I went to get my broken finger X-rayed today again prior to my appointment with the surgeon tomorrow. I am quite dismayed, because the new X-ray doesn't obviously show any improvement over the last one -- to my untrained eye, it looks practically identical.
This greatly concerns me. I can't fully straighten the last joint, and I can't bend each joint beyond about 10 degrees. I have no idea if this is normal, or if I have some kind of damage to the inner workings of my finger. Aside from the bruising clearing up, I haven't been able to discern any improvement in the functionality of the finger.
Then to see the X-ray where the break is just as visible as ever (there doesn't appear to be any more mass in the middle, as I expected) and the jagged edges right where they were before just makes me more concerned.
The wait 'til my appointment with the surgeon tomorrow is going to be really long.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Twilight Meets Harry Potter
I haven't read the book, but I know all the women in the world (it seems) is gaga over the Twilight books. So it is with trepidation that I publicize that the teenage heart-throb from Harry Potter will be headlining the film. Read on:
Potter's Pattinson Joins "Twilight"
(FROM HOLLYWOOD REPORTER) - Robert Pattinson, who played Cedric Diggory in several of the Harry Potter movies, has been cast in Summit Entertainment's teen-vampire thriller Twilight. The actor will play Edward, a teenaged vampire who falls for a non-vampire high school classmate (Kristen Stewart). Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen) is directing from a script by Melissa Rosenberg (Step Up) based on Stephanie Meyer's young-adult novel. Meyer also wrote two sequels and Summit hopes to turn Twilight into a franchise. Pattinson has also been cast as Salvador Dali in the upcoming Little Ashes, APT Films' project about Spanish writers, artists, and filmmakers in the 1920s.
They just guaranteed a huge box-office return ...
Potter's Pattinson Joins "Twilight"
(FROM HOLLYWOOD REPORTER) - Robert Pattinson, who played Cedric Diggory in several of the Harry Potter movies, has been cast in Summit Entertainment's teen-vampire thriller Twilight. The actor will play Edward, a teenaged vampire who falls for a non-vampire high school classmate (Kristen Stewart). Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen) is directing from a script by Melissa Rosenberg (Step Up) based on Stephanie Meyer's young-adult novel. Meyer also wrote two sequels and Summit hopes to turn Twilight into a franchise. Pattinson has also been cast as Salvador Dali in the upcoming Little Ashes, APT Films' project about Spanish writers, artists, and filmmakers in the 1920s.
They just guaranteed a huge box-office return ...
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
The Paucity of Good Family History Tools
I'm an amateur genealogist. Some would call me a family historian. I can trace all of my ancestry back to the early 1800s, most lines into the 1700s, and some lines even back to the 1500s. Very little of this is the result of my original work -- I have just collected it. In this wonderful digital age, I'm delighted to be the beneficiary of lots of labor by those far more disciplined in the art of genealogy than me.
What I've found is that all the "easy" work is done. What I'm left with is mystery, ambiguity, and doubt. These are not fine companions for an engineer who likes to have all the answers and everything buttoned up nice and neat. So thus is my labor that will probably take the rest of my natural (and unnatural) life: the cataloging of all the research that has gone on before me, plus whatever else I personally can contribute.
I have been asking my parents questions about their past, scanning images of ancestors, collecting family histories, researching census records, and basically digitizing everything that comes my way. What I'm frustrated with now is my inability to organize and share it very well. I also have an enormous collection of family histories, letters, and other documents that are sitting in a box, that are begging for me to digitize them. It's daunting. My parents were very gracious to let me take all this material away, but they want it back -- soon.
I think what I'm going to end up doing is simply photographing every page. There's just no way I can get through these thousands of pages by transcribing it into the computer, and even using "Optical Character Recognition" (OCR) software won't save me any time. This will allow me to get the documents back to my parents, but it doesn't solve my problem of digitizing it so I can share it with others.
What I really want is an easy-to-use "wiki" (sort of like this blog) that will allow me and people I identify as "trustworthy" to collaborate, so that we may edit family histories, submit and annotate images, publish family histories, outline family trees, and completely index and associate every name to every picture and every bit of text. And I'd like to have a graphical user interface for viewing the family trees that allows three dimensional manipulation of the trees to facilitate not just going "up" the ancestral lines, but also coming "down" (this latter is especially needed for me since it seems evident any original research I do will be of this nature), so that I can see where the gaps are in the data. Then I'd like this database to allow rapid searches so that you can zoom around to find exactly what you're looking for. And I want it all online so the world (my family, especially) can see and contribute to it by submitting sources, transcribing photographed pages, cleaning up images, adding family trees and references, etc.
To my knowledge, nothing like this exists. There are poor cousins to these ideas, to be sure, but nothing of the simplicity, scale, and grandeur I envision. And none of the tools out there promise staying power in the midst of format and application wars, let alone the uncertainties of the online market. I've got a thorough idea on what it should do, but lack the programming and database management expertise to make it work. It's truly an information management nightmare, and the tools of today just don't cut it. I'm frustrated.
Does anybody know a good programmer, a webslinger, and a database engineer who would work this project with me for free? If we did it right, we could make a killing off it.
What I've found is that all the "easy" work is done. What I'm left with is mystery, ambiguity, and doubt. These are not fine companions for an engineer who likes to have all the answers and everything buttoned up nice and neat. So thus is my labor that will probably take the rest of my natural (and unnatural) life: the cataloging of all the research that has gone on before me, plus whatever else I personally can contribute.
I have been asking my parents questions about their past, scanning images of ancestors, collecting family histories, researching census records, and basically digitizing everything that comes my way. What I'm frustrated with now is my inability to organize and share it very well. I also have an enormous collection of family histories, letters, and other documents that are sitting in a box, that are begging for me to digitize them. It's daunting. My parents were very gracious to let me take all this material away, but they want it back -- soon.
I think what I'm going to end up doing is simply photographing every page. There's just no way I can get through these thousands of pages by transcribing it into the computer, and even using "Optical Character Recognition" (OCR) software won't save me any time. This will allow me to get the documents back to my parents, but it doesn't solve my problem of digitizing it so I can share it with others.
What I really want is an easy-to-use "wiki" (sort of like this blog) that will allow me and people I identify as "trustworthy" to collaborate, so that we may edit family histories, submit and annotate images, publish family histories, outline family trees, and completely index and associate every name to every picture and every bit of text. And I'd like to have a graphical user interface for viewing the family trees that allows three dimensional manipulation of the trees to facilitate not just going "up" the ancestral lines, but also coming "down" (this latter is especially needed for me since it seems evident any original research I do will be of this nature), so that I can see where the gaps are in the data. Then I'd like this database to allow rapid searches so that you can zoom around to find exactly what you're looking for. And I want it all online so the world (my family, especially) can see and contribute to it by submitting sources, transcribing photographed pages, cleaning up images, adding family trees and references, etc.
To my knowledge, nothing like this exists. There are poor cousins to these ideas, to be sure, but nothing of the simplicity, scale, and grandeur I envision. And none of the tools out there promise staying power in the midst of format and application wars, let alone the uncertainties of the online market. I've got a thorough idea on what it should do, but lack the programming and database management expertise to make it work. It's truly an information management nightmare, and the tools of today just don't cut it. I'm frustrated.
Does anybody know a good programmer, a webslinger, and a database engineer who would work this project with me for free? If we did it right, we could make a killing off it.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Credit Cards Paying Me?!
A few years ago I took my wife and we went to London. It was a great trip, but we were never able to make heads or tails out of how much it actually cost us. We figured we were within a certain percentage and so didn't panic. I never felt quite right about all the uncertainty, but just let it go.
But then we got some official-looking letters in the mail that said that we were the beneficiaries of a class-action lawsuit. Turns out that Visa, Mastercard, and Diners Club were playing games with their currency-conversion charges, got caught, and now have to provide a refund! I could go back and calculate how much they owe me, but it'll be much easier just to take the flat refund of $25. Since both my wife and I got a letter, we'll return both and maybe we'll get $50 out of it.
Being skeptical about this, I looked it up in snopes.com and sure enough, this is on the level. Huh, go figure -- the credit card company is paying me! I'm going to enjoy this feeling until I get my next bill ...
But then we got some official-looking letters in the mail that said that we were the beneficiaries of a class-action lawsuit. Turns out that Visa, Mastercard, and Diners Club were playing games with their currency-conversion charges, got caught, and now have to provide a refund! I could go back and calculate how much they owe me, but it'll be much easier just to take the flat refund of $25. Since both my wife and I got a letter, we'll return both and maybe we'll get $50 out of it.
Being skeptical about this, I looked it up in snopes.com and sure enough, this is on the level. Huh, go figure -- the credit card company is paying me! I'm going to enjoy this feeling until I get my next bill ...
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Side-by-Side Gaming
Okay, so here's my first successful post of a video. I had to download some (free) software to down-convert the video that comes out of my camera to lower resolution, but I finally got it to work. And the results are stunning, aren't they? The base image is hilarious ... my expression is priceless.
In the video, you get a good glimpse of our house, in not so good order, but, hey, we're human, too, eh?
Oh, and my wife changed my header (with a few inputs from me) and format in this blog because she didn't like it before. The results are just fine ... I'm not emotionally fixated on the format of this blog, just the content, so she did a good thing.
In the video, you get a good glimpse of our house, in not so good order, but, hey, we're human, too, eh?
Oh, and my wife changed my header (with a few inputs from me) and format in this blog because she didn't like it before. The results are just fine ... I'm not emotionally fixated on the format of this blog, just the content, so she did a good thing.
Mitt Romney on Religion
Mitt Romney is running for president! Have you heard that? If you have, you're probably LDS. If you're uninformed and for him, you're probably LDS. If you're uninformed and an Evangelical, you're probably against him. If you're informed and anything else, well, make up your own mind.
Either way, he's an interesting character. Knowing his background, he seems about as squeaky clean as they come, but there's been a lot of hullabaloo about his religion, which some consider to be a "cult" (usually The Uninformed -- caps intended -- say this).
(As an aside, check out the Miriam-Webster dictionary definition for "cult" -- the first three definitions: 1: formal religious veneration : worship; 2: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents; 3: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents. By these definitions, anybody who believes anything could be considered to be in a cult ...)
John F. Kennedy was a staunch Catholic, who, when he was running for president, gave a wonderful speech about his religious beliefs and how he would not govern as a Catholic, but rather as an American. It's sad that such a speech couldn't stand on it's own two feet to prevent religion from ever being considered a litmus test to who can run for office.
Nevertheless, Mitt Romney this past weekend gave a speech that arguably could be considered a companion speech to the famous JFK speech that set the tone of religious tolerance in public office. If you have the time, feel free to read it, it's well-worth it.
His speech has spawned quite a bit of dialog in the public realm about the place of religion in today's politics, and to the rational observer, it seems as if Romney's stock has just gone up dramatically, particularly to those whose religious views typically are intolerant of those held by Mitt Romney.
One such article was quite funny, written by a favorite author of mine, Orson Scott Card, as he discusses the nature of God as viewed by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (he being one of us). Feel free to read it here. I'm going to copy, verbatim, one section of text, which I thought was really funny. Let me preface this text by saying that I have had very similar and frustrating discussions with people of other faiths regarding the nature of God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, that left me feeling frustrated and annoyed. To quote:
A line is perfectly straight and infinitely long. All lines in the same plane either touch or they don't touch. If they don't touch, they are parallel and they go in the same direction, infinitely. Those are the only two choices with lines in the same plane: They're either parallel or they intersect somewhere.
Now here's a theological argument between a traditional Christian (TC) and a biblical Christian (LDS):
TC: The Trinity consists of three parallel lines, which touch each other.
LDS: If they touch each other, they're not parallel.
TC: Nevertheless, they are parallel, and they touch. They touch at every point.
LDS: If they touch at every point, they're the same line. Not three.
TC: They touch at every point, yet there are three.
LDS: That doesn't make any sense. Lines can't be different yet the same, parallel yet intersecting. The words stop having any meaning when you say such things.
TC: That's because you have a finite, mortal mind, which cannot comprehend the nature of geometry.
LDS: That's just crazy. The Trinity is three lines, completely distinct, perfectly parallel, so they go infinitely in the same direction. That's simple, it's clear, and it's true. In fact, we've seen the lines.
TC: That's blasphemy! You can never see the lines! They're only imaginary!
LDS: Your lines are imaginary. The lines we've seen are real.
TC: Then you are not Geometers!
And that's where the discussion always ends.
Yep, 'tis true. The discussion always ends with disagreement, with myself scratching my head at the arguments to which I'd just been exposed. It's mind-boggling how sometimes and otherwise learned people can get so wrapped around the axle on these topics.
Anyway, I just thought it was funny.
Going back to the start of this post, though, I think that a person's religion really is quite important, as an amoral, irreligious person could cause great harm in public office. The Book of Mormon is littered with examples of times when a wicked ruler dragged his people down to destruction, and how a righteous ruler saved his people. The Nephites had a tradition of choosing righteous people to be their leaders, sometimes even when they weren't so righteous themselves. Doing so resulted in safety and security. It's a good lesson to keep in mind.
Either way, he's an interesting character. Knowing his background, he seems about as squeaky clean as they come, but there's been a lot of hullabaloo about his religion, which some consider to be a "cult" (usually The Uninformed -- caps intended -- say this).
(As an aside, check out the Miriam-Webster dictionary definition for "cult" -- the first three definitions: 1: formal religious veneration : worship; 2: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents; 3: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents. By these definitions, anybody who believes anything could be considered to be in a cult ...)
John F. Kennedy was a staunch Catholic, who, when he was running for president, gave a wonderful speech about his religious beliefs and how he would not govern as a Catholic, but rather as an American. It's sad that such a speech couldn't stand on it's own two feet to prevent religion from ever being considered a litmus test to who can run for office.
Nevertheless, Mitt Romney this past weekend gave a speech that arguably could be considered a companion speech to the famous JFK speech that set the tone of religious tolerance in public office. If you have the time, feel free to read it, it's well-worth it.
His speech has spawned quite a bit of dialog in the public realm about the place of religion in today's politics, and to the rational observer, it seems as if Romney's stock has just gone up dramatically, particularly to those whose religious views typically are intolerant of those held by Mitt Romney.
One such article was quite funny, written by a favorite author of mine, Orson Scott Card, as he discusses the nature of God as viewed by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (he being one of us). Feel free to read it here. I'm going to copy, verbatim, one section of text, which I thought was really funny. Let me preface this text by saying that I have had very similar and frustrating discussions with people of other faiths regarding the nature of God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, that left me feeling frustrated and annoyed. To quote:
A line is perfectly straight and infinitely long. All lines in the same plane either touch or they don't touch. If they don't touch, they are parallel and they go in the same direction, infinitely. Those are the only two choices with lines in the same plane: They're either parallel or they intersect somewhere.
Now here's a theological argument between a traditional Christian (TC) and a biblical Christian (LDS):
TC: The Trinity consists of three parallel lines, which touch each other.
LDS: If they touch each other, they're not parallel.
TC: Nevertheless, they are parallel, and they touch. They touch at every point.
LDS: If they touch at every point, they're the same line. Not three.
TC: They touch at every point, yet there are three.
LDS: That doesn't make any sense. Lines can't be different yet the same, parallel yet intersecting. The words stop having any meaning when you say such things.
TC: That's because you have a finite, mortal mind, which cannot comprehend the nature of geometry.
LDS: That's just crazy. The Trinity is three lines, completely distinct, perfectly parallel, so they go infinitely in the same direction. That's simple, it's clear, and it's true. In fact, we've seen the lines.
TC: That's blasphemy! You can never see the lines! They're only imaginary!
LDS: Your lines are imaginary. The lines we've seen are real.
TC: Then you are not Geometers!
And that's where the discussion always ends.
Yep, 'tis true. The discussion always ends with disagreement, with myself scratching my head at the arguments to which I'd just been exposed. It's mind-boggling how sometimes and otherwise learned people can get so wrapped around the axle on these topics.
Anyway, I just thought it was funny.
Going back to the start of this post, though, I think that a person's religion really is quite important, as an amoral, irreligious person could cause great harm in public office. The Book of Mormon is littered with examples of times when a wicked ruler dragged his people down to destruction, and how a righteous ruler saved his people. The Nephites had a tradition of choosing righteous people to be their leaders, sometimes even when they weren't so righteous themselves. Doing so resulted in safety and security. It's a good lesson to keep in mind.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Getting Fit
There was a time when I could sneeze and lose five pounds. Those times are clearly over. While I've never been exactly "fit", I have been quite healthy and physically able. Now in my late early thirties, I have difficulty dropping the pounds as easily as I once did. However, several years ago, we bought a treadmill and I used it well to train for a 5k race. I did well at the time, but really haven't been dedicated since. Unfortunately, it shows.
But now things have changed. My wife and I are planning a trip to Hawaii next April to celebrate our 10th anniversary, and I find myself in the unenviable position of needing to drop a few pounds. Okay, I'll be honest, I could stand to lose 10 or 15, and, well, probably more. But the beaches call me, and I want my wife to be able to look at her man and be reminded why she married this studly, pale-skinned, hairy, short ... um, well, okay, never mind all that -- she didn't marry me for my body.
As for Hawaii, I really just don't want my belly hanging out too much. So, I'm back on the treadmill again ... tonight I did 2.2 miles and burned 342 calories. For a desk jockey, that ain't too shabby! It's going to be a long four months.
But now things have changed. My wife and I are planning a trip to Hawaii next April to celebrate our 10th anniversary, and I find myself in the unenviable position of needing to drop a few pounds. Okay, I'll be honest, I could stand to lose 10 or 15, and, well, probably more. But the beaches call me, and I want my wife to be able to look at her man and be reminded why she married this studly, pale-skinned, hairy, short ... um, well, okay, never mind all that -- she didn't marry me for my body.
As for Hawaii, I really just don't want my belly hanging out too much. So, I'm back on the treadmill again ... tonight I did 2.2 miles and burned 342 calories. For a desk jockey, that ain't too shabby! It's going to be a long four months.
And They Called Him Jesus
My wife has been preparing for a few months to participate in a big choir that was performing at the College of the Canyons in a program called "And They Called Him Jesus". It was a public event intended to celebrate the Christmas season, and also to demonstrate to some of the doubters in the area that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are indeed Christians.
The program consisted of arrangements of typical Christmas hymns, such as "O Little Town of Bethlehem", "O Come, O Come Emmanuel", and "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" and other Christmas songs that don't start with "o". There was a choir with over 180 volunteers from the two stakes in the Santa Clarita Valley, and a full, professional orchestra. The music was orchestrated and conducted by Alan Williams, a true professional who does film and television scores, and who also happens to be a local bishop.
Tickets ranged in price from $10 to $39. I bought a cheap seat (barely before they were gone!) and sat in the nosebleed session last night. It was a great experience. I loved watching my wife down in the choir. She seemed truly and honestly joyous to be there. She doesn't get the chance to sing in a choir very often since she's both the ward and the stake choir director. For her to have the opportunity to be directed by a professional in such a large choir was something she appreciated.
The performance went very well. The men were completely not together during one section of "The First Noel", and the sopranos came in two measures too early in "Silent Night", but aside from those two noticeable glitches, it was really quite good.
Watching the conductor himself was a treat. He owned that stage. I'd never really seen anybody conduct like he did. Also, I quite enjoyed watching the drummer. Yes, the drummer. He was nothing short of mesmerizing as he kept the tempo for the whole thing using drums that were bigger than my children and sounded extraordinary. I found myself wishing to hear "The Little Drummer Boy" just so he could shine, but it wasn't to be.
I have to be perfectly honest, though, about something. When the "final" song was played, the conductor turned around, bowed, then headed off stage as everybody stood and clapped. He then returned seconds later with a feigned "Oh, if we must" attitude and turned to the choir and orchestra and they performed one last number. To me, the whole production of him walking off stage to be called back on to perform a number that everybody clearly was expecting was nothing short of absurd. I mentioned this to my wife, and she tried to explain that it was just a normal thing. Since I'm somewhat acultural, I'll have to accept that, but it still seemed disingenuous.
During the performance, they did have a few voice-overs and video clips that they played on the big screen above the orchestra. They showed scenes from church videos that depict the birth of the Savior and related events, and they were well-done and flowed with the production fairly well. The transition from one number to another didn't go smoothly in some cases, but it was a fine addition that added good ambiance to the performance.
All told, it was really quite an enjoyable evening. My wife gets to go and perform two more times tonight. She is excited about that, but dreads having to be on her feet for so long ... twice! I'm so happy that she has the opportunity to do this. One of her dreams is to someday be part of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but my career being what it is, there's absolutely no way we could live in Utah to make that possible. Nevertheless, hopefully last night's experience gave her some little taste of what that dream-fulfilled might be like. She clearly fits the part.
The program consisted of arrangements of typical Christmas hymns, such as "O Little Town of Bethlehem", "O Come, O Come Emmanuel", and "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" and other Christmas songs that don't start with "o". There was a choir with over 180 volunteers from the two stakes in the Santa Clarita Valley, and a full, professional orchestra. The music was orchestrated and conducted by Alan Williams, a true professional who does film and television scores, and who also happens to be a local bishop.
Tickets ranged in price from $10 to $39. I bought a cheap seat (barely before they were gone!) and sat in the nosebleed session last night. It was a great experience. I loved watching my wife down in the choir. She seemed truly and honestly joyous to be there. She doesn't get the chance to sing in a choir very often since she's both the ward and the stake choir director. For her to have the opportunity to be directed by a professional in such a large choir was something she appreciated.
The performance went very well. The men were completely not together during one section of "The First Noel", and the sopranos came in two measures too early in "Silent Night", but aside from those two noticeable glitches, it was really quite good.
Watching the conductor himself was a treat. He owned that stage. I'd never really seen anybody conduct like he did. Also, I quite enjoyed watching the drummer. Yes, the drummer. He was nothing short of mesmerizing as he kept the tempo for the whole thing using drums that were bigger than my children and sounded extraordinary. I found myself wishing to hear "The Little Drummer Boy" just so he could shine, but it wasn't to be.
I have to be perfectly honest, though, about something. When the "final" song was played, the conductor turned around, bowed, then headed off stage as everybody stood and clapped. He then returned seconds later with a feigned "Oh, if we must" attitude and turned to the choir and orchestra and they performed one last number. To me, the whole production of him walking off stage to be called back on to perform a number that everybody clearly was expecting was nothing short of absurd. I mentioned this to my wife, and she tried to explain that it was just a normal thing. Since I'm somewhat acultural, I'll have to accept that, but it still seemed disingenuous.
During the performance, they did have a few voice-overs and video clips that they played on the big screen above the orchestra. They showed scenes from church videos that depict the birth of the Savior and related events, and they were well-done and flowed with the production fairly well. The transition from one number to another didn't go smoothly in some cases, but it was a fine addition that added good ambiance to the performance.
All told, it was really quite an enjoyable evening. My wife gets to go and perform two more times tonight. She is excited about that, but dreads having to be on her feet for so long ... twice! I'm so happy that she has the opportunity to do this. One of her dreams is to someday be part of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but my career being what it is, there's absolutely no way we could live in Utah to make that possible. Nevertheless, hopefully last night's experience gave her some little taste of what that dream-fulfilled might be like. She clearly fits the part.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Nothing Else To Do
It's quarter to eight, and I'm at work. Still. I have been all day, since quarter to eight this morning. We're in the middle of a big training exercise and I'm the lead for my project. And I'm in limbo. Stuck between two hectic activities -- one that ended two hours ago and one that won't occur for another four hours. Some would say that I should just go home, but going home would mean driving two more hours today and the second trip back to work would require driving late at night -- twice. No, I'm just going to stay right here. Maybe I'll watch TV. Maybe I'll read the news -- no, already did that. Maybe I'll blog -- no, already doing that. Hmmm ... what to do. What do you do when you're in limbo? For me, it happens so rarely that I'm at a loss. I've got a short list of things I want to do, but they usually require more time or focus than I think I can muster right now. I also have a long list of things I need to do for work that I could use my time to work on. *sigh* Guess I'll do that ... I've got nothing else to do.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
The Last Two Weeks
Sunday, 11/18/07:
5:00 - Wake up and get ready for church.
6:30 - Attend Bishopric Meeting.
8:00 - Attend Priesthood Executive Committee Meeting.
8:50 - Panic and drive home to pick up the kids for church since my wife went to choir practice at 8 since she's leading the choir.
8:56 - Arrive home to find the kids don't have shoes on and the babysitter playing a board game with them.
8:58 - Get in the van with two crying children and a babysitter that would rather be anyplace else.
9:04 - Arrive at church late, but still before the meeting actually starts; wrestle with children who are not happy for the next hour.
9:35 - Wife directs choir and it goes really badly; it is easily the worst performance in my wife's three and something years as ward choir director.
12:30 - Finally be done with church and go home ... for an hour.
1:50 - Return to church to help the Bishop as he interviews people.
3:00 - Finally go home for the last time, very early compared to most Sundays.
3:30 - Call my parents and spend an hour and ten minutes on the phone with my parents; wife gets grumpy.
5:30 - Pull together dinner with the wife for the kids.
6:30 - Wife eats two bites then leaves for yet another choir practice. It's bath night.
7:30 - Kids finally finish their baths/showers.
7:50 - Kids finally are in bed with the lights out.
8:00 - Cruise the net and wait for my wife to come home.
8:50 - Wife finally gets home, and we talk the balance of the night.
Monday, 11/19/07
5:20 - Alarm goes off and I'm too tired to get up. Figure I can work from home, turn the alarm off, and go back to sleep.
6:45 - Wife's alarm goes off and she gets up to take a shower.
7:05 - Wife wakes me up and the kids are really noisy. Get up and shower.
8:00 - Begin working from home.
9:00 - Dial in to a meeting at work. Spend the rest of the day mostly spinning my wheels.
11:30 - Take a half-hour lunch with my wife and youngest son.
4:20 - Stop working and start spending time with the kids.
5:30 - Have dinner with the family and do a Family Home Evening.
6:00 - Get a call from my home teaching companion - he's sick and can't come home teaching with me.
6:45 - Help my wife get the kids ready for bed after falsely remembering that my home teaching appointment was at 7.
7:45 - Leave to go to my home teaching appointment. Have a great discussion with a new couple and one of their sets of parents who are in town for Thanksgiving.
9:00 - Go home and spend time with my wife.
Tuesday, 11/20/07
5:10 - Actually get up to go to work. Sleepwalk through pre-work procedure.
6:10 - Begin drive to work.
7:00 - Arrive at work. Discover it's a ghost town due to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Find out from manager he wants me to write a procedure for a training exercise coming up in two weeks. Spend the rest of the day writing said procedure (it goes badly).
3:00 - Go home a tad early -- it is a holiday after all!
4:00 - Arrive home and spend time with the wife and kids. Have dinner.
7:10 - Leave to go home teaching again, this time to pick up companion.
7:25 - Discover companion thought the appointment was at 8 and isn't home. Leave to go home teaching alone ... again ... without a lesson prepared.
7:30 - Have wonderful visit with a very kind sister.
8:10 - Leave to go pick up companion. He's finally home, but still somewhat sick.
8:30 - Arrive at second appointment for the evening, which goes very well, but companion spreads his germs everywhere.
9:30 - Take home teaching companion home, then go home and crash.
Wednesday, 11/21/07
6:30 - Awakened by the kids after sleeping in. Yes, 6:30 is sleeping in for me.
7:30 - Take the kids to school.
8:00 - Get home and prepare to go out with the wife.
11:00 - Go out with the wife, dropping youngest son off with a good and very pregnant friend, and go out to lunch after running some errands. Go to lunch at sandwich shop -- it's a decent meal, but overpriced, and we won't be going back.
1:45 - Go home to await arrival of daughter from school. Go pick up youngest son. Hang out at home (a favorite past-time of mine). Spend the balance of the evening doing laundry and wondering when my brother-in-law with his family will show up the next day.
Thursday, 11/22/07 (Thanksgiving)
6:30 - Sleep in again, then spend the morning with the kids having breakfast.
8:45 - Go to play football, the annual Turkey Bowl, with my ward.
9:55 - Break finger, re-set it myself, and go home. It still moves and doesn't hurt much.
10:00 - Explain to wife what I did. Receive stern look. Wife runs to store to buy a splint.
11:00 - Brother-in-law shows up with his wife and four kids. Enjoy their company while finger stops flexing, starts swelling, and starts hurting a lot.
12:00 - Have sandwiches for lunch. Wife requires help of nephew to prepare turkey, a task I normally do.
1:00 - Family plays games and enjoys company. Finger continues to swell. Wife continues to prepare Thanksgiving meal without my help (sorry!).
4:00 - Turkey is done and brother-in-law (who is something like a decade older than me) carves turkey for the first time in his life since I can't (and he does badly). Dinner is enjoyed by all -- left-handedly for me.
5:15 - Dinner is done and I finally decide to go to Urgent Care.
5:30 - Arrive at Urgent Care and discover it, too, is a ghost town. Get X-rays and discover finger is broken. Leave Urgent Care in 20 minutes -- a world record.
6:15 - Drive home and get taunted by in-laws. Play more games and have a good time. Discover I greatly prefer the word "cripple" to "gimp."
8:00 - Struggle getting very excited children to go to sleep; having three boys in one room doesn't go well.
Friday, 11/23/07
7:00 - Sleep in a lot since kids are distracted by in-laws; it's fabulous.
7:15 - Shower and get ready for the day.
10:00 - Leave to go to Six Flags for the day. Use free tickets for brother-in-law and his oldest son who are both not so sure about the rides. Have a wonderful day and convince them they really like big rollercoasters. Broken finger doesn't limit my ability to enjoy the rides.
11:45 - Eat lunch and spend $11 for a cheap burger and fries at the park; drink is excluded from this price, so I drink water.
7:45 - Tired but exhausted, leave park and return home. Kids are getting ready for bed -- it goes slightly better.
8:15 - Spend the evening playing games.
Saturday, 11/24/07
6:30 - Sleep in.
10:30 - In-laws leave to return home. Their trip was short, but enjoyable. Spend the rest of the day relaxing, cleaning the house, and putting up Christmas decorations.
Sunday, 11/25/07
5:00 - Wake up and get ready for church.
6:30 - Attend Bishopric Meeting.
8:00 - Attend Priesthood Executive Committee Meeting.
9:00 - Family joins me for church.
12:00 - Go home for a quick bite to eat.
1:00 - Go back to church to attend Ward Council.
2:30 - Bishop begins interviews while I help organize who's there; wife has choir practice at the same time, so the kids are home with the same babysitter as the previous week.
4:00 - Finally go home.
7:00 - Wife goes to Christmas choir practice (where she is not the director) while I put the kids to bed.
7:30 - Kids are in bed. I have a peaceful evening.
9:00 - Wife finally comes home. The evening just got better, though she's feeling under the weather.
Monday, 11/26/07:
5:20 - Wake up and realize that my wife is sick enough that she needs me home. Spend the rest of the day taking the kids to school, being helpful, and trying not to work too much (and failing).
9:00 - Dial in to a meeting at work; spend what I can of the day working on a presentation for Wednesday and reviewing sequences of commands for my spacecraft. Take a half-hour lunch with my wife.
4:30 - Stop working, and spend time with the kids. Have dinner.
6:00 - Have a family home evening on being kind because the kids had been fighting a lot.
7:00 - Put them to bed; spend time with wife and watch old Stargate episode. Pack for business trip, to which I would leave the next day.
Tuesday, 11/27/07:
5:20 - Wake up and actually get up to go to work. Spend the day in meetings. Stay late and decide to go home before driving 1 1/2 hours to location of business trip.
6:30 - Arrive home and spend next two hours with the family. It's a welcome departure from the plan to go straight to the business trip.
7:00 - The kids are in bed, a miracle because they haven't gone to bed that early in years.
7:30 - Discover the oldest isn't really asleep and spend the next twenty minutes convincing him it really is bed time.
8:30 - Depart for business trip location.
10:00 - Arrive at hotel of business trip. Call wife to tell her to go to bed, fully knowing she won't actually go to sleep. Find out later that she stayed up 'til about 2 am. Discover that she was researching a holiday vacation next year to Hawaii. Still be a little grumpy that she didn't sleep, but temper it with the understanding that she didn't sleep because I wasn't there.
Wednesday, 11/28/07
6:50 - Sleep in after a fitful night.
7:20 - Go to breakfast. The hotel has a free breakfast, with a cook who will make a breakfast to order. I choose a ham, cheese, and spinach omelet -- it's light on the egg, but tastes magnificent.
8:00 - Have extra time, so go back to the hotel room and channel surf. End up watching ten minutes of Ice Age 2 (sad, but true -- I've never seen it before).
8:30 - Go to the business meeting and spend the whole day there. They had pastries for snacks in the morning and delightful cookies in the afternoon.
11:45 - Break for lunch and go to Panda Express. Get orange chicken -- it's very spicy.
1:45 - Present my portion of the meeting for 45 minutes -- it goes very, very well.
6:00 - The meeting finally adjourns and I go to Carl's Jr for dinner. Get a spicy salad. Realize too late that two spicy fast food dishes in one day doesn't sit too well. Drive home to see my family that night. Spend the night at home while work pays for the hotel that sits empty in my absence (but I left my luggage there!). Find out my wife intends to bring the kids the next night and skip school (something they have never done) on Friday so they can play at the hotel.
Thursday, 11/29/07
6:30 - Sleep in and then have breakfast with the kids.
8:00 - Drive to hand surgeon to have him examine my hand and the X-rays that were taken the week before. Discover that I don't need surgery and that my finger should be fine in a month (though it will be slightly crooked).
9:30 - Drive back to business meeting.
10:45 - Arrive at business meeting where it is in full swing.
11:30 - Discover my spacecraft went into safemode again due to a simple human mistake -- the second time in as many weeks. Upper management freaks out and we spend the day trying to explain that sometimes a mistake is just a mistake. They don't buy it and believe that "the process" is broken. Multitask during the meeting to try to recover from safemode as quickly as possible.
12:00 - Go to lunch at Jack-in-the-Box. Order a great burger, curly fries, and a mint chocolate chip shake which sits a lot better than the previous meals I'd had.
1:00 - Returned to business meeting where things are still chaotic.
5:00 - Family shows up at the hotel. I let them into the hotel room then head back to the meeting, which adjourns within minutes.
5:30 - Take family to dinner at Carl's Jr. Have a burger and not much else. Started really getting sick of fast food.
6:30 - Returned to the hotel and took the kids to the really big spa, even though it was really cold out. They had a great time and afterwards they crashed hard.
8:00 - Watched Survivor with the wife and had a very pleasant evening together with the kids passed out in the other room.
Friday, 11/30/07
6:45 - Slept in, even though my oldest woke the other kids up at 6:00. He spent the morning reading in the bathroom while we tried to get the other two kids to go back to sleep. We finally gave up and got up with them. I took a shower and went over to get another omelet (same kind, it was great!) while the rest of the family had cold cereal. It was raining and my daughter was so excited to have a covered patio off the room that she ate out there in the cold while it rained.
8:00 - Went to the meeting where things were really fascinating -- the scientists for my spacecraft were sharing some of the results of their recent activities. My family apparently went to the beach despite the cold and rain and enjoyed themselves there.
12:00 - Meeting ends. Find out my wife checked out of the hotel and headed out to lunch. I follow her on the way home.
1:00 - Finally catch up with my wife at Jack-in-the-Box where we have the last burger of the week (*phew* my constitution couldn't take much more).
2:30 - Make it home and spend the next little while cleaning up.
4:30 - Go to dinner at a local pizza joint with my daughter's soccer team -- the last game was the next day and this was the final celebration. She received her first trophy ever and had a wonderful time with her friends. She lost $1 in a "claw" game she didn't know how to operate and was sad (it was a good lesson she learned) and my older son lost a quarter in a faulty toy machine, but he bugged the workers in the restaurant 'til they gave him a new quarter (it was also a good lesson he learned).
6:00 - Went home, put the kids to bed, read books on Hawaii, and watched more episodes of Stargate. It was a nice evening.
Saturday 12/1/07
6:45 - Woke my daughter up and got her ready for her soccer game.
7:30 - Left for soccer game. It was really cold outside.
8:00 - Refereed my daughter's last soccer game.
8:35 - My daughter scored the only goal for her team during the game, and the last for the season. She was very happy.
9:00 - Took the kids to Home Depot to do their monthly project. Hammered lots of nails in the project for all the kids as they made a "memory" tray -- basically a wooden tray they can put anything in.
10:00 - Went to a furniture store that is going out of business to look for a dining room table.
11:00 - Left furniture store having not found a table in our price range and went home. Spent the rest of the day doing laundry and making cookies for the ward Christmas party that night. My wife is quite sick and sore from our stay in the hotel caused a too-soft bed, residual illness from the week before, really cold weather, plus an overdose of fast food.
6:00 - Finally wrestle the kids into the van and head to the party.
6:10 - Return home to get something we forgot.
6:20 - Finally make it to the party to find it in full swing, which is remarkable, as Mormon standard time, the one time we count on it, wasn't in effect. Have a great dinner (tri-tip steak!) and a great time at the party. Join in an ad-hoc bell choir. Watch my older son and daughter play a shepherd and a sheep, respectively. Chase my youngest around. Watch my wife take center stage and help with other songs she didn't really know (and do great!). Watch some of my good friends who were at the manly football game where I broke my finger dance across the stage wearing pink tutus to the tune of "The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy". Tried to keep my kids from eating too many desserts.
8:30 - Go home and put the kids to bed. They crash. Watch another episode of Stargate (okay, we're addicted).
Sunday, 12/2/07
6:30 - Wake up and get ready for church.
7:30 - Arrive at church to make copies. Be there for an ad hoc Bishopric Meeting.
8:00 - Attend Priesthood Executive Committee Meeting.
9:00 - Family joins me for church. It's so cold outside and the building isn't properly heated. Most people stay huddled under blankets and my wife took my suit coat for the last hour.
12:00 - Stuck around after church to watch people be set apart for new callings at church.
1:00 - Went home.
2:00 - Got a call and realized I was supposed to be at yet another meeting at church. Went back to church in my jeans (I hate doing that!) with a bowl of leftover cookies from last night, which was super insensitive since it was fast Sunday and most people at the meeting hadn't broken their fast, yet (oops!).
3:00 - Made it home and spent a short time with my wife.
3:55 - Wife leaves for a Christmas choir practice.
3:57 - Start writing this blog entry.
4:30 - Start making dinner for the kids.
4:34 - Ran over to my neighbor to give him a soda and some medication since he couldn't get up by himself -- he just had a heart transplant (!) and came home two days ago.
4:40 - Re-started dinner - macaroni and cheese with canned corn on the side.
5:00 - The older kids got in the shower so they could play their Harry Potter computer game afterwards and before bedtime. They were motivated and finished quickly.
5:30 - Tossed my youngest in the tub. Received a call from my mother and spoke with her for about 45 minutes.
6:15 - Got off the phone with my mother and washed my youngest, who was a water-logged prune by that time. Got my finger brace wet.
6:30 - Got the kids to sit down with me and read a story to them about the Mormon Trail.
7:00 - Put the youngest to bed. My wife finally came home and we put the oldest kids to bed together.
8:00 - Amazing Race starts.
8:27 - I finish the first draft of this blog and save it for the evening. I intend to drink hot cocoa (had ice cream instead), cuddle with my wife (which I did), and watch more Stargate (which we did).
5:00 - Wake up and get ready for church.
6:30 - Attend Bishopric Meeting.
8:00 - Attend Priesthood Executive Committee Meeting.
8:50 - Panic and drive home to pick up the kids for church since my wife went to choir practice at 8 since she's leading the choir.
8:56 - Arrive home to find the kids don't have shoes on and the babysitter playing a board game with them.
8:58 - Get in the van with two crying children and a babysitter that would rather be anyplace else.
9:04 - Arrive at church late, but still before the meeting actually starts; wrestle with children who are not happy for the next hour.
9:35 - Wife directs choir and it goes really badly; it is easily the worst performance in my wife's three and something years as ward choir director.
12:30 - Finally be done with church and go home ... for an hour.
1:50 - Return to church to help the Bishop as he interviews people.
3:00 - Finally go home for the last time, very early compared to most Sundays.
3:30 - Call my parents and spend an hour and ten minutes on the phone with my parents; wife gets grumpy.
5:30 - Pull together dinner with the wife for the kids.
6:30 - Wife eats two bites then leaves for yet another choir practice. It's bath night.
7:30 - Kids finally finish their baths/showers.
7:50 - Kids finally are in bed with the lights out.
8:00 - Cruise the net and wait for my wife to come home.
8:50 - Wife finally gets home, and we talk the balance of the night.
Monday, 11/19/07
5:20 - Alarm goes off and I'm too tired to get up. Figure I can work from home, turn the alarm off, and go back to sleep.
6:45 - Wife's alarm goes off and she gets up to take a shower.
7:05 - Wife wakes me up and the kids are really noisy. Get up and shower.
8:00 - Begin working from home.
9:00 - Dial in to a meeting at work. Spend the rest of the day mostly spinning my wheels.
11:30 - Take a half-hour lunch with my wife and youngest son.
4:20 - Stop working and start spending time with the kids.
5:30 - Have dinner with the family and do a Family Home Evening.
6:00 - Get a call from my home teaching companion - he's sick and can't come home teaching with me.
6:45 - Help my wife get the kids ready for bed after falsely remembering that my home teaching appointment was at 7.
7:45 - Leave to go to my home teaching appointment. Have a great discussion with a new couple and one of their sets of parents who are in town for Thanksgiving.
9:00 - Go home and spend time with my wife.
Tuesday, 11/20/07
5:10 - Actually get up to go to work. Sleepwalk through pre-work procedure.
6:10 - Begin drive to work.
7:00 - Arrive at work. Discover it's a ghost town due to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Find out from manager he wants me to write a procedure for a training exercise coming up in two weeks. Spend the rest of the day writing said procedure (it goes badly).
3:00 - Go home a tad early -- it is a holiday after all!
4:00 - Arrive home and spend time with the wife and kids. Have dinner.
7:10 - Leave to go home teaching again, this time to pick up companion.
7:25 - Discover companion thought the appointment was at 8 and isn't home. Leave to go home teaching alone ... again ... without a lesson prepared.
7:30 - Have wonderful visit with a very kind sister.
8:10 - Leave to go pick up companion. He's finally home, but still somewhat sick.
8:30 - Arrive at second appointment for the evening, which goes very well, but companion spreads his germs everywhere.
9:30 - Take home teaching companion home, then go home and crash.
Wednesday, 11/21/07
6:30 - Awakened by the kids after sleeping in. Yes, 6:30 is sleeping in for me.
7:30 - Take the kids to school.
8:00 - Get home and prepare to go out with the wife.
11:00 - Go out with the wife, dropping youngest son off with a good and very pregnant friend, and go out to lunch after running some errands. Go to lunch at sandwich shop -- it's a decent meal, but overpriced, and we won't be going back.
1:45 - Go home to await arrival of daughter from school. Go pick up youngest son. Hang out at home (a favorite past-time of mine). Spend the balance of the evening doing laundry and wondering when my brother-in-law with his family will show up the next day.
Thursday, 11/22/07 (Thanksgiving)
6:30 - Sleep in again, then spend the morning with the kids having breakfast.
8:45 - Go to play football, the annual Turkey Bowl, with my ward.
9:55 - Break finger, re-set it myself, and go home. It still moves and doesn't hurt much.
10:00 - Explain to wife what I did. Receive stern look. Wife runs to store to buy a splint.
11:00 - Brother-in-law shows up with his wife and four kids. Enjoy their company while finger stops flexing, starts swelling, and starts hurting a lot.12:00 - Have sandwiches for lunch. Wife requires help of nephew to prepare turkey, a task I normally do.
1:00 - Family plays games and enjoys company. Finger continues to swell. Wife continues to prepare Thanksgiving meal without my help (sorry!).
4:00 - Turkey is done and brother-in-law (who is something like a decade older than me) carves turkey for the first time in his life since I can't (and he does badly). Dinner is enjoyed by all -- left-handedly for me.5:15 - Dinner is done and I finally decide to go to Urgent Care.
5:30 - Arrive at Urgent Care and discover it, too, is a ghost town. Get X-rays and discover finger is broken. Leave Urgent Care in 20 minutes -- a world record.
6:15 - Drive home and get taunted by in-laws. Play more games and have a good time. Discover I greatly prefer the word "cripple" to "gimp."
8:00 - Struggle getting very excited children to go to sleep; having three boys in one room doesn't go well.
Friday, 11/23/07
7:00 - Sleep in a lot since kids are distracted by in-laws; it's fabulous.
7:15 - Shower and get ready for the day.
10:00 - Leave to go to Six Flags for the day. Use free tickets for brother-in-law and his oldest son who are both not so sure about the rides. Have a wonderful day and convince them they really like big rollercoasters. Broken finger doesn't limit my ability to enjoy the rides.
11:45 - Eat lunch and spend $11 for a cheap burger and fries at the park; drink is excluded from this price, so I drink water.
7:45 - Tired but exhausted, leave park and return home. Kids are getting ready for bed -- it goes slightly better.
8:15 - Spend the evening playing games.
Saturday, 11/24/07
6:30 - Sleep in.
10:30 - In-laws leave to return home. Their trip was short, but enjoyable. Spend the rest of the day relaxing, cleaning the house, and putting up Christmas decorations.
Sunday, 11/25/07
5:00 - Wake up and get ready for church.
6:30 - Attend Bishopric Meeting.
8:00 - Attend Priesthood Executive Committee Meeting.
9:00 - Family joins me for church.
12:00 - Go home for a quick bite to eat.
1:00 - Go back to church to attend Ward Council.
2:30 - Bishop begins interviews while I help organize who's there; wife has choir practice at the same time, so the kids are home with the same babysitter as the previous week.
4:00 - Finally go home.
7:00 - Wife goes to Christmas choir practice (where she is not the director) while I put the kids to bed.
7:30 - Kids are in bed. I have a peaceful evening.
9:00 - Wife finally comes home. The evening just got better, though she's feeling under the weather.
Monday, 11/26/07:
5:20 - Wake up and realize that my wife is sick enough that she needs me home. Spend the rest of the day taking the kids to school, being helpful, and trying not to work too much (and failing).
9:00 - Dial in to a meeting at work; spend what I can of the day working on a presentation for Wednesday and reviewing sequences of commands for my spacecraft. Take a half-hour lunch with my wife.
4:30 - Stop working, and spend time with the kids. Have dinner.
6:00 - Have a family home evening on being kind because the kids had been fighting a lot.
7:00 - Put them to bed; spend time with wife and watch old Stargate episode. Pack for business trip, to which I would leave the next day.
Tuesday, 11/27/07:
5:20 - Wake up and actually get up to go to work. Spend the day in meetings. Stay late and decide to go home before driving 1 1/2 hours to location of business trip.
6:30 - Arrive home and spend next two hours with the family. It's a welcome departure from the plan to go straight to the business trip.
7:00 - The kids are in bed, a miracle because they haven't gone to bed that early in years.
7:30 - Discover the oldest isn't really asleep and spend the next twenty minutes convincing him it really is bed time.
8:30 - Depart for business trip location.
10:00 - Arrive at hotel of business trip. Call wife to tell her to go to bed, fully knowing she won't actually go to sleep. Find out later that she stayed up 'til about 2 am. Discover that she was researching a holiday vacation next year to Hawaii. Still be a little grumpy that she didn't sleep, but temper it with the understanding that she didn't sleep because I wasn't there.
Wednesday, 11/28/07
6:50 - Sleep in after a fitful night.
7:20 - Go to breakfast. The hotel has a free breakfast, with a cook who will make a breakfast to order. I choose a ham, cheese, and spinach omelet -- it's light on the egg, but tastes magnificent.
8:00 - Have extra time, so go back to the hotel room and channel surf. End up watching ten minutes of Ice Age 2 (sad, but true -- I've never seen it before).
8:30 - Go to the business meeting and spend the whole day there. They had pastries for snacks in the morning and delightful cookies in the afternoon.
11:45 - Break for lunch and go to Panda Express. Get orange chicken -- it's very spicy.
1:45 - Present my portion of the meeting for 45 minutes -- it goes very, very well.
6:00 - The meeting finally adjourns and I go to Carl's Jr for dinner. Get a spicy salad. Realize too late that two spicy fast food dishes in one day doesn't sit too well. Drive home to see my family that night. Spend the night at home while work pays for the hotel that sits empty in my absence (but I left my luggage there!). Find out my wife intends to bring the kids the next night and skip school (something they have never done) on Friday so they can play at the hotel.
Thursday, 11/29/07
6:30 - Sleep in and then have breakfast with the kids.
8:00 - Drive to hand surgeon to have him examine my hand and the X-rays that were taken the week before. Discover that I don't need surgery and that my finger should be fine in a month (though it will be slightly crooked).
9:30 - Drive back to business meeting.
10:45 - Arrive at business meeting where it is in full swing.
11:30 - Discover my spacecraft went into safemode again due to a simple human mistake -- the second time in as many weeks. Upper management freaks out and we spend the day trying to explain that sometimes a mistake is just a mistake. They don't buy it and believe that "the process" is broken. Multitask during the meeting to try to recover from safemode as quickly as possible.
12:00 - Go to lunch at Jack-in-the-Box. Order a great burger, curly fries, and a mint chocolate chip shake which sits a lot better than the previous meals I'd had.
1:00 - Returned to business meeting where things are still chaotic.
5:00 - Family shows up at the hotel. I let them into the hotel room then head back to the meeting, which adjourns within minutes.
5:30 - Take family to dinner at Carl's Jr. Have a burger and not much else. Started really getting sick of fast food.
6:30 - Returned to the hotel and took the kids to the really big spa, even though it was really cold out. They had a great time and afterwards they crashed hard.
8:00 - Watched Survivor with the wife and had a very pleasant evening together with the kids passed out in the other room.
Friday, 11/30/07
6:45 - Slept in, even though my oldest woke the other kids up at 6:00. He spent the morning reading in the bathroom while we tried to get the other two kids to go back to sleep. We finally gave up and got up with them. I took a shower and went over to get another omelet (same kind, it was great!) while the rest of the family had cold cereal. It was raining and my daughter was so excited to have a covered patio off the room that she ate out there in the cold while it rained.
8:00 - Went to the meeting where things were really fascinating -- the scientists for my spacecraft were sharing some of the results of their recent activities. My family apparently went to the beach despite the cold and rain and enjoyed themselves there.
12:00 - Meeting ends. Find out my wife checked out of the hotel and headed out to lunch. I follow her on the way home.1:00 - Finally catch up with my wife at Jack-in-the-Box where we have the last burger of the week (*phew* my constitution couldn't take much more).
2:30 - Make it home and spend the next little while cleaning up.
4:30 - Go to dinner at a local pizza joint with my daughter's soccer team -- the last game was the next day and this was the final celebration. She received her first trophy ever and had a wonderful time with her friends. She lost $1 in a "claw" game she didn't know how to operate and was sad (it was a good lesson she learned) and my older son lost a quarter in a faulty toy machine, but he bugged the workers in the restaurant 'til they gave him a new quarter (it was also a good lesson he learned).
6:00 - Went home, put the kids to bed, read books on Hawaii, and watched more episodes of Stargate. It was a nice evening.Saturday 12/1/07
6:45 - Woke my daughter up and got her ready for her soccer game.
7:30 - Left for soccer game. It was really cold outside.
8:00 - Refereed my daughter's last soccer game.
8:35 - My daughter scored the only goal for her team during the game, and the last for the season. She was very happy.
9:00 - Took the kids to Home Depot to do their monthly project. Hammered lots of nails in the project for all the kids as they made a "memory" tray -- basically a wooden tray they can put anything in.10:00 - Went to a furniture store that is going out of business to look for a dining room table.
11:00 - Left furniture store having not found a table in our price range and went home. Spent the rest of the day doing laundry and making cookies for the ward Christmas party that night. My wife is quite sick and sore from our stay in the hotel caused a too-soft bed, residual illness from the week before, really cold weather, plus an overdose of fast food.
6:00 - Finally wrestle the kids into the van and head to the party.
6:10 - Return home to get something we forgot.
6:20 - Finally make it to the party to find it in full swing, which is remarkable, as Mormon standard time, the one time we count on it, wasn't in effect. Have a great dinner (tri-tip steak!) and a great time at the party. Join in an ad-hoc bell choir. Watch my older son and daughter play a shepherd and a sheep, respectively. Chase my youngest around. Watch my wife take center stage and help with other songs she didn't really know (and do great!). Watch some of my good friends who were at the manly football game where I broke my finger dance across the stage wearing pink tutus to the tune of "The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy". Tried to keep my kids from eating too many desserts.
8:30 - Go home and put the kids to bed. They crash. Watch another episode of Stargate (okay, we're addicted).Sunday, 12/2/07
6:30 - Wake up and get ready for church.
7:30 - Arrive at church to make copies. Be there for an ad hoc Bishopric Meeting.
8:00 - Attend Priesthood Executive Committee Meeting.
9:00 - Family joins me for church. It's so cold outside and the building isn't properly heated. Most people stay huddled under blankets and my wife took my suit coat for the last hour.
12:00 - Stuck around after church to watch people be set apart for new callings at church.
1:00 - Went home.
2:00 - Got a call and realized I was supposed to be at yet another meeting at church. Went back to church in my jeans (I hate doing that!) with a bowl of leftover cookies from last night, which was super insensitive since it was fast Sunday and most people at the meeting hadn't broken their fast, yet (oops!).
3:00 - Made it home and spent a short time with my wife.
3:55 - Wife leaves for a Christmas choir practice.
3:57 - Start writing this blog entry.
4:30 - Start making dinner for the kids.
4:34 - Ran over to my neighbor to give him a soda and some medication since he couldn't get up by himself -- he just had a heart transplant (!) and came home two days ago.
4:40 - Re-started dinner - macaroni and cheese with canned corn on the side.
5:00 - The older kids got in the shower so they could play their Harry Potter computer game afterwards and before bedtime. They were motivated and finished quickly.
5:30 - Tossed my youngest in the tub. Received a call from my mother and spoke with her for about 45 minutes.
6:15 - Got off the phone with my mother and washed my youngest, who was a water-logged prune by that time. Got my finger brace wet.
6:30 - Got the kids to sit down with me and read a story to them about the Mormon Trail.
7:00 - Put the youngest to bed. My wife finally came home and we put the oldest kids to bed together.
8:00 - Amazing Race starts.
8:27 - I finish the first draft of this blog and save it for the evening. I intend to drink hot cocoa (had ice cream instead), cuddle with my wife (which I did), and watch more Stargate (which we did).
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