Thursday, January 31, 2008

If you like chicken nuggets, kabobs and war...

Then you'll appreciate this.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Gordon Bitner Hinckley Goes Home


President Gordon B. Hinckley, 15th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was called home last evening. My first thought was how blessed I was to have been a contemporary of his in some small way. I'm honored to have followed his counsel and to have witnessed his tenure as president of the LDS faith. As I've read more about his life in the last few hours, I'm humbled by his dedication to the Lord and His Gospel.

I was there as he dedicated the St. Paul Temple and sat just feet away as he walked the halls of that building in preparation of its dedication. I knew then as I know now that he was the Lord's anointed. I thrilled to be in Madrid in 1999 as he dedicated the temple there--in the nation in which I served a mission. I took up his challenge to read the Book of Mormon by the end of 2005 and was blessed.

President Hinckley will be missed by all who knew him--but I can't help but think that all those who knew him are so very grateful this day that the Lord has called him home to be with his beloved Marjorie, and to continue this great work from beyond the veil.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

VISIT MY OTHER BLOG--DO IT NOW.

...and leave a comment: http://carvemyrushmore.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Critical Thinking

Just heard this old joke on the radio. Still a classique. Enjoy.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson go on a camping trip. After a good dinner and a bottle of wine, they retire for the night, and go to sleep. Some hours later, Holmes wakes up and nudges his faithful friend.

"Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."

"I see millions and millions of stars, Holmes," replies Watson.

"And what do you deduce from that?"

Watson ponders for a minute. "Well, astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful, and that we are a small and insignificant part of the universe. What does it tell you, Holmes?"

Holmes is silent for a moment. "Watson, you idiot!" he says. "Someone has stolen our tent!"

Team Comeback?

I was reading in Bicycling magazine this morning that there's a new pro cycling team being formed in the US. If you look at the roster, you may notice that many of the riders are either retired or had been forced into retirement due to the Operacion Puerto doping allegations out of Spain.

The most curious involvement to me is that they're courting Floyd Landis to be involved. This is my favorite quote from the story, citing a Landis email in response to questions as to whether he's involved with this new team, Team Rock Racing:

Landis wrote, "No comment, but I wish them the best. They have hired a bunch of exceptional racers who deserve support. Support, I might add, that was taken away because of political pressure from out of control anti-doping agencies run by second place finishers."


Classic Floyd. And for the record, I still say he's innocent--and still the 2006 Tour de France Champion.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Look What My Wife Started...




You Belong in 1952



You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!



Fitting that I belong three years farther back than my wife. That's the difference in our ages.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Marketing to Four Year-Olds

Nate just came in and informed me that I should get the "Power Rangers Motorcycle." I asked what that is, which he happily informed me was a motorcycle that helps you be a Power Ranger. He then provided me with the location of said motorcycle: "Dad, you can find it on the Power Ranger aisle at Target."

I told him I'd look into it.

Dad's Helper


A couple of weeks back I asked my son if he wanted to help take down the Christmas lights. He did. He "helped" me do the backyard, gathered up the mess of extension cords and we got all the lights down pretty quickly. Nate was impressed with the extension pole that I use in order to avoid using the ladder. I think he would've just enjoyed using that for a couple of hours. Here he is "helping" with the cords.

My sister says that in her post-graduate linguistics program, she worked with an Indian tribe in California who has an actual specific word for someone who helps you complete a task, but that although you complete the task, by having their "help" the task is actually harder to complete. I like the concept--but in this case, no matter how much "more" work is created, I'll always love working with my little guy to get something done.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

The Proper Way to Ring in the New Year

Another thing we have up here in the north is "Bogus Basin." Don't be jealous that your ski resorts have names like "Aspen" or "Crested Butte" or even "Sugarloaf." You wish you had "Bogus" in the name. Think of it. You could have "Bogus Park City" or "Bogus Deer Valley" or even "Bogus Sundance." You wish.

But the original Bogus Basin has a tubing hill for the kiddies--complete with tow ropes for full-laziness. Behold the two runs we caught on video today. I order you to enjoy.

Bogus Run 1



Bogus Run 2