I've been unbelievably busy and haven't made time for a blog post. I'm hoping to change that next week. In the meantime, here is a link to a video that a friend at work sent me. The first person I thought of was a neighbor of mine who's just down the street and he loves to fish. James, this one's for you. If any of you know an avid fisherman, pass it along to them... or to anyone else who wants a good laugh!
I have not been shopping on a Black Friday before but I hear it's hectic. Merchants and retailers are putting their best foot forward to try and lure purses and wallets into their storefronts with hopes of replacing some of the padding in their pocketbooks with all kinds of items. On my way in to work this morning, it seemed that there were more interruptions in the music for radio commercials promoting $10 gift cards for the first $100 spent at the mall or 60% off body sculpting procedures for those who come in before 10:00 AM. It was such a nuisance. I want to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday first yet these ads are starting to crowd out my gratitude and thankfulness.
I'm grateful for clever advertising, as demonstrated by linking to the above commercial. But what if someone came up with a handful of clever commercials emphasizing being thankful, showing goodwill and helping others? Kenneth, if you're reading this, here's your chance.
With that said, I'd be interested to know what you do to make Thanksgiving more than just a day of gluttony. How to you celebrate it? Is it even a special day for you? I can't think of any traditions we have in connection with the day other than a Thanksgiving feast.
Also, if you have a link to a good, uplifting or funny video about Thanksgiving, feel free to post it here too!
Nope. I didn't assault someone in a race nor did I sabotage a marathon either. Actually, I have a couple of herniated discs and they've ruined my future days of being a famous marathon runner. Here are some of the pictures from the MRI I had. One shows a picture of my back from a side angle. You can see the two darker spots indicated are actually discs that lack the bright white center. The doctor told me they don't have much fluid in them. But it gets worse.
The next two pictures are cross sections of my back, with the spinal cord circled. The first one looks good. But when you compare it to the second one, the second one shows a herniated disc with part of it pushing against the spinal cord.
This particular condition is not very fun. I've had back pain for probably 10 years and it just seems to get worse as time goes on. Right now, there's some aching pain in my right thigh and occasionally I feel a burning feeling down the back of my left leg.
Anyway, this past 4th of July weekend, I ran 6 miles which is quite an accomplishment for me. But on that run, I tweaked my back somehow and it took about 10 weeks for the pain to go away. I explained this to the doctor and he said that running is one of the worst things I can do with my back the way it is. That sucks! I enjoyed running with some of my friends and was disappointed to have to stop. As an aside, the doctor told me that dead lifting weight and squats are some of the best ways to ruin a perfectly good disc. So to all of you weight lifters who read my blog, be careful with what you're doing at the gym.
So, I'm looking for a new recreational sport that I can do. I'm open to suggestions.
Today I had the first time privilege of cruising the isles of Costco in the middle of a Saturday. I missed breakfast and it looked like I was about to miss lunch. However, I found a way to get a modest lunch for free. Do you know where I'm going with this yet?
I'm sure I'm alone on this one but in the past I've usually avoided the food sampling tables and booths. I've sometimes thought that I'm obligated to consider purchasing the food item after sampling it and that I shouldn't just sample it because I'm hungry. But where it was lunch time and I missed breakfast, I mentally snubbed that thought after getting a whiff of the freshly baked cookie dough. There was too much of a crowd around that table that I couldn't get to it. But I determined to stop at the next table for a sample. That table turned out to be a cheese and spinach ravioli in tomato sauce. I was hooked! In fact, I stopped at every other sampling table and tried one of everything... except for the jalapeno bratwurst and the camembert cheese, of which I took two. Lunch consisted of a meatball in some type of teriyaki sauce, some chicken in the Panda Express orange sauce, the spinach and cheese ravioli in tomato sauce, a few bites of jalapeno bratwurst, two pieces of camembert cheese, some pecan pie and a small cherry tort dessert. Of all of the samples I had, I only purchased a 12-pack of the bratwurst, which I've had before and would have purchased regardless of the sample. Come to think of it, I only bought it the last time because I tried a sample of it then and it was delicious! It must have been destiny that I did so because, like I said at the beginning of the post, I don't usually stop and sample at the tables.
Is anyone else a fan of food samples at your favorite grocery warehouse? Long live Costco!
Halloween is one of the best holidays the calendar has to offer! From decorating the house and my desk at work to dressing up along with the kids to go trick-or-treating, it's just a lot of fun! This year, for my work party, I went as Frankenstein. The make up was a lot of fun, especially making the scars on my forehead and the side of my face. It reminded me of dressing up as a pirate for a cub scout pack meeting one year. My dad painted a line of rubber cement on my face and once it started to dry a bit, he pushed the skin together to make it look like a scar. I think I protested it long enough, claiming that it was uncomfortable and so my dad removed it. But I've since come around to getting into the holiday spirit. I have this application on my Mac at work called PhotoBooth and took some funny pictures at my desk the morning of our work Halloween party. I actually won third place for my costume!
This year, the kids had a lot of fun with some new costumes. 
Crystal and Jerel are staying with us so we were able to get some pictures of their kids in costumes! From left to right, there's Emma in her pajamas, MaKayla as Susan from the Chronicles of Narnia, Belle as a wizard, Isaac as Dracula, and Gordon and Tyler as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker.
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I'll go in order of delivery.
Recently, I ordered a new 17-inch high-resolution MacBook Pro and it's MY baby! This thing is awesome! The labor and delivery for it was painless and free, although the delivery took about 2.5 days. It goes to sleep when I'm ready for it to and it wakes up just as easily. It weighed 6 lbs. 9 oz. and is 17 inches diagonally. I don't have a name for it yet but I'm taking suggestions.
The other baby took about nine months on the assembly line and then delivery was about a 90-minute ordeal. I haven't been billed for the delivery yet but it definitely isn't free with this model. He weighed 7 lbs. 11 oz. and measured 20 inches tall. We named him Seth Christian Barker. Seth is not a good sleeper. He's up often. But he's been a lot of fun. One of my favorite things about having a newborn is making a baby burrito! It's what I think the little bundle looks like when you wrap him up in a blanket. I'm quite expert at wrapping babies up like that.
There will be many good times ahead. Anyway, enjoy the pictures!
I'm working on another post right now but I'm going to need a few more days to finish it. In the meantime, I have a little brain teaser for you. Five points will go to the person who gets it right first! I don't know what you'll use the 5 points for though.
The astronomy instructor offered to give extra credit to eight students: Jack, Jane, Jeff, Jess, Jill, Jodi, John, and Judy if they'd help the rest of the class learn about the Solar System. Each student would choose one planet – Earth, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Neptune Saturn, Uranus, or Venus - and write a special report to be presented in front of the class. Based on the following clues, and using the Internet is allowed, determine which student chose which planet for his or her report.
Clue 1 = The name of Jess' planet ends with an "S."
Clue 2 = Jane's planet is smaller than Venus.
Clue 3 = Jack's planet lies just beyond the Asteroid Belt.
Clue 4 = The orbit of Judy's planet is smaller than Earth's orbit.
Clue 5 = Jill's planet lies further from the Sun than any other.
Clue 6 = Jeff's planet has multiple moons.
Clue 7 = Jodi's planet is widely known as "the Red Planet."
Here's another video. Kite boarding looks like an extreme sport. I don't think I'll get around to doing this in my lifetime.
I'm working on my iPhone app which explains why I haven't spent much time lately with my blog. (And if you already know something about my app, don't post any details... yet.) I'm hoping to finish it in the near future and then I'll give you all the details about it.
In the meantime, here is something that will make you smile, if not laugh.
For Christmas last year, Bethany got me a nice telescope that I've pulled out several times to observe the moon and the stars. It's been fun to use, especially when the moon's orbital path brings it closer to earth. Tonight, on my way home from work, I noticed how big the moon was and thought it would be cool to take a look at. So when I got home, I set it up my telescope and showed the kids the moon. They loved it! I had the thought to try and take a picture or two of it through my telescope using my cell phone. I got several but these two were the best. And, since my phone can do video, I tried that too and it worked as well! So, here's what I got. Enjoy!
My sister read this to me and it was quite funny. So I'm sharing. Enjoy!
I participated in a blog post on a friend's blog and as a result, that friend will make something and give it to me. I'm rather curious about it and wonder what it will be. However, there was one condition which was that I had to offer the same deal on my blog. So here I go...
The Giveaway
The first five people to post a comment on this blog posting will get something made by me that will be especially for you.
There is some fine print associated with this deal:
There is a catch! You must repost this same offer on your blog and offer the same deal to the first five people who do the same on your blog.
This past weekend, we hit Las Vegas to visit grandma and grandpa and decided to go to the Excalibur with the kids to play some games at the arcade downstairs. After we won a bunch of stuffed animals and prizes, we headed out of the resort. On our way out, we walked past the sportsbook and noticed that of all the games that could have been shown in the casino, the Oklahoma-BYU game was on! Oklahoma was up 10 to 7 in the second quarter and I was shocked that it wasn't looking worse for BYU at that point. Anyway, the game was on the big screen there and I'd say that about 40 people were watching it.
I checked the score later that night and read how BYU beat OU 14-13! That wasn't supposed to happen, although I'm glad it did. The spread was set at 21.5 points and the over/under was at 66 points. And while I feel bad for Oklahoma who was ranked 3rd and seeing them lose to 20th ranked BYU, the funny part of this was realizing that the people watching the game who had placed a bet on that game had probably bet on Oklahoma to win... BUT THEY ALL LOST THEIR MONEY! Ha ha ha ha! That's awesome!
I almost succumbed to this yesterday. I was up at 6:00 AM and got dressed and over to the church by 7:00 AM for bishopric meeting which went for an hour. Then we had ward council and welfare committee meeting at 8:00 AM and 9:00 AM and each was an hour. Church started at 11:00 AM and that's 3 hours long. Afterwards, there were a few people to set apart and then I helped out with entering tithing and other donations from about 2:30 PM until 4:00 PM. I stopped home for a minute so I could get breakfast (one hot dog) and lunch (another hot dog). I was a few minutes late getting to my 4:00 home teaching appointment. When I got there, I knocked and nobody answered. So I went home thinking I'd get a little break before 4:30 PM when my home teachers were supposed to come over but they showed up almost 20 minutes early. They left by 5:00 PM when I got a call from my 4:00 PM home teaching appointment saying we could come by then. We were there until 6:15 PM. I came home and had dinner and then went to some friends' house for a bit. As I walked to their house, I passed by one of my neighbors with whom I had another home teaching appointment scheduled for 8:00 PM in the evening. She reminded me of it and I stated we'd be there. But after getting over to this other family's house and spending some time with them, I completely forgot about the 8:00 PM home teaching appointment. I think I got home about 8:20 PM or so and we got the kids ready for bed. I'm sure that the thought of the missed home teaching appointment would not have crossed my mind at all the rest of the night, except that the lady whom I spoke with in passing earlier came by at 9:00 PM to see if everything was OK. Sorry Andersons! My home teaching companion was there and spent some time with them but I was M.I.A. So after apologizing to her at the door a few times, I called up my home teaching companion to do the same. It looks like I'll be making some cookies to help smooth over the gaffe.
As many of you know, Sundays are a day of rest so it would seem that I'm breaking the Sabbath. When I was younger and my dad served in a few bishoprics, I wondered about that. However, I think the day of rest actually has to do with what we each typically do on a daily basis. Cooking, cleaning, working and playing are activities that we all do daily. Sundays are set aside as a day for us to pause from those types of activities and focus more on those activities that will help build the kingdom of God, which include church service and meetings. With that said, I'll tell you that being to so many meetings really makes me miss my family. I find that I want to spend more time with them when I come home from a long day like yesterday. In fact, when we were over at our friends' house, I felt like I had to do something that was not meeting-oriented so I played Mother-May-I and Red Light/Green Light with some of the kids. It was just the break I needed.
Serving in the Church is lots of fun, though. I'm learning a few things about myself. I find that meeting new people is a lot of fun, and that different kinds of people come from different kinds of backgrounds and have different kinds of experiences and stories to share. They have different kinds of challenges and different kinds of blessings. But we're all part of one family and we all have something good to offer to the family members we come in contact with daily.
If you ever want to feel like a man at 7:53 in the morning, there's only one thing you can do. It requires superior hand/eye coordination, liquid death in a can, and a wasp's nest.
This morning, I sent a nest of wasps to the spirit world in about 5 seconds. It was so satisfying!
I have been planning my attack since last week when I decided to replace a few burned out light bulbs in our coach lights that flank our garage door. I noticed that one of the light fixtures had a nest on it so I couldn't replace the bulb until I got rid of it. I figured I'd wait until early one morning to catch them when they were all there. This morning was the perfect morning! I walked out to it, keeping the specified 10 feet between where I would hold the can and the target. I sprayed the grass a bit to see just how well it sprayed. Then, I aimed at the light fixture and let loose a stream of poison that took them all by surprise! Not a one escaped. Ha ha! In fact, not one resisted. I emptied most of the can to ensure the work of death wasn't lacking.
By now, you may have come to a couple conclusions, one of which could be wrong. You could be thinking that I would define being a man as goin' around killin' things. That would be inaccurate. Part of being a man is being able to provide a certain level of pest control at 7:53 in the morning. That's accurate.
As for the other conclusion, you're right on!
Today at work, in my inbox, I got an email from my company asking for some information about me for a game we are going to play at a later date. The list of questions made me think of my blog so I'm putting them up here along with my responses. If you're reading this blog post, consider yourself tagged. Feel free to put your answers in your comment to this posting or, if you decide to put your answers on your own blog, post a comment here so I can go look at them. Thanks!
I'm not dead and I'm not dying any faster than the rest of you! :) Enjoy these links.
Yesterday was a really long day at work. Mentally, I was exhausted. For two days, I've been trying to track down the cause of a runtime error related to the strength of an encryption key which was limited by an updated local policy file. I was glad to head home. I traipsed in through the door and walked right into a trap. Belle was waiting for me just around the corner of the wall. She jumped out at the right time and successfully startled me. That NEVER happens. My stunned look quickly turned to a smile. I now have a little practical jokester. She's gonna get it. Actually, I have three and a fourth one in training but yesterday, Belle earned her certificate. It put me in a good mood.
But wait. It gets better. Dinner was ready and on the table and I sat down with the family and ate. After most everyone had finished and left the table, Johnny, who was having seconds, shared a new joke. It was completely unexpected. His library of jokes has consisted of only three which he's worn out over the last year. They are:
Anyway, his fourth joke is:
Why did Superman go to the supermarket?
Answer:To get some wonder-wear!
It's only mildly funny now but yesterday it hit the spot! Kids make life so much more fun. Thanks Johnny!
That's today's math lesson.
If you run out three miles away from home, you have to come back those three miles. On Saturday, that's what I did. I ran six miles in 72 minutes (and 3 seconds). I averaged a 12-minute mile which is not fast at all, but, nonetheless, I did it! There is one part of the run that includes a steep incline and I had to walk that part after the first 20 yards of it just about drained all of my energy. On other shorter runs without going up a steep hill, I have averaged between 10.5 to 11.5 minutes per mile.
It all started with my wife getting up early to run with her friends. Her alarm would go off well before mine. I could rarely fall back to sleep even though I gave it my best efforts. This went on for months, through the fall, the winter, and even in to spring. She ran the Salt Lake City half marathon and did great! The next day at church, a lot of people were talking about it enthusiasticaly and I took notice of it. The buzz about the marathon made me reflect on my personal health and I began to think that neglecting it could one day end in a sad realization. For me, that kicked off some serious thoughts about what I was doing [wrong] and what improvements needed to be made.
I have been running for eight weeks and have come a long way. My first attempt at running ended just short of half a mile (out by the fire department) and I was utterly stunned that I couldn't keep up with the rest of the guys in the group. I walked for a ways and tried running every 150 feet or so but I couldn't run for much after that. It was a long mile and a half.
Never in my life have I thought I would run more than a few miles at a time. But to say that I can run six miles without stopping is so satisfying and feels like such an achievement. My goal is to be able to run 13.1 miles with Bethany next year for the Salt Lake City half marathon.
And since you are reading this, I'm inviting you to run the half marathon too, unless you want to do the full marathon! We can even have a friendly competition to see who's time is faster. Let's say the slowest buys the fastest dinner.
John, Ben and Megan, you're not eligible for this friendly competition 'cause I already know you'll kick my trash!
Bethany and the kids really spoiled me this year. I got a few nice things including a new iPhone 3G S! AWESOME!!! Bethany made crepes for breakfast. As you can see from the picture, Nutella, bananas, strawberries and whipped cream go really well with crepes.
I got a musical card for Father's Day from my kids. Sabrina has been carrying the card around for the first part of the week. She dances and spins around to the music and then poses like a rock star at the end.
I got to talk with my parents and my brother and sisters and told them that Bethany is expecting! They were all excited. She's having a boy in October. If you've got any names to suggest, feel free to post them although Bethany says not to send us anything that you really want for your own future children because she doesn't want to be accused of stealing a name.
There were no meetings on Sunday and the Relief Society handed out a bag with a few cookies inside. It was a great day!
What the heck!?! Did you see last night's show? What was up with the cheeseburger eatin' balerina boy with the mystic makeup job? His 100-pound wife lifted him (240 pounds) over her back! Mixing that with ballet is not talent; that's called weight lifting and there are people who can lift much more than that.
The guy who claimed to do impressions was completely laughable. The judges said it right when they said he was only doing impressions of himself. He went down in flames! I felt bad for him because he had to endure the jeers from the audience. But whoever told him he was really good must have been smoking something or paid to do so as part of a practical joke.
There was also a guy on the show whose crush for someone from Baywatch was highly promoted before he sang. Bethany and I thought they were talking about a lifeguard (Pamela Anderson) from the show. But, when the dude began to sing, he was singing about David Hasselhoff! Yuck!!! What a dud! It was kind of funny to see one man professing his love for another man through song. David enjoyed the song but felt badly it was coming from a man.
And then there was "Mr. and Mrs. Lovechild" in their shimmering silver costumes being a PDA on a suspended metal hula hoop! That's not talent! That's a prelude to a porno. And they were voted through! I can't believe Piers Morgan voted them through because Sharon asked him to.
The redeeming act of the night was that with the three children at the very end who sang "God Bless America". It was amazing. It's true that their story certainly attached the audience to them emotionally but their voices were beautiful as they harmonized the anthem.
It's going to be an interesting season this summer.
It's only the middle of the first month of the summer and I feel like I've crammed more stuff in to these few weeks than I usually do. Here's what's happened.
I want to ride my bicycle.
I want to ride my bike.
I want to ride my bicycle.
I want to ride it where I like.
Queen, Bicycle Race
I have a new mountain bike that I've become a fan of riding. Bethany and I have taken the kids on a few rides. Johnny and Sabrina usually hang out in the bike trailer I can attach to my bike. For our first ride, we went all the way to the skate park and back. The kids thought it was fun, except for Belle who wanted to stop about three quarters of the way there and just sit on the path and wait for us to come back. We revoked her agency and made her come the rest of the way. We heard about how bad we are as parents for making her do it. I'm sure this was in answer to a prayer long ago when my parents were raising me and asked that I be duly rewarded. What a hoot!
Youth Conference
We have some excellent youth in our ward. Some of them are funny, some are athletic, some can pack the food away, and some are a bit reserved. I had a fantastic time with them. We did baptisms for the dead, had pizza for lunch, spent part of an afternoon learning about the tabernacle from the Old Testament, played dodge ball, had a barbeque, played ping pong, watched The Chronicles of Narnia, hiked a few miles to a waterfall and had a testimony meeting around a campfire. Seeing the youth interact with each other in these various situations is so interesting. A handful of them shared touching and impressive testimonies. The older ones looked out for the younger ones and encouraged them on. Seeing them have fun is so satisfying as one of their leaders. I wish it could have gone on longer.
For the presentation on the traveling tabernacle, I put together an imperfect replica of the ark of the covenant. It was a wood and cardboard box painted gold. I didn't have time to fashion two cherubim or a mercy seat so I had Sabrina's stuffed Mickey Mouse and teddy bear be stand ins. The kids got the idea.
Cub Scout Day Camp
It finally came! Isaac and I got to go to day camp at Camp Jeremiah Johnson. The boys had a blast even though it rained. Isaac was Branson's buddy for the day and so they did most of the activities together. They shot BB guns, sling shots, and bows, panned for gold, made rope and built a little covered wagon. We learned that Isaac is not a great marksman (yet) but he enjoyed the activities. While we ate lunch at the pavilion, we noticed a small dark mound of dirt that was growing before our eyes about 30 yards away on the field. We wandered over to it and watched a prairie dog dig up through the ground. A few of the scouts cleared away some of the dirt to get a better look at it. I thought it would be scared off but it didn't seem to mind the boys watching.
At the end of the rope-making activity, the boys wanted to have a tug-of-war against the leaders from our pack. A few of the leaders grabbed one end of the rope and the boys eagerly grabbed the other end. What made it funny was that they tied the very end of the rope to Jacob's turbo-charged wheelchair. Nobody won but it made for a great memory. Fun stuff!
