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Saturday, July 26, 2008

Thomas had a busy week.

Thomas was in the Pioneer Cup soccer tournament last week. His team
lost the first two games against the two top teams in the tournament.
The first game was a mess, but the second they showed some promise.
Thomas was in as goalie the second game and the one the next day.
That game ended in a tie. He did very well as goalie, and he
says he likes the position. The coach is not assigning any positions
at this time, but he does like what he sees in Thomas. Several
of the other boys are also very good.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Astro Camp

Patrick was at Astro Camp in Ogden all last week. The camp was set up in 1991 by a husband and wife, and now they have a number of different courses from one day to week long sleepovers. One camp does a field trip to the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center.

The kids did simulated shuttle launches, experiments, crafts, and had a trip to ATK where the solid rocket boosters are tested (although I was told all they did was watch a movie). Patrick was initially nervous about going when April dropped him off on Tuesday, but fortunately he had a friend going with him (they were the ones who told us about it). They graduated on Friday afternoon. There was an email sent out that Don Linq, the first Utah astronaut was going to be there for a dedication ceremony on the museum that has his name. I was not looking forward to the speeches and such, but he was a good speaker. His introduction was a little sad in that he was scheduled to walk on the moon for Apollo 20 which was cancelled, scheduled for Skylab but cancelled, and a few other cancelled things. He did get to crew the shuttle Challenger. The awards were handed out, and Patrick's team got the best team award, highest points award, and several others. He personally won the trivia competition, and as we toured afterwards several leads said he was a master of trivia. In the car he said this was the only team of first years to get best team award. It kind of reminded me of Harry Potter.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

McCain at the next Star Trek Convention

The Christian Science Monitor ran this poll:
What you don't know about the presidential candidates


The last point came up on a Google alert:
"Even more amazing was the landslide of 93 percent who said it would be "a hoot!" to hang out with John McCain at a Star Trek convention."

I must be in that other 7%.

Clueless CIO

Matt Smith pointed to an article on "Why application developers think their CIO is clueless" and to reason #9 specifically. "If you never watched Star Trek then you shouldn't even be a CIO." I had this in mind as I watched Star Trek: The Original Series Remastered (ST:TOSR) episode "Requiem for Methuselah". The clearer picture gave me something I've never noticed before: As Spock details each of the strange things he finds in Flint's home, Kirk has a familiar look of "Stop bugging with this." If a CIO has seen Star Trek, I hope its The Next Generation.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Trying to get to Lagoon

Sunday we decided to go to Lagoon. This is one of those days where bad things start dibbling downhill like pebbles, and eventually dislodge boulders. April purchased some discount passes from her work, and Rachel already has a season pass. The kids were allowed to invite friends. Thomas and Patrick could not find anyone who was not out of town. This turned out to be a good thing, as Rachel invited three friends. One ended up not coming. April worked that night, and as a result I was a little stressed getting the kids away from the TV to find swimsuits, towels, etc. Hence, I blew up after being told I was going the wrong way in picking up Rachel's friends (despite the fact I had been there a dozen times). After picking her up, I miss the exit to Lagoon from highway 89. Fine, we can go around to Centerville. We get on the I-15 freeway, and stop just short of the exit because of an accident. (I read in the paper later a man was doing 100 MPH, swerved to go around someone, and crashes into the exit sign. As we passed, the car looked really torn up.) Finally, after two hours, we reach Lagoon. Rachel and her friends go their own way, and April takes Patrick on a few rides. Thomas and I float around the river a few times. I take Patrick and Thomas on the Tilt-o-Whirl (the ride spins around). We had some trouble getting it to spin, but after I did, I noticed Thomas turning white. Oops. I guess I spin it a little to fast for his liking.

After leaving, we stopped to get gas. The total was $67. I keep thinking of a co-worker who has to fill up his truck twice. His card will only authorize $75 max for each PIN purchase, and it costs $85. It's a bad sign.

Fourth of July 2008

This year's Fourth was subdued somewhat. We bought some fireworks on the day itself. Susan and Verne and family came over, and brought my dad's old slides and slide projector. He had this cabinet full of slides from pictures back to about 1959. There are about 20 boxes with 40 slides each. April had a scanner for her job that can handle these, so she volunteered to scan them. It's a major undertaking due to trying to keep the pictures organized by what my dad wrote on the box. We tried to run them through the projector, but many of them became jammed because the cardboard that holds the film is getting soft. 

We ate, and then went out to do the fireworks. This year the kids in the neighborhood (mine included) seem to be pyromaniacs. They are intent on lighting small fires. The actual fireworks did not impress them. We watched the Layton city fireworks show from our porch.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Dads Funeral

My brothers Terry and Verne were in for the funeral with my sisters in law (Kathy and Ann), and Terry's two daughters came in (Wendy and Shelly). Shelly also brought her husband, Josh. This was convenient since he drove them down. Wendy came with her daughter Amanda. Verne's son Peter and daughter Dawn came with him. Dawn also brought her son Evan and new daughter Emma.

The viewing for Dad was Tuesday night. It was good to see a lot of people I had not seen for a long time. Matt and Janet Smith made it, the McKenzies (who had sad news that their daughter, only a year older than me, passed away in February), Fritz and his wife (long time associate of Dad and who I am not even going to try misspelling a last name), Danny, his cleaning lady, a lady from the assisted living place, and many others I am sure I have forgotten to mention.

The funeral was nice, although a little shorter than I had expected, but pretty much to my Dad's wishes. Bonneville Lodge #31 Free and Accepted Masons did the ceremony. I had my two brothers, a nephew Peter, a nephew in law (Josh), a family friend (Danny) and myself as pallbearers. The Bountiful United Church of Christ did a lunch for us.

Later that afternoon Susan, Verne and family, Danny, and I went over to his apartment and cleared out the furniture. Most went to the D.I. It didn't take more than a few hours, and after we went to El Matador. I can remember that Dad was thrilled that a restaurant was being built within walking (or scootering) distance. I explained several times that it served Mexican cuisine, but he didn't seem to understand. We never went there, so this was a first for me.