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.
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.
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.
H1N1
November 3, 2009
I seem to have acquired my very own case of the swine flu. Lucky me.
If I can’t shake this thing quickly, I’m going to go insane.
Flu Shot
October 24, 2009
We got up early to go get in line to get our H1N1 shots today. We got here shortly after 5 am and there were already over 200 people in line. The clinic opens at 7 am so we’ve still got a long cold wait ahead of us.
UPDATE: It is now 6:45 and there are about 400 people in front of us. It’s like they have multiplied, or something.
UPDATE 2: It is now 7:55 and we are finally getting toward the front of the building. It’s still cold but at least it’s not dark or rainy.
UPDATE 3: It’s 8:55 and we are finally all done. Getting into the building was a welcome relief from the cold.
Changes A-Coming
September 30, 2009
In some ways, I’m looking forward to Autumn. I love the color changes and the crispness of the cooler air, and even the smell of the coming rains.
I just don’t know if I’m ready for the huge change that is right now occurring, though. I’m talking about the fact that the high today (Tuesday) was about 85 degrees, yet the high tomorrow (Wednesday) is supposed to be 52 degrees.
It’s just too quick. I would probably be able to handle it a little better if we weren’t experiencing 30 – 40 mile per hour wind gusts right now. The wind makes it impossible for me to keep the windows open tonight, so I am unable to enjoy the comfort and splendor that come from curling up beneath a down comforter, while all around you is chilled by the natural cool of an Autumn night.
Perhaps if tomorrow night isn’t as cold as they say it’s going to be (39 degrees), I can do it then.
Memory – Twenty Six Plus One
August 24, 2009
It was the summer of 1992 (or was it 1991?), and I, David, Mark, Visiting David, and Kimball were all up to no good. Well, I guess it wasn’t so much “no good,” as it was having fun with no real regard for any possible cares in the world. We were in San Francisco, though it was not for any particular reason other than to just be there. We were listening to “I LIke Chinese” by Monty Python while driving through Chinatown, when we came across the Holiday Inn Hotel. I don’t know who came up with the idea, but one of us was a genius. Or something.
We decided to take the elevator to the roof of the hotel, where crazy people could go swimming, if they so desired. I say “crazy people” because I can’t imagine that there are many days during the year when the weather in San Francisco would be conducive to swimming in a pool twenty six floors up. While up there, I remember coming out of the door onto the roof, then turning to the left, where I saw a waist-high chain link fence. I sauntered (you know, saunter – “a walk with a leisurely gait; a stroll” – duh) over to the fence and immediately became fearful of heights. Never before had I never had such a phobia, but the view of the ground from twenty six floors up, with nothing to keep me from falling that distance apart from a waist-high chain link fence. My hands immediately went into “death grip” mode as they latched onto the fence, releasing only so I could inch away from the edge.
Anyways, now we get on to the “genius” plan that somebody (I’m sure it wasn’t me – I think) came up with. I’m sure it went something like this: “Hey, why not have a race down all twenty six flights of stairs?” What could go wrong, right? For some reason, we all thought this was a good idea, so we lined up and started the race. One member of our entourage, David (not to be confused with Visiting David), was pretty ingenious and came up with the idea of leaving the stairway somewhere around the twentieth floor, hopping in the elevator, then riding it down to the second or third floor before rejoining the race.
Did you know that when you run down twenty six flights of stairs, your legs become accustomed to going down many flights of stairs, and become incapable of going up even one flight of them? Yeah, that’s what happened. We noticed because, when we got to the bottom, we realized that we were in the basement, and the door was locked. We had to walk up one flight to the first floor just so we could get out.
I’m sure that cheating helped David (once again, not Visiting David) to not suffer to the same degree as the rest of us, but he still had to deal with getting all the way back to the car, which was a few blocks away. I remember that walking on even the slightest incline was tedious, and I was surprised at how difficult it had become, simply because I had participated in this little contest.
It had been years since I’d thought of this event, but tonight I was chatting with Visiting David via Facebook, and it got me thinking about some fun experiences from Yesteryear (or Yesterdecade). Thanks, Visiting David.
NOTE: I’m sure that there are editing and flow issues with this post. That’s what happens when you write at midnight.
