Life Travels with the Parental Units

Reading List

2012-02-15T19:00:00.000-08:00

January 31, 2012

The Spiral Staircase

Mary Roberts Rinehart

This was an interesting little mystery about a well to do little old spinster aunt who had become the “governoress” of two young adult children – ages 19 to 21 or there about. She rented a country house while her house in the city was redone, and while there was nearly driven crazy by a mystery involving a string of breakins, a string of mysterious strangers, a string of secret chambers and passageways and , not the least, a string of deaths and murders – and all of them seemed to hinge upon her darlings and their intendeds. She is a feisty champion of the right, and refuses to be swayed from her resolution to find the culprit or culprits, despite fire, fight and general mayhem, including herself almost meeting her demise.

So – was it great? By no means. But it was fun. Read it but expect anything life changing or philosophical. It could be a fun read for a book club. If you recommend it, accompany it with The Red House Mystery. They would be fun books to compare, and it would be easy to read them both in one month.

Movie Review

2012-02-15T18:43:00.000-08:00

Ocean’s 11
January 23, 2012

Ocean’s 12

January 25, 2012

Ocean’s 13

January 27, 2012

We inherited a boxed set of the three Ocean’s movies. I had never seen any of them. And so, on my recent trip to Dallas, I took them all and watched them.

I have to be careful of this report – because there are people who think they were great. I thought them to be average. Okay entertainment. But . . .

I have a hard time when the process banters around values like 12 million, 8 million, 96 million, 36 million. Those numbers are just not realistic than someone can just throw around.

In Ocean’s 13, they install a GIANT drill in the underground “sewer pipes” beneath Las Vegas. Did I say GIANT. I mean it was like an eight foot bit. And it had tons of controls and electronics. Evidently it was installed overnight and there was no explanation of how such an apparatus was to be installed without ANYONE knowing about it. And then it broke, so they bought another one – from France – for 36 million – and again installed it – overnight. Let me tell you, I will bet someone from FedEx knew about that overnight delivery.

Things always went pretty much according to plan. Even when to the audience things seemed to go awry, in the end you found out that was the way it was supposed to work. It happened in all three movies.

That is just a few of my complaints.

And the biggest complaint is about one of the last lines in the last movies. “Ocean, I’m going to get you for this.” “Oh, come on, the people who you will hire to get me like me better than they like you.” And he walks away very nonchalant and the whole group go to the Bellagio to watch the fountains. Let me tell you there is ALWAYS someone who a rich gangster can hire to “get you” and standing in public or even hiding in your locked bathroom is dangerous.

Sorry all of you Ocean lovers. I enjoyed it, but there was just oo much that didn’t add up – and I must say this:

The first one was better than the second one.

And the second one was worse than the third one.

And I won’t tell you if the first one was better than the third one – until all is said and done – and then I will let you know. Because that is the way these movies work.

PS – I liked the Mormon brother con artists from Utah the best.

Valentines

2012-02-14T12:20:00.001-08:00

February 14, 2012

This is the poem Mar gave Lar for Valentines:

Reading List

2012-02-08T14:03:00.001-08:00

20000 Leagues Under the Sea

Jules Verne

January 20, 2012

This is a book from the 501 Must Read list. It is a classic. It is the story of three men who are on an expedition to catch a sea monster, but to their dismay they find that it is not a sea monster at all, but a submarine. They end up as guests/prisoners on the submarine "the Nautilus" with the enigmatic Captain Nemo. There are adventures and in the end . . .

Commentary? Well, it would be hard to recommend this to a modern "young" reader. They are used to having things move much faster. Much of the book is descriptions of the flora and fauna they see in their voyage. It is only occasionally interspersed with real action. Also, in the day that it was written, the possibility of what Jules Verne was writing about was new and even unbelievable. Now, it is commonplace and even old stuff. And some of the "scientific" knowledge he proposes are totally wrong.

Still, for an old codger like me, it was an enjoyable read. I can put myself in the mindset of Jules Verne's audience, so I can see how this would be a great adventure for them. I did realize on this reading (I had read it once before) that 20,000 leagues is not how deep they went – it is how far they went.

And for those who have seen the movie. Somewhat the same – but not. Jules Verne's book doesn't have one female in it. Now that just wouldn't work for Hollywood. And in the movie they only fight one giant squid – in the book it is a whole flock – or gaggle – or heard – what do you call a big group of giant squids.

Recommendations – you can read it if you want – but read it as a 12 year old at the turn of the century – that is turning into the 1900s.

Travels With Lar

2012-02-08T13:42:00.001-08:00

Dallas, Texas

January 22 – 2, 2012

This was a work trip. I was teaching people from Raytheon in the Dallas, Texas office. After a week in Ottawa, the promise of warmth was inviting. However, it rained for three of the days I was there. No one in Dallas is complaining about rain. They had a horrible draught over the summer, so all of the moisture is welcome.

The class went well. I went out to dinner one evening with one of my long time friends from work.

I got to go to the Dallas Temple on Tuesday night.

And all of the flights were uneventful.

It was an okay trip.

Travels with Lar

2012-01-31T11:11:00.001-08:00

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

January 16 – 20, 2012

This was a work trip. I really don't mind going to Ottawa. I think it is a beautiful place. But in the middle of January – really? It is just cold – still beautiful – but cold. And it is always dark – a long ways north so that in the winter the sun sets earlier and rises later. I didn't see much of Ottawa this trip. Besides, we had an ice storm one night and a snow storm another night – which meant driving around wasn't going to be a lot of fun. So my pictures of Ottawa come from postcards this time. Oh, and you will notice these are spring time and summer postcards.

This one could have been a winter picture. In the winter, this canal is a favorite ice skating area. My class said I sould go down and ice skate on the canal. I don't think so - there wouldn't be anyone there to take me to the hospital.

The class went well.

The motel was nice – and it was only 1 kilometer from the office so I walked all three days.

It was an okay trip.

Memories

2012-01-10T19:45:00.000-08:00

January 10, 2012

1812 Overture

I have many memories of my high school years. Many of them I would like to forget. And many of them I have forgotten. But occasionally something will happen that jogs one of those memories to the fron of the grey matter. Today, I had a grey matter jog event.

As I have been driving, lately I have been listening to classical music. I have now been listening to Tchaiskovsky's music. On the CD, the last piece is the 1812 Overture. I do like that piece, and not just because it has cannons. It was one of my father's favorites and so I grew up listening to that stirring music until it plays in my head. One time in high school, that familiarity really saved me a lot of grief.

I don't know if Mr. Shull hated me or liked me. I think he was disappointed in me because I had some promise that he saw, but I never really applied myself to music. You see, he was my junior high and high school band teacher. In fact I would have to say he was one person outside of my family who had a great influence on my life. I, like I alluded to, I think he saw talent in me that I never bothered to develop. But he did his best to try to inspire me, along with a lot of other students. He was elected as Teacher of the Year by the Colorado Education Association during my junior year. But I digress.

There were times in band when we worked grueling schedules to prepare for a concert or a competition. Day after day after day, we would play and practice the same thing. Some of them were fun, but many got to be "old" with too much repetition. But right after a concert, it was exciting to see what Mr. Shull would pass out for the band to start working on next. On one such occasion he walked in and passed out a symphonic band arrangement of The 1812 Orchestra. I was excited because I loved the music. There was also trepidation because I knew it was HARD. Actually, I knew it was too hard for a high school band. Still, it would be fun to play it for a while. I couldn't see how we would ever practice enough to really perform the music.

Anyway, he passed the music out and then went to his podium and put the score on his music stand. It looked like an encyclopedia. He said that he wanted to see how well we could sight read it. He raised his hands to start, then dropped his hands and said he wanted one of us - a band member to direct this. And then, without waiting for volunteers he looked at me and said, "Larry, come and direct it."

WHAT? This had to be some weird joke. Overnight he must have decided I needed humbling, or humiliating. I was frightened. I was not the most social person in high school, and even though band was really the center of my social experience, I didn't know many of the people in that band very well. I went to the front and Mr. Shull gave me his baton and he just walked away.

I opened the score and looked at it.

Each page was one line of music, with each parts in the band shown. How in the world was I supposed to know what was going on. I looked at it and suddenly realized that I could read that music. I knew that music so that it just played in my mind. And with that, I knew what was going on in the score. And so, I stated to direct. I must admit that we had to stop a couple of times. Sometimes it was because I needed to figure out where we were. Sometimes it was because I needed the band to figure out where we were. But in the end, my high school band sight read The 1812 Overture with me directing. And at the end, the band gave me applause. It felt good.

Ant then Mr. Shull walked up and said, "Okay, pass that music in." It was just for sight reading.
We weren't going to play it. But for me, well I appreciated knowing that just once I got to direct The 1812 Overture and I did it alright.

Mr. Shull never brought that experience up, but there were other times when he would stand up and say, "I want one of you to direct this," and more than half the time he chose me without waiting for volunteers.

Christmas Poem - 2011

2012-01-03T10:31:00.001-08:00

Did we mention that this year was crazy busy over Christmas – well we only got about 20 Christmas Poems actually mailed out – so for all of the avid readers, here is the 2011 edition:

It's the night before Christmas, the halls decked with holly.
The lights and the tinsel make Santa Clause jolly.
So he jumps in his sleigh and he dons his red hat,
And flies to the south, to see where we are at.

Andrea's clan had a big change this year,
They left Southern Cal, and went without fear.
A brand new culture they are learning to taste.
They are now in Virginia at the Quantico base.

The move took two months and to save them some fuss,
While Ben found a house, they spent six weeks with us.
They played in the mountains, and explored all about,
In August, with Nana, they left and went out.

Ben's new assignment has less deployment,
For him and his family that means more enjoyment.
Their home in the woods means Andrea's looking
For ways to spend time besides cleaning and cooking.

Michael's found love, with a Colorado girl.
Jasen's happy out East, his head's in a whirl.
"Diary of Dork", are Emma's fun books.
Spencer's king of his class, with his style and his looks.

Mat and Andi's family had some big changes.
Like nine months in Leadville, over yon mountain ranges.
They loved the life style with its camping and bikes,
But 12 feet of snow and the cold there – well yikes.

Then they move one more time, a less lofty scene.
To a town in the foothills that's called Evergreen.
They think this is better, and why? Well to start
It got a McDonalds and a closer WalMart.

Mathew has a new job, HR for a mine.
He likes it a lot, it's more than just fine.
Andi's adjusting to all that has changed
Her schedule and life style are all rearranged.

Andrew likes his new school, he does great in his class.
Mylie does active sports – she love games that go fast.
Wyatt is so happy to play cars some more.
They are happy each morning to see deer out their door.

Erica and Rich did their level best
To not change their house - or at least their address.
But they did do construction, they finished downstairs
To build for their daughters, their own private lairs.

Rich keeps on working, providing the best,
Erica's busy just feathering the nest.
Alice has pre-school, self-assured and so bright.
Evy is precocious, but her smile makes things right.

We miss Aaron's hood-winks, his talents and smile.
To recall without tears has taken a while.
Our reunion this summer was not all about fun.
We all went to the temple, Aaron's work was all done.

A Louisville duplex, Brea and Ben's new abode.
The old Stones's homestead is just down the road.
They are making it theirs, they are making it cute
And they wake every morning, as the train blows its toot.

Brea helps REI selling boots for the trails.
Ben's working at Croc's driving internet sales.
They try to be active; they have lots of friends,
And with their church callings, their pace never ends.

Michael's out on his own with his lovely new bride,
Named Taylor, his help-meet, his love, by his side.
In South California they're making their marks,
And their family has Tonks, when she's happy she barks.

They both have a job and they're both taking class
And finals just ended, they're glad that they passed.
And coming this spring, their life's changing fast,
Cause then they're expecting a wee baby lass.

Larry and Margaret thought it was wise
To buy a new home with a bit larger size.
It gives them more room where visitors stay.
And it gives them more room where grandkids can play.

Larry traveled a lot, what more can we say,
You'd just have to blink and he's flying away.
All over the States, but that was not all,
Israel and Malaysia were two ports of call.

Mar worked real hard and finished her schooling
To become an RN, the last year was grueling.
Then she studied some more, and doing her best
She just took and passed the national test.

Santa's back on his sleigh, all the presents are gone,
But our hearty good wishes he carries along.
To all of our friends and family, too,
He's taking our love and best wishes to you.

Events

2012-01-03T10:24:00.001-08:00

Christmas Season - Family Time

Christmas was really family time this year. We had a number of events and each of them filled somebodies house to the brim. It is so nice to have adult children. No one has to do everything. They just get together and say, "you bring this and you bring this and I'll bring this – and voila – an event happens. Mind you, this is all happening in spite of all of the regular Christmas season craziness.

December 18 – Family Birthday Party
We opted to have this at Mat and Andi's house. December is the birthday month for Erica, Lar and Mathew so we all get together and celebrate them together. This year's attendees – Lar and Mar and Grandma Baker (3), Mat and Andi (5), Erica and Rich (4), Breanne and Ben (2), Ricky and Deanna (6) – Total 20. We ate, played with the Wii and other games and just did family things.

December 24 – Christmas Eve
We have the big holiday dinner on Christmas Eve. We held this one at our house. Lar and Mar and Grandma Baker (3), Mat and Andi (5), Erica and Rich (4), Breanne and Ben (2), Michael and Taylor – who flew in from Southern California early that morning (2), Ricky and Deanna (6), Sean and Heather (2) – Total – 24. We mostly just ate and played.

December 25 – Christmas
This is an open buffet sort of get together where we just eat all sorts of goodies we put out for the day – and of course show everyone what we got for Christmas – and play with it. Lar and Mar and Grandma Baker (3), Erica and Rich (4), Breanne and Ben (2), Michael and Taylor (2), Sean and Heather (2) – and the Missionaries (2) – Total 15.

December 26 – FHE
We just had fun with Brea and Ben, Michael and Taylor, Michaels friend Amanda and her husband Neal. Danced to the Wii and played Psychiatrist after eating Pizza.

December 27 – Baby Shower
Breanne and Erica had a Colorado Baby Shower for Taylor. It's a girl,s thing with food and games and just talking – Total 12. No wait – Michael and I kept a low profile and watched kiddos – 5 of them – making a Grand Total of 24.

December 29-30 – Play Day and Goodbye to Michael
Not a real event – just a good family time. It happened at Mat and Andi's. Breanne and Ben took Michael and Taylor up to Mat and Andi's on Thursday night. They ate and played games and Breanne and Ben came home and left Michael and Taylor there. Friday, Mar and Lar drove to Mat and Andi's. We had pizza and just goofed around. Then we drove Michael and Taylor to the airport where they flew home after a brief delay. Over the evening, Mat and Andi hosted 11 – just for fun.

January 1 – Not it's not a New Year Party – It's Ben's Birthday
We had Ben's birthday party at our house – dinner, presents and games. Lar and Mar and Grandma Baker (3), Mat and Andi (5), Erica and Rich (4), Breanne and Ben (2), Ben's parents, Ron and Nedra and his sister Rachel (3), Bens' brother's family Jessie and Becky (6), Ben's friend Danny and his wife Ammy (4), and our missionaries (2) – Total 29 – Yikes.

January 2
No one came over. We took down all of the Christmas decorations. I have to go back to work tomorrow. I guess it is over – until February – when we are having the February Birthday Party at Erica's, because she will have her remodel finished.

Henderson Molybdenum Mine

2011-12-30T11:17:00.001-08:00

Mine Tour

December 28,2010

Note: All pictures came from the internet - we didn't take any as per the rules.
Michael and I left a little after 10:00 to travel to the Empire/Berthoud Falls area up the I70 corridor. It was beautiful day with temperature in the 50s in Longmont, which translated to the mid 30s at 10,000 feet. As we drove, we talked about fantasy, about the Lord of the Rings, about Balrogs and Orcs.
What better topic when you are going to the roots of the mountains. We stoped in Idaho Falls for a little lunch.

We arrived at the Empire Henderson mine at 12:20, exactly when Mat asked us to be there. He had arranged for us to get through the gate. He had everything set up for us inside. He had it all arranged. We watched the safety video and learned the two big rules for our tour. Always have three points of contact when getting on equipment, and keep arms and legs and other body parts in the equipment at all times. Mat then talked to us about what we were going to see. On a side note, when Michael arrived last Saturday, I was talking to him on the way home from the airport and he said he didn't know anyone who really liked his job. I told him to talk to Mat. Mat loves his job. He has learned so much about how things operate in the mine. And he just loves being there.

After orientation we went to get equipment. It consisted of iron toed wader boots, a hard hat with a light and battery pack, and a belt with an emergency respirator. Mat took us to meet Steve. He is a trainer at the mine and he had set up a tour using a "buggy" so we wouldn't have to walk. If Mat had taken us, we would have had to walk and we wouldn't have gotten to see even 1/3^rd of what we got to on the buggy. We really appreciated Steve, and he was such a nice guy.

Steve checked us into the mine and we went to "the cage", which is the lift that takes you down 2500+ feet into the mountain. At that point, with the mountain above, you are some 5000 feet underground. The cage was scary at first. It is not smooth like a normal elevator. It is a bumpy ride and takes a couple of minutes to get down.

First stop was to get the buggy, which is really a tractor outfitted with seats. We drove a little ways through "drifts" which are some of the horizontal tunnels in the mine. That in itself was cool. At that level they were well lit. We visited a warehouse where they stored everything they needed in the mine, which of course had to be brought down in the cages.

We also visited a "refuge room" which is an emergency gathering site. It is equipped with food and water supplies, a first aid station, oxygen and communication gear, just in case something bad happens underground. Over the history of the mine, the refuge rooms have only been used for drills, but everyone in the mine has to be familiar with all of the operations, which is why I think they took us there first. A note about the Henderson Mine. They have a lot of visitors from government officials (Senators, Representatives, etc.) and foreign dignitaries because it is considered one of the safest mines in the world. It is used as an example of how mine safety can and should be done.

We then started going into the drifts. Steve took us to a place where we could see what the Molybdenum looked like in its ore state. It was also a place where we could turn off our hard hat lights and be in total and complete darkness. Pretty cool.

He then drove us to a place where a loader was loading "muck", the mined out ore, into a "chute", a hole that drops the muck down where it can be crushed. There was quite a bit of dust there but the ventilation system in the mine made it very easy to breath all of the time. This loader was a huge front end loader, and it was brand new. Michael and I got to sit in it and it still had that "new car smell. The driver was a little bit disgusted that they had scratched his loader when they were bringing it down in the cage. They brought it down in three parts – the bucket, the front end and the back end which were hinged together so the loader could negotiate the corners in the drifts easier. The drifts are about 5 yards wide so the equipment had to be made to manipulate in that size area. Pretty cool.

Next Steve took us down a ramp to almost the bottom of the mine. This was the level where the muck from the cutes was crushed. We saw the crusher. It is a giant machine that works like a mortar and pestle. It is a gigantic piece of equipment that one would never expect to find at the root of a mountain, and it had be brought down and built on place. Pretty cool.

The muck is dumped in and if the rocks are too big, they get crushed down to a manageable size. The crusher is loaded by giant dump trucks. Now when we say giant dump trucks, they still need to manipulate in the drifts, so they dumb sideways into the crusher. Each one carries about 80 tons at a time. Michael and I got to do a "ride alone" on a dump truck while they made one pass from the chutes to the crusher. Maximum speed was 13 miles per hour, but in that environment it felt a lot faster than that. The truck backs under a chute and then the driver uses an automated hatch to fill his own truck. Then he drives back to the crusher and dumps. The whole procedure takes about eight minutes. My driver told me that he had been doing this for about six years. He said you had to be pretty alert or you would hit a drift wall and then it reminded you that the mountain didn't move. Even that big truck lost that encounter. Let me tell you, that was pretty cool.

Steve then took us one step deeper. After the crusher was done, the muck dropped down and was automatically loaded onto a conveyor belt – the longest conveyor belt in the western hemisphere. It takes the muck to the mill 14 miles away (10 miles underground) on the other side of the continental divide for processing into "chemical grade" Molybdenum. The Moly from the Henderson mine is the purest in the world.

Then it was back to the surface and I'm glad I didn't need to walk back up that ramp. It was a real cool experience. Mat told us that the first time he went down into the Henderson Mine he told Andi it was an experience he would remember forever. I can see why. I feel the same way. I learned so much and saw things I never could have imagined.

Thanks Mat. Thanks Steve. It was more than way cool. It was awe inspiring.

Final Note: A number of years ago, the "caving" processed used to mine at the Henderson mine caused the top of the mountain to collapse causing the Henderson Mine Glory Hole. No one was hurt, in fact most of the miners didn't even know it happened. WOW.

http://www.climaxmolybdenum.com/worldwidelocations/usa_colorado_henderson.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henderson_molybdenum_mine

Little Miracles and Tender Mercies

2011-12-20T13:56:00.000-08:00

December 18, 2011

I came home from church on Sunday. Mar told me they just called from church to ask if I knew where any more deposit slips were. I didn't, but I went right back to look. After checking everywhere, I decided to look everywhere again and found them tucked back in the deep, dark recesses of a drawer.

Why a tender mercy:
       They tried to call me on my cell phone, but I had it turned off. This was the reminder to me to turn it back on because . . .

We went on Sunday up to Mat and Andi's house for the December birthday party. During that trip, the cell phone became a life line between Andrea and Mar as Spencer went in and was diagnosed and operated on for acute appendicitis.

Why a tender mercy:
      The week before, Ben was out of town. If he had been gone, well this would have been so much more of a problem and disaster for Andrea.

When we got home from the party, there was about 1 1/2 gallons of water on the kitchen floor. The dishwasher had sprung a leak.

Why a tender mercy:
      The dishwasher was leaking a little bit before my last trip (for two weeks). I wiggled some pipes and it stopped leaking. And then it didn't leak again until after I got back. If it had leaked that much while I was gone, well that would have been at least a $200.00 plumber call. As it was, I turned off the water to the dishwasher and then fixed it the next day in one hour for $7.00.

So many times, the miracles and mercies in our lives are just a matter of our Heavenly Father watching out for us and then scheduling and arranging things so that they are not as shattering as they could be.

Let us be thankful for all of our blessings - and let us recognize those blessings when they come.

News Line

2011-12-20T13:43:00.000-08:00

December 6, 2011

NCLEX

After finishing the Registered Nursing program at Front Range Community College, Mar still had one MAJOR obstacle. She had to take the national NCLEX test to be licensed as a Registered Nurse. She was promised that if she used on study program and did 5000 questions in that program, that she would pass. Mar's frantic preparation took her to 7000 questions, and if she missed one she would read and understand the answer.

The NCLEX is a computer adminisered test. It randomly selects and presents questions - well sometimes not so randomly. As you take the test, if you miss one question, it will schedule another similar question for you to answer. It is set up so that you have to answer at least 75 questions. After that, the program decides how many to ask to really determine if you are quilified. It could go up to 175 questions.

On December 6, 2011, Mar went and took the test. It stopped after 76 questions. She found out two days later that she had passed.

WHOO WHOO - YEA _ WOW_WEE

And she even got her license card in the mail.

So she is official. We are so proud of her.

(On a side note - she is having a hard time figuring out what to do with herself no. She isn't answering questions every hour, or waking up worrying about the test. But she can actually read a book and enjoy things. Now she has to decide what she wants to be when she grows up.)

2011 Travels with Lar

2011-12-16T21:12:00.000-08:00

Now that my last trip has ended - here is the damage:

Travels with Lar

2011-12-16T16:41:00.001-08:00

December 11 – 17, 2011

Archbald, PA

Archbald is a small community just north of Scranton and just South of the State Line for New York. It is about two hours from any major airport. Not a bad little community, but it is back in the Appalachian Mountains so it was a little bit chilly in Archbald.

I came to teach a five day class. It was an older version of software, but it still went very well.

I didn't do a whole lot in Archbald. Class started at 7:30 each morning (translate that to 5:30 Colorado time.) It was dark when I got to work. It was almost dark when I got out. That is one of the drawbacks of winter classes. And it was pretty chilly.
On Friday evening, I drove back to Philadelphia, spent the night and flew back to Denver Saturday morning.

Books on Tape (CD)

2011-12-16T16:34:00.000-08:00

December 16, 2011

The Time Traveler's Wife

by Audrey Niffenegger

How to start this review. Let's do the negative first. I will not recommend it. Too much language. To much "intimacy", which is a polite way of saying graphic bodily action. I got real good at hitting the "next tract button on the CD player, but the language always takes you by surprise. I am not sure I liked the time traveler himself, but I did like his wife. Why did I listen to the whole thing? It was what I had for three pretty long drives. Otherwise I probably wouldn't have gone much past the second (out of 16) CDs.

But . . . the story is intriguing. He time travels against his will with no control over when he goes, how long he will be gone, where he ends up, or when he ends up. It is a genetic thing. Sometimes he goes forward. Most of the time he goes back. Emotional events seem to attract him, and there are certain patterns to his time traveling. Most people don't know he has the condition. And a very intriguing issue, he can take nothing with him or bring nothing back - including clothes - so he always appears either in the current time when he comes back, or in the other time where he goes, naked. I think the premise she worked with is absolutely brilliant.

But she ruined it by writing a story that her mother - or at least her grandmother - wouldn't have approved of.

Visit From Grandpa

2011-12-15T18:03:00.000-08:00

December 9-11, 2011

I was teaching in Columbia, Maryland for a week. The week following, I was to teach in Archbald, Pennsylvania. This presented a rare opportunity for me to go see Andrea and her kids in Stafford, Virginia - about 80 miles from the Maryland site and about 250 miles from the Pennsylvania site. It meant sacrificing going home over the weekend, but Mar and I decided that would be okay just for this chance.

After work on Friday, I drove through construction around Washington, D.C. and finally got to Andrea's house. Thank heavens for GPS. She lives in a little out of the way development - even in the out of the way corner of that out of the way development - and if I was trying to follow a map, or even directions, I would still be lost. It is a log way from everything which is a challenge for Andrea and her family, but it is truly beautiful.

It was a fun weekend. We had a ward Christmas breakfast on Saturday. We went shopping. The boys had two parties. The kiddos just kept me having fun. I enjoyed myself very much. Spencer gave up his bedroom for Grandpa so I was well cared for. Unfortunately, Ben was gone on a "road show" for the Marines.

After enjoying them all, I left and traveled up to Pennsylvania. I took a suitcase full of gifts and treats to deliver back in Colorado. I missed home, but I loved being with the kids.

Here are some pictures of their house and home (with not so candid shots of the kiddos.)

The cute little house in the woods - Andrea says in the summer it is really so thick in the woods that you can not see the houses next door.

A couple of nights before I got there they had a big storm which blew over this tree - it is stuck on another tree and if that one falls it will hit the house - anybody got a chain saw.

Living Room

Master bedroom

Spencers "Pirate" bedsroom

Emma's room

Jasen's abode

Michael's abode

The boys share a large room and each half is "decorated" to their taste

Family room - downstairs

Reading List

2011-12-13T17:29:00.001-08:00

December 13, 2011

The Sleeping Beauty

By C. S. Evans

It is the age old story, re-told in the 1920s by E. S. Evans. Maybe he added a few things, but it is the story and it is enjoyable.

I read this version because it was available on my Kindle. Afterwards I found that I may have missed the best part of this edition. There are illustrations done by Arthur Rackham that didn't come across in the Kindle migration. I found a few of them on the internet. The pictures make the story come alive.

Reading List

2011-12-13T14:15:00.001-08:00

December 7, 2011

The Red House Mystery

By A. A. Milne

What do you say when you come across a mystery written by the author of Winnie the Pooh? "Oh, I just must read this!" Yea, right. But I decided to see what it was like. After starting it, I was perusing my 501 must read list and, lo and behold, there it was on the list.

So how does this mystery stack up to, say Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Mr. Sherlock Holmes. Very well, thank you. In fact, it is somewhat better. In The Red House Mystery, Milne actually gives you all of the clues – well most of the clues. But then he does something unexpected. He actually tells you why they don't make sense. All along you have a prime suspect, but he doesn't fit the clues. Milne lets you discover the real issues a little bit at a time. But then, alas, he doesn't tell you one or two little tidbits, so it would take a real good sleuth to figure out exactly what happened.

I liked it. You'll like. I recommend it. It would work good for a book club. Winnie the Pooh would be proud.

Travels with Lar

2011-12-12T15:52:00.001-08:00

December 4 – 9, 2011

Columbia, Maryland

I flew into Baltimore on Sunday.

I went to Columbia for work – I was teaching two classes – 3 days and then two days.
Classes went okay.

It was a rainy week. I really didn't do anything special this week at all.

It was the last class that is to be taught at the Mentor office in Columbia, MD. Mentor is closing this office and asking the employees to work from home. So at the end of the class I packed all of the systems into shipping crates to send them back to Wilsonville, OR. It wasn't a particularly hard task and I did it in stages during the week as there were systems that were not being used for the class.

And that's it. Not very exciting was it?

Reading List

2011-11-01T21:20:00.001-07:00

October 22, 2011

The Help

By Kathryn Stocket

Mar's book club read it – along with 90% of the book clubs in America.

Breanne read it.

Mar and Andrea listened to it on while driving to Virginia.

I went with Mar to see the movie – which was very good.

So I decided to read it.

That was a good decision. It is an excellent book. Some may say it is outdated because it is about events almost a half century ago. But it still touches the American conscience and lets us see things the way they were, so we can see things the way they are now – and maybe fix some things.

I would recommend this book to anyone.

Ha Ha - The Hair Wins

2011-10-29T21:38:00.000-07:00

At the trunk or treat there was a question about who would say the paryer. Two contestants. Deciding attribute was who had the most hair - and I WON!!!!

So there.

Colors

2011-10-27T17:48:00.001-07:00

October 19, 2011

On the way to Logan, Utah from Ogden, Utah, one has to go over Sardine Canyon – a pass through the Wellsville Range. On a normal day, it is just a trip up the mountain and then down the mountain. On Saturday we made this trip and were awestruck at the glory of the autumn colors. Never in the many, many trips over that pass have I seen it so vivid and beautiful. Alas, I did not stop to take a picture, for how could a camera capture the browns and reds and yellows that covered whole hillsides.

The next Friday, when passing over it again, some of the wonder was gone, yet it was still a mighty feat of nature to create such a canvas. Alas, I still did not stop to capture it in a picture.

However, on Wednesday, after I finished working, Mar picked me up with the Mother and Brenda and we drove up Logan Canyon just to see the colors. Might I say that I once read that one magazine ranked Logan Canyon as one of the top ten spots in America to view Fall foliage. It did not disappoint this year. We drove up and stopped at a little picnic ground by a little grotto on the river. It was a lovely secluded little spot – with a reward of a wild apple tree that was bearing pretty good tasting fruit. We went a little further on and turned up Blacksmith Fork canyon to see something off the beaten way. The leaves were beautiful in the approaching twilight and the canyon itself was delightful. We would stop now and then, and then continue on.

As we got almost to the top of the canyon (we were looking for Old Ephraim's grave) and looked out on a breathtaking autumn scene, Mar – who was driving – looked down and said "Oh my, we are almost out of gas". I must say, that stopped the pilgrimage to the burial shrine. We were well into the back woods, and we were probably saved a lot of stress and tribulation by the fact that it was mostly downhill back to civilization, so Mar coasted much of the way.

A delightful trip – and I did take some pictures. Alas, a cell phone is a sorry excuse for a camera, especially in the shadows of twilight.

Travels with Mar and Lar

2011-10-26T17:30:00.001-07:00

Ogden and Logan, Utah
October 13 – 22, 2011

Maybe this was a business trip. Maybe it was a family trip. Maybe it was a pleasure trip. As it turns out, it was all three. And it was the result a one of those "perfect storms".

Lar was scheduled to do a business trip to Tucson, Arizona. Not looking forward to it very much. Then he got an overview of the upcoming schedule and found that another instructor was doing a class in Logan. Charlie, the other instructor, had no reason to be in Logan other than the class. Lar had lots of family reasons. So a short phone call later, the classes were switched – Lar on his way to Logan – Charlie to Tucson. And because it was Logan, Lar decided it would be real nice – I mean real , real nice – to take Mar. So a ticket was purchased and the plans were made.

We went out on the Thursday before the class, because Lar had taken that Thursday and Friday off a long time before – more of the "perfect storm". Thursday night, Friday and Saturday morning we spent with Melanie and Mom (that would be Lar's mom) in Ogden. On Saturday morning we all went to breakfast with Emily and Rick. We like doing family help things for them. This trip we:

Trimmed a bush

Trimmed two trees

Cleaned out the rain gutters

Installed gutter guards

Repaired the shed (sort of)

Helped Melanie order new doors

Put plastic on two windows

Played lots of games

Ate lots of food

Saturday morning we went to Logan to stay with Mar's mom for the duration. We sent her into stress by telling her we wanted her to come back home with us. She said okay, so we got her a ticket on our return flight. We stayed with her until Friday morning. We did some things for her also:

Cleaned up a rock garden

Dug up some flowers (that we delivered to Brenda)

Trimmed bushes and spread bark

And Mar did a lot of running around town with her

Spent time with a lot of family

On Tuesday through Thursday, I taught the class – which went okay.

Friday we went back to Melanie's and finished some work (and played games). Then Saturday morning we flew back home.

Good trip – made even better by being surrounded by people I love – and people who love me.

Flowers for Aaron.

2011-08-29T20:08:00.000-07:00

The long story.

Brother Altman was doing some work at the church today. When he left he saw a car with two people in it parked next to his car. He asked them if he could help. They asked if he knew where Aaron was buried. They had driven up from Denver - for City Bark where Aaron used to work - with some flowers to remember him. Brother Altman called Mar and found out that Aaron really doesn't have that place yet. So they gave the flowers to Brother Altman and he delivered them to Mar. He mentioned that they were very touched and obviously still sad at Aaron's passing.

This has touched a sadness spot for us. But at the same time, it is nice to know that Aaron's influence was remembered as good for these people. We did not get their names, but we appreciate so much the kindness they have shown - and the love they have shown for our son.

Movie List

2011-08-12T11:32:00.000-07:00

July 30, 2011

So this is what I watched flying back from Malaysia:

Clash of the Titans

Don't bother - oh, you say you aleady saw it. I am so sorry. Not a good movie.

Iron Man II

Okay, I liked it. As unbelievable as the first Iron Man. Still it was entertaining.

Kids Stuff

2011-08-12T10:31:00.000-07:00

(No disrespect to Mathew intended)

Andrea took Emma and Spencer to the Boulder County Fair. They had a good time and while they were there they "won" two gold fish. They brought them home and they are now living in Mar's trifle bowl. We assumed they would die overnight - but alas (and lucky for them) they are holding on.

Andrea was watching the fish and talking to Emma when she mentioned that Mathew had trained the gold fish he had when he was younger. That comment prompted this from Emma:

"You know, Mat is just strange. He gets it from Grandpa. And I'm learning to be strange also, cause were staying with Grandpa."

I am such a wonderful influence on people.

Movie List

2011-07-25T04:55:00.001-07:00

July 23, 2011
One thing I can say about international travel – you have a lot of time on your hands. On a trip to Malaysia, I had enough time to finish two books and watch two movies. This is the two movies:

Despicable Me

A cute little movie. It focuses on redemption of a person whose goal was to be the most despicable villain around. A pretty predictable plot, but with nice characterization along the way. And you just have to love the Minions. I liked the movie, but only enough to say it is average – I give it a 2.5 on the scale

Battle: Los Angeles

Aging marine seargent – reputation for losing his men in battle. A strong fight on his hands with an enemy and his new squad. That about sums up the humanity of the story, and it is pretty trite. Still, I liked this movie. It is a good action war movie, and when all of the traditional foes are not in vogue, you have to have a new foe, so why not go for aliens. Of course the hero is really the hero and he and his squad find out how to "take the suckers down", and you can figure all along that it will happen (a la "Independence Day") I liked the portrayal of the marines and especially because I have been at Camp Pendleton and recognized some of the scenery (there was ever a very short scene at the San Onefre gate onto the base). I thought the fighting scenes were well done. It truly gave a sense of battle and the mayhem that goes with it. So I can ignore a lot of the trite story line, and the rough language, and say that it wasn't too bad – not for little kids, however. I can even say I had a favorite line from this movie – "We've already had our breakfast, sir." I give this movie about a 2.5, again just average.

Books on CD

2011-07-25T02:45:00.001-07:00

More Rumpole books by John Mortimer

Rumpole Misbehaves (July 16, 2011)

– this is the direct sequel to Rumpole and the Reign of Terror. Again, a fun little story, but without much substance. I am getting better at understanding the narrator's accent.

Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders (July 20 2011)
– I think this one is before Rumpole and the Reign of Terror. It is his memoires and he decides he has to recount his most memorable case. I enjoyed it.

Unfortunatly, I think this is the end of the Rumpole books on CD at the library. They are good mindless fun, exactly what I want in Books on CD.

House Projects

2011-07-01T10:41:00.001-07:00

Painting
June 30 – July 1, 2011
Ah-hah – I arrived home after a strenuous day of work and, behold, work had been done on the house painting project. The "primers" had paid a visit. Here is evidence of their work.

And then, early the next morning, as I left for work, the "painters" arrived and began putting up ladders.

I had occasion to return past the house at about 9:45 AM, and progress is being made. We will see what progress by the time I get home in the evening.

Books on CD

2011-07-01T10:26:00.001-07:00

July 1, 2011

Rumpole and the Reign of Terror by John Mortimer

My first Rumpole experience. The narrator made it difficult to understand Rumpole, the wily cantankerous English barrister. Perhaps that was by design, to match his personality. At first I was rather put out by this. However, as the story progressed I became more and more caught up. In the end, this turns out to be a well written and humorous little piece – and a commentary on the English political way of lie. Most enjoyable really – enough for e to check out another Rumpole to entertain me as I drive.

House Projects

2011-06-28T12:06:00.001-07:00

Painting
June 28, 2011

Latest project – get the house painted. Mar has chosen the color. We have had the house power washed. I have taken off a lot of the light fixtures. Now we are just waiting for the "fun" to begin.

Here are the "before" pictures. I will get more pictures as the work proceeds.

Memory??

2011-06-24T08:09:00.001-07:00

I've been considering my high school days – particularly Poudre High School in Ft. Collins. If I do not count church people, I can only remember the names of four friends in that high school.
    Doug Johnson
    Keith Holmes
    Nancy Young
    Dolores Delp
I do remember other first names, and a few names that were not friends.
I guess the message here is – well is there a message?

Books on Tape/CD

2011-06-23T11:12:00.001-07:00

June 22, 2011

Small Steps by Louis Sachar

Louis Sachar wrote Holes. I saw this offering at the library and thought, well let's see. I really liked Holes. I just liked this one (not really liked). It doesn't have the fun energy that Holes does, but it is still an enjoyable and readable story. It is a sequel to the Camp Greenlake story, this time dealing with Armpit and Xray, two of the Camp Greenlake boys. If you see this book (and you don't have to pay for it), Small Steps is okay. Be forewarned, the end is . . . wait, that would be telling too much.

Blog Issues

2011-06-22T22:19:00.001-07:00

I have to admit, I have been horrible about keeping up with the blog. I feel like I get behind and then there is just too much to catch up on – so I don't do anything at all. And of course then I just get further behind.

So here is a quick update – and I may do some of these in more detail – but then again, maybe not.

Travels (since my last travel update).
April 29 – May 7 – Haifa, Israel (this is the one that really got me behind – it is important, but what can I do.)
May 15 – May 21 – Hillsboro, Oregon ( Mar went with me – we saw Jon and Erin, Terry and Hallie – and Anne came up and spent time with mar also – I had a cold.)

May 22 – May 28 – Folsom, California (only highlight – I went to the Sacramento Temple.)

May 31 – June 4 – Lawrenceville, Georgia (only highlight – I went to the Atlanta Temple.)

June 5 – June 11 – Redmond, Washington (only highlight – I went to the Seattle Temple.)

June 20 - June 25 - Fremont, California (only highlight - I went to the Oakland Temple.)

Books (since my last Book List update).
May 7, 2011 - The Man Who Would be King – Rudyard Kipling (liked it a lot)

June 2, 2011 – Howards End – E. M. Forester (author of A Passage to India which is one of my favorites – this one was good, but not as good.)

June 6, 2011 – The Thirty-Nine Steps – John Buchan (a romance – as in the nature of H. R. Haggard – barely possible and highly improbable – Mar and I saw it as a film adaptation on PBS. It was intriguing enough to make me pick up the book. I liked it – however different from the PBS story line.)

June 7, 2011 – The Gift of the Magi – O. Henry (just one of my favorite stories – so I read it again.)

Events (since my last Events update)
May 7, 2011 – Mar's graduation and Pinning from the Registered Nursing curriculum at Front Range Community College. (This is another stopper for my blog – it really deserves much more than this entry – much, much more.)
June 16 – 18, 2011 – Youth Conference at Red Feather Lakes. (Mar and I both went – a campout. I enjoyed it, mostly because I was with Mar.)
June 19, 2011 – Father's Day (Erica and family and Breanne and family came over, and I heard from everyone else – and we had the Elders over for dinner.)
June 21, 2011 – Mar and the dentist (enough said about that.)

Okay – let's call this caught up. I will try to do better in the future. Better might mean more of the same – but I think it will mean different kinds of posts. Breanne showed me a book she prepared of her posts, but I think mine would be less that exciting. So I will try to put in more history.

Reading List

2011-06-04T05:06:00.001-07:00

May 5, 2011
A Modest Proposal by Johnathan Swift

Some short comments.

I have read it before.

It is not fair to call it a book – at most in print it would be 20 pages – with large type.
Historically it is significant.

Everyone should read it as one of the most sophisticated bits of satire ever written.
Don't take him seriously – even though he was serious about the social problems he was addressing – but he was not serious about his solution.

Reading List

2011-06-04T04:58:00.001-07:00

May 5, 2011

The Book of Were Wolves by S Baring-Gould

I like that his name sort of sounds like Ghouls.

Okay – I have to be honest. I chose this book off of the Kindle free list just because it sounded were-wolfy. It wasn't too bad. It was bad, but not too bad. Understand that it was written in 1865 by a man who was trying to show that there were were-wolves in a pseudo-science way. He does a lot of historical referencing and psycho-babbling and in the end, presents a lot of grizzly "proof" that were-wolves are really just people who think they turn into wolves and in that mental state perform horrible acts. Some of the historical horrible acts really have nothing to do with were-wolfs, but they do make modern atrocities fairly lame in comparison – women using fresh blood to clear their complexion, princes getting off on a kill the children fetish – that sort of thing.

Still, I like the hairy transformation were-wolf idea better. It is more – shall we say "romantic". Heck, by the Baring-Gould definition of a were-wolf, Jeffry Dahmer qualifies.

Howwwwwwwwwl – but not only at the full moon. I tell you, Lupin would be disappointed in this book.

Don't read it. I give it a two.

Event

2011-05-28T05:10:00.001-07:00

Christ Like Service
This happened to our family a couple of years after we moved from San Jose, California to Colorado.
We were traveling from Colorado to Longmont. Outside of Laramie Wyoming, about 709 miles from home we had a catastrophic engine failure. Our little min-van was toast. This was before the days of cell phones, so we waited for some help to arrive in the form of a highway patrolman, and got a tow truck who towed us into Laramie. We left the van at a repair shop in Laramie, rented a car and drove home. That was on Saturday.
Sunday, a friend from church found out our predicament. Chuck then served our family. He lent us a car so we could get around. He rented a tow bar and he and I drove to Laramie and towed the van back home – to his home where he had a shop. He used his connections to find us a new engine for our sick little van. Then he helped me to replace the engine so that we could have a car again.
All of that was out of the ordinary Christ like service. It is even more impressive when you know that Chuck was legally paralyzed from a broken neck in an automobile accident. He could shuffle around and do some things, but it was a true sacrifice for this man to do this for us. He served a family that he didn't even know very well. In fact, he chastised me for not calling him while we were in Laramie the first time – he would have driven up to get us.
We learned to love Chuck, and I think his service helped him to love our family.
When I think about this Christ like service, I really think of Christ and his service to us. He brought us and taught us the gospel. He taught us right from wrong. He established his church to aid us in returning to him. And he lived and died for us so that he could bring about the atonement, our only chance of returning to live with him and our Father in Heaven. As we ponder this service to us, perhaps it will help us to realize how much he loves us, so that we can love him more.

Movie Review

2011-05-11T14:40:00.000-07:00

May 6, 2011

Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader

I like this movie a lot (even though I saw it on a small screen on an airliner coming back from oversees.) It didn't seem as hard to follow as the previous two Narnia movies, however you would be lost a little bit if you hadn't seen the other two.
Visually, it was beautiful. The characters were realistic (or as realistic as a dragon and a heroic mouse can be). Let's not say realistic, let's say consistent and for all the strangeness of the story they were developed nicely.
I may need to buy this one just so I can see if I still like it when I am not sleep deprived.

I highly recommend it.

Event – Big Event

2011-05-11T14:01:00.000-07:00

May 7, 2011 - Saturday

Mar – Pinned as a Registered Nurse Graduate

It has been a hard course for Mar, but she accomplished it. She finished the education as a Registered Nurse, getting her pinning on May 7, 2011. A lot of work, but she is great so we knew she would make it through.

Breanne and Ben and Erica And Rich and Alice and Evy all came to cheer her on. Just as she was being pinned, during the hush of the moment, Alice shouted out, "Yea, Nana." We all had to smile – even Mar and all of her fellow grads.

After, we had a nice celebration – and it also counted for Mother's Day (because Mar really had one more day of clinical to do – accomplished on Sunday.)

A Note

2011-05-04T12:18:00.000-07:00

Well - to those who follow my blog - both of you - I am now more or less up to day - at least until tomorrow. I tell you this so that you can be fore-warned that over the past four or five evening I have blogged enough to have some of the entries "drop off" the end, so you will have to go to older posts to see some of the new ones.

Well peace be with you.

Reading List

2011-05-04T12:10:00.001-07:00

May 3, 2011

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

A classic and easy to read. I thought I had read it before, but I hadn't – or at least there were a lot of parts that I didn't remember.

As a comment to the way Hollywood has handled the Holmes/Watson characters – I think Watson always got short changed. In The Hound of the Baskervilles, he is portrayed as an active and physical man, not the portly, bumbling gentleman who is so often before our eyes on the silver screen. I think the latest portrayal of him might just be more of what Sir Doyle had in mind. Oh, it is just my editorial opinion.

This is a good story. Read it. You can most assuredly do it quickly , my dear Watson, because it is pretty short.

This is on the list of 501 Must Read Books. Yes I could recommend it for a book club.

Reading List

2011-05-04T11:57:00.001-07:00

May 2, 2011

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin

And my daughter will be proud of me. She was aghast when she found I had never read a Jane Austin book. So now I have. I will probably read more – even though she has a decidedly female outlook on things.
I liked this book. I have seen brief snatches in movies, but never enough to get more than girls trying to get husbands and Mr. Darcy being a creep. But somehow the female audience was always rooting for the Darcy creep to win. I didn't get it.

You see, Mr. Darcy is the "Pride" and Elizabeth is the "Prejudice". Together they . . . wait I shouldn't tell the plot in this. But it all ends up happy for at least a few of the characters. (By the way – in mentally portraying the parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bennett, my mind always envisioned the Buckets from BBC's "Keeping Up Appearances".)

This is a book for adult audiences, not because of anything vile or untoward, but because it would take a mature person to understand. I feel like modern audiences are too much focused on the here and now and the do it and get it done. This is about back then, and seeing yourself in a back then world is imperative to understanding the book.

A good book for book clubs, and it reads much easier than I had expected.

Little Known Facts

2011-05-03T11:45:00.000-07:00

In my younger years, I dabbled in golf. I was never serious.

One day, Mike and I wer practicing our driving at a field on the CSU campus. We were lazy golfers and didn't want to chase down our practice drives, so we took Ed and Tim with us and sent them out to shag the balls - while we hit them.

When I say while we hit them - I mean THEM. Mike, or maybe it was me - I don't remember - hit Ed - or maybe it was Tim - in the upper arm.

Boy did that leave a mark.

We never did that again.

Reading List

2011-05-03T11:36:00.001-07:00

4/7/2011
People of the Mist by H. Ridder Haggard

This is the second book on my list by H. Ridder Haggard, the first being King Solomon's Mines. "The Mines" made the 501 Must Read List. This one didn't. I think it should have been the other way around. Now that is not because this is a great literary work. But this is so much more fun to read. The story is better (even though it is about the same). The characters are better. The action is better and much more "Indiana Jonesish". I just liked it better.

I would recommend it to book clubs, with a little bit of a warning. This is a "romance" in the late 1800's point of view. Sad heroes, beautiful women and, coming from that era, absolutely improbable and unbelievable plot twists. But that makes it so much fun and "Indiana Jonsish".

And one other warning, the ending is good, but melancholy in a way, so beware.

By the way, I chose this book strictly based on the cool title. I didn't know what it was about, or even who wrote it. But People of the Mist - come on. How cool a title can you get.

Reading List

2011-05-03T11:23:00.001-07:00

4/4/2011
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

I must admit, when I started this book, I thought it was a different one. For some reason I was expecting Bridge to Teribithia. But let me say I was happy it was A Secret Garden. It is outstanding. Any book club should read it. It has excellent characterization. It has a well done plot. It is finely written. And if you wanted to deal with meaning and symbolism then this is a good volume to pick up. I highly recommend it.
It is on the 501 must read list.

Movie Review

2011-05-02T11:21:00.001-07:00

April 1, 2011

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows – Part 1

Yes it is shameful that I waited this long to see this Harry Potter Movie – and then it was just bored chance that I watched it. I was flying to Malaysia and this was an option for a movie to watch.

All I can say is – if you haven't read the book, you will be lost. Visually it is pretty good. The plot is poorly developed. I have heard people call it a "camping movie". No, that is not so. But it doesn't tie things together well.

Yes I would recommend anyone to go see it, but if you haven't read it, see it on a DVD, with someone who has read it, and with your figure on the Pause button so you can say, "Where did that snake come from?", "What is that shining deer?", "Who is he killing in the tower?", "Why do these 17 year olds look so old?".

(And if you watch a movie on an airplane, turn on sub-titles so you can hear what is going on.)

I only give this a 2.5 and that is generous.

Movie Review

2011-05-02T11:14:00.001-07:00

February, 2011

Young Victoria

It is a movie about just before and just after Victoria becomes queen of England. Mar and I watched it because she got it at a Blockbuster closing for her Mom – and then her Mom had to go home. We were not disappointed that she got the movie.

At first it seemed – slow – but it was real drama. No bombs. No car chases. Just a look at a young lady who became king and found the true love of her life (who, by the way, got shot trying to protect her).

Would I recommend it? Not to a testosterone, pumped up male – or even a modern female. But if you just want to see a well made movie, this one is pretty good.

Mar and I both liked it – and we give it a 3.

Little Know Facts

2011-05-02T10:49:00.000-07:00

Lar broke his right wrist in the 9th grade (not a freshman - back then 9th grade was still part of Jr. High School).

Lighting fire-crackers in the church parking lot - lit a fuse - backed up - triped over a parking block - caught myself wrong when I went down.

Cast - on the right hand - for four weeks.

Enough said about that litte escapade.

Books on Tape / CD

2011-05-01T08:40:00.000-07:00

April 29, 2011

My Man Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse

Satirical and fun. Light stuff for driving.

Travels with Lar – Penang – Post 3

2011-04-30T11:33:00.001-07:00

April 1 – 9, 2011
Wednesday
Woke up, went to work and taught all day.
In the evening, Kelly flew home and Ian had to go to dinner with a sales team. So Patti and Kazuyo and I went to the Queensbay Mall – which is just like any other big mall – and had dinner at a Japanese restaurant. We took the shuttle from the Hotel to the mall, but they forgot to come get us, so we called our favorite taxi driver and he came and got us. So not a whole lot happened that day.

Thursday
Woke up, went to work and taught all day.
We are getting tired. Patti and Kazuyo and Ian and I just stayed at the hotel for a fancy dinner with all of the courses – salad (I could have used that salad bar for dinner – shrimp, squid, oysters plus a lot of other things – by the way I did try all of those things). We had cream of carrot soup. We had a sorbet to cleanse our palette and then dinner – I had a fish thing. We skipped dessert because – well we just couldn't eat any more. The restaurant was called "The View" and see the pictures to know why (actually my room was above The View so I had this view every morning and every evening). Just how fancy was it? Well Ian came in shorts – and they made him go change.

Evening View - Cloudy but it only rained once while I was there.

Evening views from "The View"

By the way, Penang is on an island on the Indian Ocean side of Malaysia. It is connected by a long bridge – which I never had to cross because the airport is on the island also. Many people have a family home on the mainland and a work apartment on the island. They come to the work apartment after work on Monday and go home to their family after work on Friday, so traffic those two days is pretty heavy. How do they do it? Well a nice condo in Penang would cost about 100,000 Ringgits – or about 35,000 dollars. If you are getting paid the technology wages, you can swing this kind of life style.

Friday
Woke up, went to work and taught all day. It was the last day of class and Ping Ping and Tony took us to lunch at a Vietnamese, Cambodian, Thai restaurant. Again it was more family style and Tony ordered. It was great. They were all amazed that an old American like me could handle the spicy food. Most of it wasn't that spicy, but there was a grass and shrimp soup that could curl your toes. The class went well and they are excited to try to get me back in July – but that hasn't been approved yet.
Friday evening Kazuyo had to fly back to Singapore where she lives. Ian, who is a Formula 1 racecar fan, flew out to a Malaysian race that was happening on Sunday. So Patti and I went back to the mall for dinner. She is staying another two weeks to help with implementation.
Saturday

I woke up early and flew home. Same route back – but only a 3 hour layover in Hong Kong and only a 12 hour flight to San Francisco because we had the jet stream helping us along. And I picked up the day I lost going over. But believe me, it was still a long day – or day and a half – or how ever long it was.

Final notes:
I didn't see any monkeys – but I saw a sign that said don't feed the monkeys.
I didn't see any snakes.
I would never drive in Penang. They drive on the wrong side of the road and most laws are treated like suggestions. At times it was a little bit scary.
Malaysian people are small and "pretty". I swear some of the girls in my class were in middle school, they looked so young. But the climate is just so good for their skin.
International travel still makes me apprehensive – but I flew home all by myself and didn't get into any trouble. I figured out immigration and customs with no problems.
I was glad to get home.

Travels with Lar – Penang – Post 2

2011-04-29T20:54:00.001-07:00

April 1 – 9, 2011
Monday
Woke up and had breakfast and went to work at Intel. We used Taxis all week long – we had the number of one taxi driver who took care of us all week. Evidently taxi work is really slow in Penang right now and he was very happy to work as our driver.
The class was at Intel. There were 12 very attentive and happy people. It went well. I will make a general statement that this was the best Intel class I have taught. Another Mentor person, Ian, spent time in the class also. He, like Patti, is part of their global support team. The picture is outside the Intel entrance of the training building.

After class, all of the Mentor people – all that are in town – went to a place in Georgetown (the old part of Penang at the north end of the island) for dinner. It was a "choose your own fish" type of place called Bali Hai and again, the more local attendees ordered for us. It was good food. It was right across the road from the ocean.

On the trip home, we did not take the highway, but drove through a downtown area just to see – but it was night.
My problem today is that I am really tired. My body is 14 hours off.

Tuesday
Work again.
Weather has been nice, but today was hot and humid. I expected rain, but no – just hot and humid (heat index was over 100).
In the evening, Patti, Kazuyo, Ian and I went to Little India for dinner. We drove about 30 minutes (it is also up by Georgetown) and when the taxi stopped for us to get out, I looked around and said "Really? You want me to eat here?"

Well I really didn't say that, but I thought it. The streets were narrow and the shops were small and a the road was cobble stone and it was old. Rajad, the taxi driver had taken Patti and Kazuyo there over the weekend and they said it was wonderful. It really was. Best Indian food I have ever tasted.
We shopped a little – for scarves for Mar – but didn't get them after we ate (Patti went and got one after I left and brought it home.) I wish I had a good camera to show the area at night. It was a truly unique place. Did I feel safe? Well sure.

http://www.bestpenangguide.com/little-india-penang.html

Travels with Lar – Penang – Post 1

2011-04-29T11:39:00.001-07:00

April 1 – 9, 2011
Penang, Malaysia
This was a work trip, but being a real international trip, it probably needs more of a write-up than the normal "I just went to Tempe" trip. So here goes. Keep in mind that this is my very first ever international, oversees trip. I have been to international Canada, but overseas makes this different and a little bit scary. Luckily, for my first overseas trip I was not alone.
The Trip There – Friday - Sunday
It is a long way to Penang, Malaysia. I left home I the evening on Friday, April 1 and flew to San Francisco. There I met the first traveling companion, Kelly and we flew 14 hours to Hong Kong. I slept and ate and read and watched two movies and wiggled my feet so the blood didn't just settle down and make clots. 14 hours is a long time. It was Sunday when we got to Hong Kong because we crossed the International Date Line and lost a day – not to worry, I got it back coming home. We had an 8 hour layover in the Hong Kong airport. We tried to get out for a short boat tour, but the lines through immigration were so long we didn't make the tour. At 3:00 PM we flew three more hours to Penang – my first real overseas destination.

That evening we met with other Mentor people who were there that week to do presentations and demonstrations for Intel and Agilent. We all went to dinner together, which was nice because two of the local people did the ordering and we ate family style. Of importance is the fact that Patti and Kazuyo were there. They would be helpers in my class.
The motel was the Equatorial, a five star resort overlooking the south part of Penang. It was nice but there were few other amenities around it so we had to do a lot of traveling by taxi to get where we wanted to eat or shop.

Jet lagged real bad – and I burnt up my computer power supply. More on that later – and thank heavens I was travelling with suave, well experienced people.

Book on Tape / CD

2011-04-25T16:07:00.000-07:00

April 24, 2011

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

And by the way . . .

I started listening to Tom Clancy's Without Remorse. I didn't get very far before the language and adult situations made me stop. Call me a tee-totterer if you will, but it was more than I wanted to have in my mind.

Books on Tape/CD

2011-04-18T12:38:00.000-07:00

April 17, 2011

The Flight of the Phoenix by Elliston Trevor

2011-04-17T16:52:00.001-07:00

April 16, 2011
Removing the Stump and the Testosterone Tool
The weather is nice so Mar and Lar have been doing a lot of yard work. We really like doing it because it is outside and generally you get to see results right away – I love instant gratification. However, our last project was a little bit frustrating. When we first looked at our new home during the search process, we noticed that there were a couple of dead trees on the property. Luckily, the former owners took them out without our even asking. All was well in dead tree land.
However, this weekend we started digging up a place for a garden and right there in the middle was – a stump. As we dug we realized that the stump was providing large roots, so in our vanity we choose to remove the main offender – the stump itself. Task one was dig around it , and around it , and around it and fight with the myriad of roots which the stump had sent out. We figured that if we cut enough the stump would loosen and we would begin to see movement and eventually we would be able to yank that big, bad baby out of there. An hour later and a pretty big hole dug and the stump was winning. It didn't wiggle in the least.

We called it an evening with a humbled heart and a hole – still ruled over by a stump. I pondered and fretted over this for the evening. In the morning I had a plan. I went to the home improvement store and bought "the tool". It was a six foot, 18 pound digging bar with a sharp point at one end and a 2 inch cutting head at the other. I figured this would not only allow me to dig better, but also work as a pry bar when the offensive stump started to wiggle.

Morning and I am digging again. Pick, bar, scoot out the dirt. There is another big root. Let the bar handle it. Two hits and it is gone. Pick some more. Use the bar some more, scoop some more. Another root. Whooee, that root was broken with just one swing. But alas, after all the sweat and swinging – the stump still wasn't moving at all. Not at all.

Frustration set in and I lifted and jammed that digging bar down on the top of the stump. Inspiration. If I can't dig it out, I'll just chop it up. And that is what I did.

I just split and broke the top 10 inches off of the top of that stump, and then buried the rest. Me and my bar were finally victorious. (Well at least we buried the sin.)

Reading list

2011-04-15T11:47:00.001-07:00

February 18, 2011
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

This is a book on the 501 Must Read list. I was at a used book store in Longmont (Barbed Wire Books) and saw this one. Realizing it was on the 501 list, I bought it and started reading it. Alas, after I had read it I found that we already had a copy on our bookshelf. Okay, so now I have two copies. And the second copy was not in vain because Mar's Book club is reading Wuthering Heights in April, so I had an extra copy to loan out.
Wuthering Heights is the name of house on the moors of Northern England. Wuthering is a word for gale, blustering winds, so the name indicates a forlorn, cold and isolated place, which it is – not just in the environment, but also socially and metaphysically. The antagonist of the story is "Heathcliff", who is really one of the most despicable, unlovable and cruel villains I have ever read about. He is wracked by an unrequited love, and swears vengeance on all who stood in his way of attaining that love after the object of his love dies. The metaphysical nature of his "beyond the grave" love, and how it warps his soul is the basis of the story.
It is a classic, the only classic written by Emily Bronte because she died soon after it's publication. It is not easy reading. One character speaks in an English dialect that I could not decipher (luckily my copy had footnotes which "translated" those passages. It is a good book to read, but it is not light reading. If you wanted to do a character/plot/scene evaluation of a book and goo deeply into theme and symbolism, this would be a good but challenging book to attempt.
I enjoyed it. Many people wouldn't.

Reading List

2011-04-15T10:19:00.001-07:00

February 12, 2011

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

This is a book on the 501 Must Read list. It is also a book that we had in out bookshelf (thanks to Breanne). So I took it and read it.
For anyone who has not read this book, I highly recommend it. Anne does change in the book – she matures and learns some valuable lessons. What is interesting is the way other people change I the course of the book, making it a really well written story. And in addition to all of that, it is just fun to read. You develop compassion and understanding of all of the characters. And it is just fun to read (yes I said that already.

Travels with Lar

2011-04-15T10:07:00.001-07:00

March 13-18, 2011
Tempe, Arizona

This was a business trip to teach a class in the Mentor Tempe office. It was specifically for one customer – Intel. I have been teaching a lot for Intel as of late. It was a customized class. The class went well.
On Wednesday I went to visit Ed and have dinner with him. It was just him because Michelle was in Southern California and Sandy and Jonathan were in Washington D. C. We had a good talk and a good dinner. I like going to Tempe so I get a chance to visit with my brother.
On Thursday I went to the Mesa temple.

My flight home was delayed over two hours. It was good weather in Tempe, and good weather in Denver, but the plane got delayed in San Francisco so everything down-stream got messed up. Still, it was a Friday night return, so I was happy.

Travels with Lar

2011-04-15T09:54:00.001-07:00

March 6 – 12, 2011
Dallas, Texas

This was a business trip to teach a class in the Mentor Dallas office. It was specifically for one customer – Raytheon. It was a customized class. The class went well.
The Mentor office in Dallas has changed locations. It is no longer in Addison, but is in Dallas – but still only about three miles from the last office building. The new building is associated with a mall, so at lunch there is a good place to go walking. It is a nice office with a nice training room. The hardest thing about the office is the parking lot – you could get lost in the parking lot. In fact, one time I did. I was trying to get out and suddenly I was going up in the structure rather than down towards the exit. One of the students gave me the best advice. "Just park on the first level and then take the elevator up to level five." That made it much easier because you could see the exit.
The only other thing important about this trip was that I got to go to the Dallas temple on Wednesday night.

And then I flew home on Saturday morning.

Listening List

2011-03-31T13:07:00.001-07:00

I have always felt it my duty to leave for posterity, "lists" so that if anyone needs to get a doctorate by presenting a paper on my life, they will have ample information. There are things a doctorate thesis could use to make up why I am the way I am. Of course I haven't been diligent about this all my life, but as any reader of my blog could attest, I have been better over the past couple of years.
And so here is another list. Now that I am driving to work, I have taken to listening to books on tape – or CD. I will not give commentary, just the list.

Little Know Facts

2011-03-31T12:28:00.001-07:00

I will bet that none of my children know that . . . .
Mar was the first girl ever to take welding at Bozeman Senior High School. She wanted to know how to weld in case she needed that skill in her art work.
And in those days, she had to wear a skirt.

Event

2011-03-02T11:15:00.001-08:00

March 1, 2011
Hotdogs
First day of March – 65 degrees – clear Colorado skies – doing yard work trimming trees.
What other excuse do we need.

Reading List

2011-02-21T13:15:00.001-08:00

January 30, 2011

Divine Signatures by Gerald N. Lund

Mar gave me this book for Christmas. It was a splendid gift. I loved the book. Everyone shourd readit. It has some doctrine in it, but a lot of it is just stories of what Elder Lund calls "Devine Signatures". He says that Heavenly Father always wants to bless us, and he does bless us whenever he can. However, there are times when he wants us to really get it – to really know that he has blessed us. There are times when we can see whith great gratitude that he is watching over us. In this book, you want to keep reading to see all of the stories of times that God has put his signature into people's lives. It made me think, and I'm sure you would also think of times when you can definitely see His hand, not just as a simple blessing, but as a signature saying "I am here".

This is a story from my life of a Devine Signature:

It was a bleak time in my life. The company I was working for was failing and I was looking at possible unemployment in a hard market. Still, I had held on to my job longer than many in the company. So it was that I was sent to another city to teach a class. This class had good and bad aspects. First, it was in Phoenix, Arizona. At the time, my parents and two brothers lived in Mesa, which was about 60 minutes from where I was working. However, the class was going over two weeks , so I was to spend a weekend in the Valley of the Sun. With family there that didn't seem too bad initially, but the depression I felt was heavy, and I decided not to spend every moment with family. In fact, the Sunday I was staying over I made an excuse to not go down to see them or go to church with them. The excuse was, "I am planning on going up to Prescott on Sunday."

Our family had spent two years living in Prescott. We had good friends there. I had served in a bishopric there. At the time I made the excuse, it seemed like a really good excuse. I thought I really did want to go and see Prescott. But as Sunday morning broke, I missed my family and I worried about work and I got more and more depressed. I just laid in the motel room and did nothing. I have to say it was really one of the lowest points of my life.

Then the signature happened. It was not an instant signature. It took the next four hours. But it started with a real prompting. I almost heard a voice in my head that said, "Well, if you are going to Prescott, get up and go NOW." It wasn't a still small voice. It was emphatic. So I did. I got dressed for Sunday and drove the 1 ½ hours up to Prescott. It was pretty late when I got to the church building. I decided I would just go in and see what was happening, and if it was convenient, I would stay for a while.

I found out that it was a ward conference – for the ward I used to be in. The bishop whom I served with was no longer bishop, he was the stake president. They were having Priesthood Meeting first and it was just starting, so I took a seat in the back. Now here is the signature (beyond the voice in the motel that got me there at just the right time to have this experience). When opening exercises for Priesthood Meeting were over, the stake president, my old bishop and old friend made his way straight to me. He had so much to do that day, but he came to me, and this is what he said. "Larry, I am so glad to see you. I was just thinking about you the other day. I thought, I wonder how the Stones's are doing. They were such good people."

Right then at that point of my life, Heavenly Father put me in a spot where he could have one of the most influential people in my life give me a message of encouragement and peace. It was a message I really needed. It was a message that got me through the next couple of months.

How does a divine signature work? Heavenly Father just makes things happen his way to deliver his message. And that message for me was, "I am here. And I am helping. And you are a good person." It was not just a message – it was a message just for me.

Travels with Lar

2011-02-21T12:41:00.001-08:00

January 30 – February 5
Kansas City, Missouri

This was a work trip – the fourth in a row. I was teaching at a site I have taught in many times before – Honeywell FM&T in South Kansas City. It was destined to be an uneventful week. It was a class I have taught many times before to people I have taught many times before. I was looking at no stress.
No stress was not to be.

Tuesday afternoon it started to snow. By the time it was over it would be known as the killer blizzard of 2011. On the way home from the plant on Tuesday night I got stuck, in the middle of the road. There was just too much snow. I finally got to the motel and hunckered down. I got to huncker longer than I expected because Wednesday morning, Honeywell closed the plant until noon. So we started the class at noon – and by that time the sun was out and it was beautiful day – but the wind was blowing at 35 MPH and the temperature never got above 5.

So the class became somewhat more of an adventure, but by Saturday morning, all was well and I few back home. Just another week on the road.

I think I'll stay home for a while.

The Power of an old habit

2011-02-21T12:29:00.000-08:00

Or . . .

Brain Imprints and Moving.

At our old house, I slept on the left hand side of the bed and Mar slept on the right. That gave me the alarm clock and all that was needed for the evenings endeavours of cuddling, smooching and sleeping - yes sleeping - so the clock was kept on the night stand on the left hand side of the bed. It was a good arrangement and had worked for nigh onto 20 years.

So now we move to a new house and this inspires a new arrangement, where I am sleeping on the right hand side of the bed with Mar on the left. Just 180 degrees different as you can imagine because a bed only has two real directions, unless you want to sleep crosswise, which may be fine for a parcel of younguns, but younguns we are not, so we sleep lengthwise - but I digress. Now the night stand, with the alarm clock and all of the of the needed things is on the right hand side - mainly because that is the location of the most suitable plug. This arrangements has worked well until the other night - or the other morning.

I had to arise at the unseemly hour of 5:00 AM. I set the alarm and we retires and slept quite well until that pesky alarm went off. Then twenty years of habit kicked it. The alarm rang, and I instantly reached over to where the alarm clock was - I mean was not any longer - and smacked Mar right in the head. Needless to say on that morning the alarm woke Mar a lot better than it woke me. It took me a second or two to even realize where that stupid alarm clock was - but to my own credit, I only smacked Mar in the head once.

I did say I was sorry - about a hundred times before we went to bed. The next evening, we just left the alarm off.

Movie Review

2011-02-08T14:59:00.000-08:00

January 26, 2011

Night at the Museum Two

I am in a motel room in Tempe, AZ. It is quite tired out. My plan was that I would watch a movie tonight. I even brought one from home, but alas, there is no DVD viewer on my new computer (I will rectify that, let me tell you.) So the evening plan is blown - wasted - shot in the head, So i turn on the TV. I go to HBO (scary - you never know what might be on HBO). Lookee here. I got there just at the start of a movie I have never seen - and I sort of wanted to see it.

Night at the Museum Two is just fun. It is a total sequel and pretty much totally the same but in a different museum. Acting was okay. Story was a little bit weak. But as I said, it was fun.

Not for real little kids, but starting at five or six, okay. And even okay for adults - if you don't expect too much. We will put it dead center on the scale at 2.5 - okay maybe not that great - just a 2.

Movie Review

2011-02-04T21:57:00.000-08:00

January 22, 2011

Two movies in one night - unheard of:

Inception

A movie with a twist. Ben and Brea brought this over because they wanted to "watch it with Dad". A story about dreamscapes. Interesting twists. Very interesting cinematography. Really interesting effects. Extremely hard story to follow, but it did have a twist. At the end, Ben and I were at odds about if it was or if it wasn't real. I said no. Ben said yes. It is all in the minds of the beholder on this one because the story doesn't say.

I liked it more that Mar, so it only gets a 2.5 on the scale. Not for kids because they wouldn't get it. Not for casual watching by adults, or they wouldn't get it either.

Salt

Mar and her Mom went into a Blockbuster that was going out of business to see if they could buy some cheap movies. They found some that looked promising and when they went to check them out they got a deal they couldn't refuse. Take the movies for free if you just sign up for a free month of the Blockbuster movie subscription service (like Netflix - only Blockbuster). So they did.

Salt was the first movie they rented. A CIA - secret agent movie. What man wouldn't want to see Angelina Jolie kicking and shooting her way out of a lot of tight spots - especially after she covers a surveillance camera in the first ten minutes by using her underwear (its all just for fantasy purposes). Well it wasn't exactly like that - I mean just kicking and shooting, how be it there was a goodly share of that. It was a far fetched plot, full of cold war left over angst and the fact that the good guys and the bad guys are changing from good guys to bad guys or bad guys to good guys so much it is a little bit hard to know where you are going or who you are going home with. In the end she either does or doesn't get caught, depending on which good guy or which bad guy you are following or liking at that specific time. Not a bad action movie, but that is all. Nothing great on the all time list.

Not high on my recommend list. Definitely not for kids, just because.

Reading List

2011-02-04T19:18:00.000-08:00

January 24, 2011

You're Gonna Make It by John Bytheway

Mar bought this book, maybe for Michael - yes for Michael but not our Michael, for Andrea's Michael - and Jasen. John Bytheway does a light hearted look at the problems of youth in high school, speaking from his own experiences. The premise of the book is that, yes there are hard times through high school. But there are ways to make it through unscathed by the world, which really seems now a days to be at its worst in the pressure cooker of adolescent school drama. The solution is - are you ready for this - be string. This book offers encouragement and - encouragement - and encouragement - and a few suggestions.

The essence of the message - you are okay and you will make it.

The book is written in a lighthearted, way appropriate for teenagers, and it assumes you are a member of the church. It is short enough to not turn youth away. I mean, it was meant to entice them to read it - entice in the way only John Bytheway could do.

He does quote other authors - in particular, I like the story about Brad Wilcox and hating your parents. Now that is a story that sheds valuable light for teenagers.

Keep strong y'all. You are gonna make it.

(Maybe that was meant for parents also).

Travle with Lar

2011-02-04T19:01:00.000-08:00

January 23 - 28, 2011

Tempe, Arizona

This was a work trip - another trip to teach for Intel. The class went well. It was 14 people, when we only expected 8 participants, but still all was handled in a professional manner and I think they were satisfied.

On Monday I went to visit Ed and Sandy and took them out to dinner. It was nice to see them. Michelle had a class and Jonathan, well he was sick and had to stay home and catch up on homework - and he had broken his hand - by punching a wall - a padded wall, but a wall none the less. It is so nice to have such an easy thing to tease him about.

Tuesday I went to the temple.

Travel for this trip, Sunday evening and Friday evening were totally uneventful - except that I was upgraded to first class on the way to Phoenix. And, oh yes, I got a Mustang as my car. I didn't drive fast, but it was nice knowing I could. Vroooooom.

Mar and School

2011-02-04T18:53:00.000-08:00

January 18, 2011

School Starts Again

Mar has had a good, relaxing time over the last month because she didn't have class - but alas that time is over. School, her last semester, started again today.

That is scary and refreshing at the same time. Scary because, well it is school. Scary because it is the last semester and that means hard work. Scary because she has clinicals, a real test for her nursing skills and her people skill. Scary because she worries and doesn't sleep well.

Refreshing, because it is the last semester, Refreshing because it is not as many credits as last semester. Refreshing because her clinicals are at the beginning of the semester so she can get them done quickly.

And scary because after this she has a month "cap stones" project, working in a nursing environment. And then really scary because at the very end there is the . . . (duh, duh, duh) the NCLEX RN test.

She is wonderful, but it is soooooo stressful. I would recommend, suggest, and even plead for support and encouragement.

How proud I am of her I can t say. I try often but it always comes out less than I mean. Others can sure tell her how great she is. That will help.

Reading List

2011-02-03T15:47:00.000-08:00

January 21, 2011

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski

A delightful little book about how the influence of the Savior in conjunction with a little human kindness changes a man's outlook.

No, before anyone claims "unfair" - I will say it is a short, children's book - with a lot of pictures. Still I am going to count it because of the richness of the story.

I recommend it. Get it and read it. It could be another yearly, must read for Christmas book.

Reading List

2011-02-03T15:40:00.000-08:00

January 20, 2011

The Mansion by Henry van Dyke

President Thomas S. Monson mentioned in his Christmas address this year that every Christmas season he reads A Christmas Carol and The Mansion. Well, I have read The Christmas Carol many times, but never The Mansion. And so as a surprise to me, Mar bought it. I am so glad she did.

It is really a short story, a little less that 50 pages, and easy reading. It is about a rich man who discovers that even though he is a philanthropist, his "good works" on earth may not be counting for much. Enough said. I don't want to ruin it for potential audiences.

I would highly recommend it. Yep, I would highly recommend it once a year.

Afton - Video

2011-02-01T20:29:00.000-08:00

This is a short video of little Afton.

See the travels blog prceding this for more details.

Travels with Lar

2011-02-01T20:11:00.000-08:00

January 16 - 22, 2011

Portland / Hillsboro, OR

This was a work trip to again teach at Intel. The class was supposed to be 8 people. It ended up with 9. This class wasn't too bad because we were actually at an Intel site and they didn't let me in until 9:00 and I had to leave at 5:00. The class was still hard. It was a harder group of people, but I did have good support from Mentor personnel.

On Monday I went to Beaverton to visit Terry and Hallie. That was a nice and fun visit.

On Tuesday I went to the Portland Temple.

On Wednesday afternoon I went to the Mentor offices in Wilsonville, just to say hi - after all, I was in the area.

On Thursday I went to see Jon and Erin and their baby Afton in Aloha. By the end of the evening, Afton and I were good friends. It helps the bonding when you share your ice cream.

Friday it was move down by the airport for a fast get away on Saturday morning.

I was upgraded to first class on the way home - yes that was nice.

Reading List

2011-02-01T19:59:00.000-08:00

January 14, 2011

The Great Short Works of Mark Twain by Samuel Clemens

This book was a birthday present from Brea and Ben. I can not tell you how much I really enjoyed reading it. I like reading books that are really well written, and Mark Twain was a master word smith. In a compilation like this, I also got to see the development of him, meaning his philosophy. In his early carrer he was quite a humorist, but as he aged he got more philosophical and downright mystical.

I just have to say thank you to my kids for such a great gift. It put a smile on my face. I alway recommend Mark Twain.

Travels with Lar

2011-02-01T19:46:00.000-08:00

January 9 - 14, 2011

Phoenix / Tempe, Arizona

This was a business trip. I taught a group of Intel people. There wsere supposed to be 12 in the class. There ended up being 14. It was hard work. I spent 10 to 12 hours a day working. Not a fun week, but the class went well.

On Tuesday I did get to go to the temple.

Travel was easy going and coming - so that was a good part of the trip.

Melting the Trifle

2011-01-07T13:23:00.000-08:00

Januay 1, 2011

Here is a video of Ben's Birthday - taken by Brea.

This is my first venture into Video Blogging.

Yikes - I worked when I put it in. Too bad if you can't see it - it is a good video.

Thought

2011-01-07T12:37:00.000-08:00

Funeral

January 7, 2011

Today Mar and I went to the funeral of Richard Holtry. He was a church friend of ours. The funeral was in Lyons.

Fist, my thoughts about Richard. He was always a good friend for Mar and I. He was always willing to help in any way possible. We got to know him when he worked with Mar on the Service committee. He always did more that his share of the work on whatever activity was underway. But there was also a darker side of Richard. He was injured in the Vietnam war, shot in the head. He was repaired, but he felt that the metal plate they put in his head affected him. He would get very gruff - and mean - with some people. He isolated many an a few he physically threatened. His was completely estranged from his family. His was a world of opposition in all things. But for our part, he was a friend.

Funerals also give us, at least those of us who are older, a time to reflect on how we are doing. Mar and I did a little reflecting during this one. Enough said about that.

Thanks for being a friend, Richard. We, Mar and I will miss you.

Movie Review

2011-01-07T12:29:00.000-08:00

Eclipse

January 3, 2011

The third episode in the Twilight saga - well it sagged. Like the first two, there was too much teenage angst. But the first two finally produced some okay stuff. This one doesn't.

Not worth your time.

Give it a generaous 2.

Movie Review

2011-01-07T12:24:00.000-08:00

Tangled

December 28, 2010

Breanne made us go. I am glad she did. I had no intention of ever seeing this movie, but it was totally charming. Typical Disney romatic romance. Fun. Easy to watch.

Go see it.

Give it a 4.

Reading List

2011-01-06T13:56:00.000-08:00

Angela's Ashes by James McCourt

December 17, 2010

Why? Because it was just hanging around the house. I do not know where it came from or how it
got there. But it does say "Winner of the Pulitzer Prize" on the cover - so maybe.

Maybe not. It took a long time for me to get through this book. It is a memoir of a child who grew up in depression Ireland. There is an innocence in the beginning, and a little bit of a light heartedness. But as time goes on, the innocence and light heartedness can't mask the real desperation of his situation. I felt like it was in the same vein as A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, but not as well written.

Nope, I don't recommend it.

Travels with Lar

2011-01-06T13:39:00.000-08:00

Phoenix - Tempe, AZ

December 5 - 10, 2010

Travel for work. This is again an Intel class. I am doing most of the instruction this week, but I still have a supporting cast. This time there is Ian Gabbiats, who is still working on putting the material together (he was present last time), Sean Palencia (he was there last time), and Patti Danesi, an old friend of mine who is here from Germany (it was nice to see her).

The class went well, but the material really needs some serious work.

Travel was no problem.

Now this ends the travel for the year.

Travels with Lar

2011-01-06T13:34:00.000-08:00

Minneapolis - Edina, MN

November 30 - December 4, 2010

Travel for work. Taught a 4 day Expedition PCB Advanced class for Starkey.

Snowed on Friday. Cold.

I am tired of traveling - but it isn't over yet.

Movie Critic

2011-01-06T13:27:00.000-08:00

The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

November 24, 2010

Saw it at Andrea and Ben's. Mar and I both gave it a 3.

Thanksgiving

2011-01-06T13:18:00.000-08:00

Trip to Southern Cal.

November 20 - 27, 2010

It was one of those years when Mar and I din't have any solid plans for Thanksgiving - so we made some. Michael needed some of his things brought down to Hemet and Andrea just needed a visit, so we decided to go down south to California.

November 20 was a travel day. It was the day we wanted to get across the Continental Divide on I70, and it was a beautiful day for it. Temperatures good time all the way and really enjoyed the time together and the scenery. We stopped in Loma, just before entering Utah:
We saw a small farm that had llamas - that would make them the Loma Llamas
Loma had streets named by letters - "L", "M" - and one we saw called "M 7/10"
From there we drove into the area of Southern Utah, an area I had never been in before. It is the canyon area and I thought it was just georgeous and breathtaking. We got to I15 about 7:00 and there it started to snow, but it was a warm snow and didn't pack the roads. Still we were tired and decided to spend the night in Cedar City.

Glenwood Canyon

Pictures of South Utah

November 21 we continued on South through the rest of Utah, a little corner of Arizona with the beautiful Virgin River Canyon, across the southern tip of Nevada without stopping in Las Vegas, and then on into California. And there is started to snow again, but not for long. It really was a good travel day. We got to Andrea's in San Clemente at about 3:00. This was a big day for Ben and Andrea and Michael because they had to speak in Sacrament Meeting. Then in the evening Ben had to deal with one of the Marines in his command who died in a motorcycle accident.

November 22 was a relax day for us - some shopping and helping Andrea. Ben and the boys did a service project passing out over 1200 turkeys and dinner fixings for Marine families. Jasen came home eaver.with a pretty good f

November 23 we went over to Hemet to see Michael and Taylor and take them the things we totted down from Colorado. We also took them out to dinner.

November 24 was another relax day.

November 25 - Thanksgiving - we stated with the PTA Turkey trot. We had fun running that, even though it was windy and a little bit cold. Then there was the Turkey Bowl - flag football. I played and didn't hurt myself. Michael and Taylor came and we had a nice dinner and relaxed like you are supposed to do on Thanksgiving.

November 26 - We had to leave. We drove all the way to Ogden and had dinner with Mom and Melanie, then went on to Logan.

November 27 - We packed up and drove back to Longmont - with Mar's Mom with us. We actually left a day early because there was a storm coming.

So there it is - a nice trip and we really enjoyed ourselves. All in all, a little over 2500 miles.

Travels with Lar

2011-01-06T12:01:00.000-08:00

Tuscon, Arizona

November 14 - 19, 2010

Work travel teaching Library Manager for Raytheon. Nothing special to report.

The House – Paintin’

2010-11-16T20:16:00.003-08:00

When we bought our new house, there were some changes that mar and I knew we wanted/needed to do. Much of that was painting of rooms. Some of them we just wanted to paint. Some of them we needed to paint (because the colors just didn't go with anything we had). But – we figured we could do it a little bit at a time. That was the plan.

The reality was that our children wanted to help, and so the time frame moved very quickly. Three days after we moved in, Erica came for a visit. Because I was working and mar was in school, Erica needed something to do, so she primed the walls on two bedrooms. They were in the "wanted" to change category, mainly because they were both dark blue, and different shades of blue. So over the next week, we got those two rooms done.

That was two projects done in quick time.

Another day, Brea and Ben were not working, but I was and mar was at school, so Brea and Ben came over and painted the office, mainly because it was a dark green, and it didn't match any of our stuff.

That was three projects done in quick time.

And this last weekend, they all decided a "painting party" was in order, so Mat and his family, and Erica and her family, and Brea and her family (that would be Ben), descended on the house. In one day we painted the living room walls (one wall is about 20 feet tall) because it just didn't match anything we had, and the laundry room because it was dark rust orange – and we want to put up some cabinets in there, and some of the walls in the kitchen that were just a different color from the rest of the walls.

So that is six projects done in quick time.

My family is wonderful. Notice that none of those projects were just Lar and Mar doing them. We had great help. (And I am sure that if Michael and Andrea and families were closer, they would have helped, too – if not, they wouldn't have gotten to eat any pizza.)

(I really wanted to take before/after pictures of all of the projects in the new house. Alas, not all of them were done – but I do have some – and I may post them – someday – keep checking.)

The House – It is workin’

2010-11-16T20:16:00.001-08:00

So I figured it is time to post about our new house. Yes we moved. Yes it is still in Longmont. Yes it is still in our same ward. No, I can no longer walk to work, but I can drive there faster than I could walk from the last home. Now those important questions are answered.

Many people ask, "So now that all of the kids are gone, are you downsizing?" Well, no not really. It is a bigger house. That gives us more potential. In the old house, when all of our family got together, they could not all be in one area. There just wasn't room. That was a requirement as we were looking into new houses, that there was an open floor plan with room for everyone. Now his new house has that. In fact we have had a couple of occasions so far where it has become apparent that it is working. We have been able to have a lot of people over and they all fit. The kids have room to play. The adults have room to talk. And there is room to escape, like when babies need a nap. So no we did not downsize, but we did upgrade.

With that said, here are some features which Mar and I particularly like:

Office/den in the gathering area – very nice.
Island in the kitchen – nice.
Hardwood floors in the basement – very nice – made possible by piled construction, which was made necessary by the soil condition.
Walk in closets – in three bedroom – very, very nice.
Vanity in master bath – nice – because Mar can sit down to do makeup.
Covered patio – very nice – it just expands the summer living space – and it is covered by a -
Walk out patio from the master bedroom – nice.
Treehouse/Playhouse – nice – the grandkids already love it.
Kitchenette in the basement – nice.
Three car garage – nice – but right now it is just a three car storage area.
Big built in storage room in the basement – very nice – organized, yes it is already almost organized.
Gas fireplace – nice – we didn't realize how nice, until we used it.
Wired for sound – nice – and Rich, our family electronics wizard helped us get that set up.
Formal dining room – okay – we don't have formal dining room furniture.
Doorbell – wow – we never had one of those before.

Yes, there are some drawbacks, or things we just don't know about yet. But we are liking it.
(There may be pictures to follow – check back to see.)

Event

2010-11-16T17:47:00.001-08:00

Turkey Trot – 2010

November 13, 2010

It was a beautiful day about three weeks ago when I sent out an innocent e-mail – "Does anybody want to run the Longmont Turkey Trot with me – Nov. 13 – 2 miles." Last year when I sent this e-mail, no one did, and so I was able to just "blow it off". This year, everybody did, so . . .

On Saturday morning, we all piled into a couple of cars and went to run the race. The participants were – Mat's family (Mat, Andi, Andrew and Mylie – Wyatt stayed home with Nana), Erica's family – Erica and Rich – Alice and Evy stayed home with Nana), Brea's family – Ben (Brea had to work – but she did come over later in the day), and Me (Mar stayed home with the wee ones). Mat's family and Erica's family came Friday night. Ben came over Saturday morning. I got home from Phoenix Friday night. So we were all ready.

The number one obstacle – it was supposed to be cold. After all, it is mid-November in Colorado. We all bundled up pretty well. By race time, 9:15, it had warmed up to about 40 degrees, so we started peeling off gloves and hats pretty soon after we began.

I feel fortunate in these kind of races. Fortunate that Mat always runs with Andrew and Andi always runs with Mylie. I figure both Mat and Andi could beat me. But because of their partnerships, well I have them behind me. Erica and Rich both say they are not there to "run fast", but just to run. Okay, I have them beat. Now Ben is a different matter. I set two goals. One was to run two miles in less that 18 minutes. The other was to beat Ben.

Goal one – I ran it in 17:51. I call that respectable. Goal two – Ben let me cross in front of him. He ran with e the whole time, but I feel certain that he could have left me in a cloud of dust at the end. My problem is that when I run in a crowd, I have a hard time pacing myself, so I go too fast at the beginning, and then it is a challenge at the end. Anyway, Ben let me cross first.

We had a good time. We spent 1 ½ hour doing a good thing as a family. It was warm enough to not need hot chocolate at the end.

And I am sure that if Michael's family and Andrea's family had been here, they would have run also. If not, they wouldn't have gotten any pizza (of course I would have had a hard time beating some of the Dawson's.)

Official Results:

I had an official time of 17:51 – which is what I expected.

I came in 4^th in my category – out of 9 – and the best was 11:02 (I hate that person).

I came in 140^th in the race – out of 650. Because of Ben's magnanimous nature, he was 141 st.

Results can be viewed at: http://results.active.com/pages/page.jsp?eventID=1897523

Travels with Lar

2010-11-16T05:41:00.001-08:00

November 7 – 12

Tempe, AZ

This trip was not technically for me to teach a class. I am learning a new class for a new technology – however, I still taught 2 days of the class. It is a long story as to why I taught. Suffice it to say that on those two days I had the technical knowledge to teach what they needed to know. Anyway, it was held in the Mentor Graphics – Tempe office – a nice office in close proximity to the airport.

I was there for five nights. The first night was after a Sunday flight in. It was an uneventful flight. I got there and just went to the motel and rested.

Monday night was for watching football – after spending a lot of time talking to the Mentor team that was responsible for the training. In reality, it was too late to do anything but watch football by the time we were done.

Tuesday night I went to the Mesa Temple for a session.

Wednesday Night was another long evening with the Mentor people, so I just sort of crashed in the evening.

Thursday I went to visit Ed and Sandy and really enjoyed watching the video of Sandy's production of Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat. I am not just being kind when I say it was fantastic. Well, in fact it won first place in the fall competition, meaning they get to perform two more times in a couple of weeks. Jonathan was the lead and did an outstanding job. It was a fun evening (which I don't say on very many of my trips – evenings generally are not very fun).

And then on Friday evening I flew home. It was an uneventful trip and I actually slept through most of it. I am getting better at sleeping on planes.

It was a successful trip – and it has lead to another Tempe trip coming in a few weeks.

I took a few pictures, but there was nothing spectacular. I like the fact that the greenery – or should I say the botany of the area is so different and actually more diverse than at home.

Reading List

2010-11-16T05:33:00.001-08:00

November 9, Tuesday

Others by James Herbert

This is a genre that has some "private eye" associated with it. It also has some morbid associated with, and some terror and some fantasy (but not really much of that). XXXXXXX has been described as being heavily influenced by Stephen King – but it really wasn't the same kind of weird – not saying it wasn't weird – it was just different. So as a synopsis – private investigator – he has a case looking for a missing child – that leads him into a strange world of clairvoyance and ghost images and really bizarre happenings. There are some scenes that are a little bit – no a lot bit – gross (I wouldn't recommend it to my mother – or my children's mother). And in the end – well I figured out how it was going to end – but not exactly – but close enough to count. If you decide to read it, pay real close attention to the first chapter.

Oh, and it is not cliché. The private investigator does real private investigator work, like serving summons, watching vacant buildings for vagrants, following husbands. It is not glamorous stuff. Which I guess is good because the private investigator is not glamorous – in fact he is a hunch back with other deformities with one eye that has been put out. So he also isn't a lady killer PI. It is a different scenario which leads to some different types of scenes.

So – evaluation from the Larry point of view. I liked it, but the "gross" scenes (and a little bit of language) can be a real turn off. I would never tell someone they "have to read this book". But it is readable, and even compelling towards the end. It is not great, but it could be good, but I won't recommend it to anyone.

I picked it up in the Mentor "trading library" at work because I was leaving for a trip and needed something to read. I always worry about that, just because you never know what you are going to get that might be offensive, or gross or crude. No it is not on the 501 Must Read list – absolutely not. And it would NEVER be on a Relief Society Book Club list.

Quotes I Like

2010-10-20T12:26:00.001-07:00

October 21, 2010
"In societies where the citizens are taught from a young age to feel accountable to God for honesty and integrity, they will abide by rules and practices that, while unenforceable, promote democratic ideals. In societies where this is not true, there cannot be enough policemen to enforce honest behavior."

Elder Quentin L. Cook

Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

From General Conference – October, 2010

Movie List

2010-10-13T08:03:00.001-07:00

10/9/2010
Babies

We went to visit Erica. She had this movie rented. I would NEVER have rented this. It was charming and adorable.
It is a documentary in which one man filmed incidents from four babies lives – birth to one year old. He then took two years to edit together the movie. There is no narration. There is no dialog. The babies are not acting. It is just real babies. And they are not your normal babies from middle class. No siree. Of course you also get a sense of some parenting, but the story is really the milestones of the babies first year.
I liked it. Mar liked it. Don't expect any "action" so if you are a real man's man – pas it up. No explosions. No chases. But it is a good dose of reality movie.

Travels with Lar

2010-10-07T12:32:00.000-07:00

Sept. 27 - Oct. 1, 2010
Livermore, CA

This was a business trip to teach a class. The class was enjoyable and went well.

Livermore, is in the next valley East from the San Fransico Bay area. It has two large government labs - Lawrence Livermore and Sandia Livermore (where I was teaching). It is the last of the major cities going east - next comes the Central Valley. It is an area that has vineyards. Other than the vineyards and the labs - well those are Livermore's claim to fame.

One night I did travel in to the Oakland Temple, which turned out to be only a half hour drive. There is such a beautiful view of the bay area from the temple in Oakland. I did proxy work for a person from Japan - from 1320. That is a record old date for me.

Thursday evening I drove back to San Jose for the night so that I could catch a 6:20 flight home.

It was a totally uneventful trip - just the way I like it.

Reading List

2010-10-03T13:32:00.001-07:00

October 1, 2010
I Am Legend by Robert Matheson

Stephen King said that Robert Matheson was the author who was the greatest influence on him. I think that Stephen King, although very productive – and very occult and strange – just doesn't have the quality of Robert Matheson. I thought this was a very well written book.

I haven't seen the recent movie, so I did not have preconceived notions on the book, however I did know sort of what the book was about. I was impressed and pleased with the way he wrote and unfolded the story. It was psychologically scary, and, not knowing what the ending was provided a tension, especially when he met the young woman.

This book also contained some of Matheson's short stories. Again, they were really fun to read – well, most of them were. One or two were just disturbing.

So my recommendation is to forget the movie if you have seen it, then read this book and enjoy.

Quotes I lLike

2010-09-29T07:01:00.000-07:00

"A necessary component of true love must be the possibility of permanence"

Jeffrey R. Holland

Travels with Lar

2010-09-22T13:00:00.001-07:00

September 12-18, 2010

Sacramento – Rancho Cordova, CA

This was a work trip to teach two classes.

I left on Sunday sp I missed part of church.

The classes went very well. In fact, they were better than any classes I have taught in quite a while.

On Monday evening, I took a quick drive up to Placerville. It was just to say that I did. It is a quaint little town that still has some charm from the gold rush days.

On Tuesday evening I went to the Sacramento Temple – a new temple on my list. I am happy that I have been blessed to be able to go to so many temples. I am happier that I can find something worthwhile to do when I am on the road.

Friday, after class, I went down to Old Town Sacramento – a preserved "touristy" area of old downtown located on the bank of the Sacramento River. It was a nice place to take a walk.

Then Saturday morning I woke up early and came home.

Movie List

2010-09-22T12:50:00.001-07:00

September 12, 2010
That Evening Sun

I gave it a 2.5. Mar gave it a 2.
This is Hal Holbrook playing what he really is – old. He is an old guy who was put in a rest home and decided he didn't like it there so he left and went to his old farm. The problem was that his old farm was rented – with an option to buy – to a man who the old guy couldn't stand. Well, technically he still owned the farm so he stayed in the share cropper's cabin and annoyed the renter and then spent the next two hours doing 30 minutes of stuff, interspersed with what was undoubtedly considered art – some of it was quite beautiful.
Don't watch it when you are sleepy – or you won't see the end – or the middle – except in your dreams.
Some adult language. That was the only spice it had.

Movie List

2010-09-22T12:39:00.001-07:00

September 10, 2010
The Ghost Writer

I gave it a two. Mar gave it a two.
A man is hired to replace a ghost writer who was working on the memoirs of a British Prime Minister. The first ghost writer died. The second one thinks he has found a conspiracy. The clues are vague and not very convincing. In the end . . . gee, I shouldn't tell you the end just in case you want to waste two hours watching it.
Some adult language and situations. Boring. Distinctly anti-American. Slow. Isn't anything ever going to happen.
Don't bother.

Reading List

2010-09-17T21:23:00.001-07:00

September 17, 2010
The Boxmaker's Son by Donald S. Smurthwaite

There is a growing concern that families, and fatherhood in particular, are under such strong attack in the modern world. Television and movies portray families in negative light and fathers as simpleton buffoons, generally saved from their own ineptness by their wives or others. It sells advertisements, and at the same time degrades the role of the traditional leader of the family. Here at last is the counter voice. The Boxmaker's Son is about a noble father who teaches and leads in righteousness. It makes one ponder the relationship to one's own father. It makes one ponder what kind of success one has had as a father or mother in life. It talks about what the role is of parenting, with examples and a few choice statements of profound philosophy.

"Maybe that's the way it is with those you care for. You heap upon them all you can, all that you hope will protect them. And when the time comes when the world tears away a who you are and how you want to be, maybe you hope that you have heaped enough layers, layers of care and layers of love, to keep those you love insulated from the craziness that goes on in the world. That's what you hope for. That's how you protect those close to you. Or at least that's how you try."

So now I consider how I remember my own father and my own mother. They were valiant members of "the greatest generation". My view point is changed by this book. My view point was also changed by my oldest brother, Mike. One day while my siblings and I were sitting around doing the "broadcast" view of my parents, laughing about them and seeing who could be the most witty and cynical, Mike stopped and said, "You know, Mom did a pretty good job raising us on the little she had." That is all it took for me to stop and consider how right he was.

My father and mother did not leave us as children with wealth or power. We did not get advanced degrees and travel the world. However, there are seven of us and we are all hard workers. We are all respected by other people. We are all loved by our whole family. And I like to think, no, I know from my experiences this year that we will all stand by each other in good or bad, though joy or crises. That is a legacy that my parents have left – have passed on to a small group of the "not greatest, generation".

And I wonder how my children will look at me and the way I have raised them. Am I just the buffoon father of TV. Or will someday, something touch them and they will say, wait, my parents sacrificed and worked and loved and tried – hard. Will they say we did a pretty good job raising them on the little we had. I hope so.

"This is the part of the picture where God lets you put your experience and what you know and what you feel to work for you, and He steps back and thinks with lovingkindness, 'All right. Show me. Prove to me. This is where I have given you the outline and now you fill it all in with the colors you select. It is your picture. It is your painting. You can choose the colors.'"

So often now days we hear that it is all right for us to "color outside of the lines". That expand creativity and in kindergarten, but in life, there are lines we need to stay in. We can still be creative in the way we stay in those lines, but so often, crossing over those lines make look like creativity, especially from close up, but as me move back and get a broader, bigger view – a more eternal view – outside the lines, outside the Lord''s boundaries just messes it all up.

Oh there are a lot of quotable parts of the book. I liked it. I think it inspired me.

This is the second book I have read by Donald S. Smurthwaite this year. The first wasn't as good an experience as this one was. He writes in a voice that seem autobiographical, and probably some of the experiences in both of these books have episodes reflecting his life. Yet I am sure some are purely fictional, used to reflect a point he is emphasizing. Nicely, he doesn't generally chose a point to make and them beat you over the head with it. He softly persuades. The style of writing is easy to read. However, be aware that in each chapter, there are two storylines progressing at the same time – easily demarked which storyline you are in – but still, you have to keep them straight. He is kind enough to examine what the two story lines in each chapter have to do with each other. It is a nice mechanism of writing.

Yep, read it if you like. You won't be disappointed. (Caution – it is LDS literature with a lot of LDS specific imagery and metaphors.)