Ausborne Blog

Visiting California and Bend

jmaus — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 04:27:43 +0000

We are in the last night of our week long vacation. We started by driving out to San Jose, where we visited mom, the beach, and Great America. We then drove up to Bend, Oregon, where we drove up to Dutchman Flat, hiked part of the way around Todd Lake, rafted on the Deschutes River, and visited a bunch of friends. We went to Lava Butte and Crater Lake today, then had a barbecue and roasted s’mores. We have to go home tomorrow, and I’m just not looking forward to it. I’ve had such a good time on our trip.

Go Pack Go!

jmaus — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 20:06:28 +0000

Packers win, 31-25!

Observations: Christina Aguilera was horrible. The Black Eyed Peas were every bit as bad, just with a more elaborate sucky performance. The commercials were really bad this year.

Melanie and Josh

jmaus — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 01:49:22 +0000

Here is a photo that I took of Melanie and I today, for those of you wondering if we’re still alive.

Melanie looks fantastic!

Words to Live By

jmaus — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 02:22:30 +0000

I just overheard some words to live by:

“Don’t go crashing through a curtain, cuz you don’t know what’s on the other side.”

The Giants Win the Pennant!

jmaus — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 21:31:23 +0000

Somebody needs to remind Ryan Howard that if the pitch is THAT close to being a strike, he needs to be swinging at it. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the tying run on second, and the winning run on first, Howard watched the 3-2 pitch go by for a called third strike. What he also watched disappear was the Phillies’ chance at heading to the World Series for the third year in a row.

What we have now is a series of the improbable. First, the Rangers beat the tar out of the defending champion New York Yankees to advance to their first ever World Series, and now my hometown Giants have joined them.

I think my favorite thing about the Rangers’ series victory over the Yankees is the fact that the final pitch was a called strike three to Alex Rodriguez. When you consider the fact that the Rangers still owe millions of dollars to Rodriguez, as a result of that huge contact they gave him in 2001. He only played for them for three years (2001-2003), yet was still the Rangers’ biggest creditor at their bankruptcy hearings recently. I think it’s fantastic that they beat him.

Calculus

jmaus — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 02:12:10 +0000

Please, somebody give me a good reason that I am taking calculus. Please? Anyone?

Birthday Greetings

jmaus — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:04:31 +0000

My youngest child, Ryan, has turned six years old today. I can’t believe how big he is. It seems like just yesterday that we brought him home from the hospital to our rental house in Redmond, Oregon. He is now such a big kid, and it is pretty amazing to me.

Opening Kickoff

jmaus — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:02:18 +0000

Opening kickoff at Lavell Edwards Stadium is moments away, and David, Ryan, Betsy, and I are excited!

UPDATE: Cougs win 23-17!

Vacation

jmaus — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 21:15:23 +0000

Melanie and I are finally going to go on a vacation all by ourselves. We have purchased tickets to fly to San Diego at the end of September for a four day trip. We are going to be staying at the Marriott Gaslamp Quarter, and are pretty excited.

Flora

jmaus — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 21:11:31 +0000

One of the things that I remember from the time I spent as a missionary on the island of Barbados was the plant life. Some plants I’d never seen before, nor have I seen since, were things such as sugar cane, cotton, and breadfruit.

The sugar cane was generally found in large fields and was anywhere from 8 – 12 feet tall. The stalks had huge blade-shaped leaves on the top and some of the fields were harvested shortly before I left Barbados at the end of February 1994. My first experience with sugar cane was when I was walking down the street with my companion, Elder Hans Carlson, and he showed me what it was. There were some scraps of cane on the ground and we picked a few pieces up and took them home. He showed me how to use the knife to score it around the stalk to make it easily breakable, then how to cut the recently broken chunks into pieces small enough to fit into ones mouth.

Oh, my, talk about a dentist’s dream come true. Apparently, you don’t eat the cane. You just suck on it until all of the sugar is out of it. My guess is that the process of sticking it between the cheek and gums and leaving it there for hours was probably bad for the teeth. Now that I think about it, I don’t remember the Bajan people being very well known for having good teeth. Hmm, I wonder if there is a connection.