
Her: “David Ausborne.”
Me: “Well, that’s my son. Who is this?”
Her: “This is so-and-so from CollegeFinder.com. He signed up and requested some information online.”
Me: “Uh, you realize that he’s eleven years old, right?”
Her: “No. Sorry to bother you.” Click.
Apparently, David has been planning ahead.
Driving Around
January 3, 2010
It’s been a while since I’ve gone on a nice drive. I’ve always loved going on a nice long drive to see things that I’ve not seen in a while, or to see things which I’ve never before seen. It’s something that I’ve always found therapeutic. I used to do it when I lived in the Bay Area. I’d find myself going on a late-night drive almost the whole way up to San Francisco on I-280, turn west on CA Hwy 92, then drive across to Half Moon Bay. Once there, I’d head a little ways down CA Hwy 1, stopping along the way at a beach where I could pull the car up near the water and shine the headlights out into the waves. The great thing about this was that my trip wasn’t complete. I still had to do the return trip, which involved driving south on Hwy 1 all the way to Santa Cruz, where I’d then turn and head home to San Jose. The whole loop was about 120 miles, and was a trip I probably made fifteen different times in the two years I lived there while I had a drivers license. Like I said, I love going on long drives.
Today, since Melanie was at work, I decided to remedy my lack of long distance driving by getting in the van with Byron, Betsy, and Ryan, then heading to Utah County. We stopped by a friend’s house in Draper to drop of a gift for his newborn son, then decided to keep driving. We headed up and over Traverse Ridge and down into Utah County. We drove through Alpine, Highland, and American Fork, to the Mount Timpanogos Temple, which has temple grounds that look pretty cool with so much undisturbed snow. We then headed through Pleasant Grove and Lindon to Orem, where we stopped for lunch at Sizzler. I got to tell the kids about how the Sizzler we were at was the same place that Melanie and I had eaten when we went on our first date back in 1996, and the kids thought that was a pretty fun story to talk about.
After lunch we stopped by and saw some good friends who we had not seen for about a year. One of the neat things about these friends is that they have a gorgeous 24 x 36 inch framed canvas photo of the Mount Timpanogos Temple at sunset. I’m partial to it mostly because I gave it to them as a gift. I took the photo at sunset on 13 February 2007, and almost immediately ordered (from pictureframes.com) a large framed canvas print to give as a gift. Here is the photo that I had printed:
Mount Timpanogos Temple at Sunset
The kids were great, I got to drive to someplace I rarely get to go, and I saw some good old friends. All in all, it was a good day.
My Sweet Son
January 3, 2010
The kids had a “meet your teacher” event on Saturday (yesterday) morning, where they’d meet their new primary teachers at church. Each of the kids’ new teachers were there except for sweet little Ryan’s. He was pretty crushed, honestly. He said, “Why don’t the want to meet me? I think they’d like me, if they got to know me.”
That poor little boy! At least he will get to meet them Sunday (today) at church.
September 16, 2008
December 25, 2009
As far as my IRA is concerned, today is September 16, 2008. That was the day that I rolled over my old company 401k into a rollover IRA with Fidelity. The market almost immediately started taking a nosedive. Today is the day that my IRA has finally reached the value at which I purchased it. Considering that the dollar is worth less than it was worth in September 2008, I’m pretty sure that I’m still in the red here. At this rate, I might be able to retire in my mid-nineties.
Deep
December 8, 2009
we woke up to about 9 or 10 inches of snow this morning. We shoveled the driveway, but my car still wouldn’t make it on the roads, so I was stuck having to have Melanie give me a ride in the van (she was heading downtown anyways). While my Lexus is really fun to drive, it’s horrible in the snow because it’s a rear wheel drive. I probably should have thought that one through a little better.
By the time I got home this evening, we had gotten about 14 inches total. Wow!
Here are some photos:
I thought this looked kind of pretty this evening.
14 inches fell today
Melanie and David are really making progress on that driveway!
The Holy War, 2009 Edition
November 29, 2009
The kids and I ventured down to Provo today to attend the BYU-Utah rivalry football game. I hadn’t been to a game since the last time BYU hosted the Utes back in 2007. David, Byron, and Betsy had each been to a game before, but Ryan had not, so I was excited that he could be initiated into college football during rivalry week. What made the game even more fun was the fact that the Cougars beat the Utes in overtime, and about 30% of the 65,000 fans rushed the field. It was pretty exciting!
The kids are about to enter the stadium.
The Utes had BYU down 6-0 in the first quarter.
BYU ended up winning, though, and the fans rushed the field.
I got my own souvenirs. The grass with the white paint is from midfield, while the bigger tuft of turf is from the two yard line.
