Colorado Springs in April

Chieko decided on Sunday, March 30, that we should go to Colorado Springs to visit Jamie and gang over Conference weekend. I think the reason was to see Kali, who had surgery on April 1, but for whatever reason, I'm always game for taking a couple days off work and taking a road trip.















We left Thursday evening, drove through beautiful Wyoming mostly in the dark and stayed in Laramie. We then drove through blowing snow on a blue windy day, went to the Denver Art Museum to see the Impressionists exhibit (Monet, Manet, Renoir, Cezanne), and arrived at Jamie's in the early evening on Friday.

The Austin's house is beautiful. Two stories with a basement (so three stories). Vaulted ceilings. Large kitchen. Large family room. Larger family room downstairs. Four bedrooms upstairs. Three and a half bathrooms. They've also done a lot of work tearing down wallpaper and painting to make it their own. Chieko and I decided that we need to buy a new house.















We stayed in the guest house in the back.















The guest room is larger than it looks from the outside.

On Friday evening we ate really good Italian food (I had veal with sun dried tomoatoes, artichoke hearts, and garlic in a garlic cream sauce) in Old Colorado City, the old heart of Colorado Springs.

On Saturday we watched the Solemn Assembly session of conference and stood with our quorums and groups to sustain our new prophet.















We then visited the Valley of the Gods, an Arches-like park in the Pike's Peak foothills that was dedicated for free public use by the children of the founder of Colorado Springs. There are a lot of towering rocks and rock walls that are popular among serious climbers.















The Austin kids broke all the rules and got arrested and went to jail in Texas. Well, Caleb did fall and got a fat, bloody lip.















In the late afternoon, when the sun was low enough to light up the stained glass windows, we visited the Air Force Academy, where the biggest attraction for visitors is probably this chapel.






















These are the stained glass windows.

On Sunday we watched Morning Conference then went to Seven Falls, which is seven waterfalls, one after the other. It's also in the Pike's Peak foothills behind the Broadmoor Hotel, which will host the 2008 Senior Open golf tournament in July.






















Most of us climbed about 170 stairs to a viewpoint and gift shop (some people and their two younger kids took an elevator in a shaft cut in the mountain), and then we climbed another 224 stairs to the top of the falls.















Chieko and I were supposed to drive home on Monday, but wunderground.com said both possible routes--I-70 and I-80--were to have an 80% chance of snow, and we'd taken Chikeo's BMW, which does not have snow tires (but it cruises along really nicely at 80+ mph and averaged 31 mpg over the trip). So, darn, we had to stay an extra day.

On Monday we visited the Olympic headquarters and the Western Mine and Industry museum. The Olympic headquarters was very interesting. We saw a few athletes training on weights, and some visiting junior athletes competing in a .22 rifle competition. We also got snowed on pretty heavily with big corn-snow during the outside part of the tour.

On the way home on Tuesday we stopped at Oshima Ramen in Denver--ramen is always a must for us. Unfortunately, the ramen was mediocre, skinny noodles, very thin pork, and not a lot of food. We left Denver at noon, stopped for gas in Green River, UT, drove through hard rain in Spanish Fork Canyon, and made a detour to Santaquin to eat dinner at The Family Tree. We were home at 9 p.m.















Don't you wish your elementary school was in a city with always-clean air and Pikes Peak in the background? This is Kali and Caleb's school.

Moab with Austins

Jamie ran in the Canyonlands Half Marathon on Saturday morning in Moab, so Chieko and I drove down to cheer her on, and to spend time with the whole family. Jamie did really well. She can tell about it, but she beat one of our neighbors whom I see running around the neighborhood a lot (okay, maybe the neighbor is a little older, but still).

After the marathon we all went to Arches, including Carol, Brian's mother. The best spot was probably Sand Dune Arch, which is the perfect playground with narrow walkways, plenty of climbing rocks, and lots of sand.

The most entertaining part was when we were all following Chieko through a narrow passageway. She got through the alley first and hid behind the rock wall to scare Caleb.

Unfortunately for her, a young couple was in a hurry, so we let them past us.

Unfortunately for them, too. Chieko jumped out decked out with sunglasses, a hat and a hood, and hands out like bear claws. She yelled "aaarggghhh!!" The couple was shocked, and Chieko turned Japanese red. We all had a good laugh.

What I Do at Work

People always ask me what I do for a living. Here's the answer:



Here's a video that shows what we really do. This is a promotional video for our group. These are my coworkers.



And this is a video that we shot in New York with our research partner. It features research that our company sponsored and I managed. I also outlined the script, identified the key topics, helped direct the video with our producers. And if you look quickly, I have a cameo appearance.

Speed Skating

On February 9 Chieko and I went to the World Speedskating competition at the Olympic Oval in Kearns. It was at the same time as the World Leadership Training at our stake, so I attended Randy's stake's training in the morning (nobody from his family was there, so I didn't take up any extra seats).

We had a lot of fun. Kind of like mini-Olympics, with all the famous names, of which I only know Apolo Anton Ohno. The Chinese and Koreans are pretty strong in this sport. But so is the United States.

In between the races, the Utah Olympic mascots came around and encouraged people to yell and cheer, and in return they threw T-shirts into the stands. We were on the second row, and I said to Chieko, "It's silly to yell, because you yell your heart out and they throw the shirts way up into the stands behind us." Then one mascot stood next to me, and somehow I ended up in a yelling-toward-the-mascot contest with the kid in front of us. And the mascot sort of dropped a shirt between Chieko and me. It landed in Chieko's lap, but since it's a size XL, I ended up with it.

Here's a minute of the three hours of action.


Pause the music in the black Playlist box to the right.

Texas Kids in Utah

While John and Misa are having some minor remodeling work done on their house, Misa brought the kids to Utah. They spent most of Tuesday at our house while Misa did errands or something.






We made origami cups and ate bananas.





































And played in the snow.

Pictures from Christmas

A bit late, but here are some Christmas pictures.

New York City January 2008

I had business in New York January 28-31--I interviewed some folks from the Economist Intelligence Unit for a video we're producing to promote a study we sponsored with the EIU. Chieko decided to go with me, and although we were in New York just a short time, we did some fun things.

The videotaping on Tuesday took from first thing until a little after 6 p.m. Chieko just wandered around New York, I guess. On Tuesday evening, my cousin Jack Scovil, my dad's sister Dorene's son, took us to dinner at a very New York restaurant on 47th street and between 8th and 9th Avenues, I think. I forgot to get the name of it. The entrance was just below sidewalk level. It was very posh with an outdoor garden, which was closed for the winter. The waiter was a young Italian man. I had braised beef, Chieko had scallops, and Jack ate raviolis. Really good. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with Jack. He's 15 years older than me and has lived in New York since I was conscious, so I haven't known him very well. He went to school in California and then drove his 1965 Mustang convertible to New York to look for work. The roof of his car got slashed his first night in New York. He landed at a literary agency, where he stayed until 1992, when he and two partners started their own agency, called Scovil Chichak Galen Literary Agency.

On Wednesday, I had a meeting with the EIU people to brainstorm some new research topics.

Then Chieko and I high tailed it to the taping of the Late Show with David Letterman. Chieko had requested tickets online, and although the website said most people get tickets a year in advance, she got two tickets by answering a trivia question (What does Rupert do?). The Letterman cheerleaders seat people randomly. ("Seating is random, but if you have a randomly crappy smile you might get a randomly crappy seat." Hardy laughing and clapping are required. )

We ended up on the fourth row in the center, one seat from the aisle. Twice we ended up prominently on screen. The first was a skit with a "member of the audience," who was sitting just in front of us, and the second was when Dave gave a lady just behind us a bag of Late Show stuff--sweat shirts, hat, t-shirts--because she gave Paul a gold hat, which he wore throughout the taping. The first clip just shows Chieko. I was in the 16:9 aspect-ratio version, but I don't have a copy of that, and I'm cut out of this 4:3 version. But both of us are in the second version.

WAIT: Turn off the background music by pressing the pause button in the "Playlist" box on the right before starting video.





Next we ate dinner at a diner and headed to the Gershwin Theater to see Wicked. The show was very fun. The Glinda witch was a perfect lead for Legally Blonde. In fact, the actress appeared in that production prior to Wicked. If you go to New York, see this show.







The Gershwin theater is much larger than any I've been in before.

We sat on the fourth row, on the far right. This provided a great view of the actors, but sometimes it was a bit too close. During intermission we moved back one row, since the two seats there were empty. A lone man from the front row stood up to stretch, and I offered to let him sit in the seats we had moved from. It turns out he's a bishop from Bridger, WY, who works in Salt Lake and was in New York for business. Funny to meet someone so close so far away.


On Thursday morning Chieko bought a very nice Dior purse at an official outlet that's only in New York. Then we ate pizza and headed home.

Grandchildren in My Christmas Display

Before you press the Play button, pause the music in the black Playlist box in the right column--press once on the Playlist box and again on the pause button.

New York at Christmastime

I'm not dead yet. New York City at Christmas is a wonderful place to remind me of this. I went to visit with the folks at the Economist Intelligence Unit, which is doing research for us. But I also got to see the tree and ice skating at Rockefeller Center, along with 100,000,000 pennies school children collected for charity.

I got Chieko a "Coach" purse in Chinatown for $35 at her request. I considered getting her a real Coach purse at the Coach store next to Rockefeller Center, until I saw the $485 price tag. The M&M and Hershey stores at Times Square are my favorites (plus, I stayed in the Double Tree just across the street for $440.88 per night), so of course I stopped at those two stores two or three times and got an M&M luggage tag and a sleigh Christmas stocking holder, as well as some dark chocolates with almonds and a tin of Good & Plenty. The Sapporo Ramen restaurant was just around the corner, so I had to stop there. And I ate a hot dog at a corner stand.

That was on Monday. On Tuesday I visited EIU and FAO Schwarz, the toy store, where I got a really cool item that I can't mention because I'm probably going to give it to someone. But I have to say I paid $40 for it. When I got home I found the exact item on Amazon.com on sale for $12. Oh well, that's New York. I also paid $46.50 for a $15 meal.

That was on Tuesday evening, when I ate dinner at Angus McIndoe, across from the Shubert Theatre. I was told a lot of the show producers and such hang out there, but I saw only a guy (at the bar; no tables available) who looked about as much like Richard Gere as the China Town handbag looked like a real Coach--pretty close, but no autograph.

Then I went to what I've been waiting two and a half years to see.






















It was well worth the wait.

On Wednesday morning I went to my next favorite store: B&H Photo, where I bought a 10' x 12' green muslin screen. Chieko would have thought to bring a half-empty suitcase to New York, but I brought a small one just big enough for three days' worth of clothes. Somehow the purchases squeezed in, though.

Just remember: Always look on the bright side of life.

Disneyland with the Texastles

The week after Thanksgiving was the annual Crawford Disneyland Adventure (I don't know if they actually go only annually). Chieko and I went, too. We haven't been to Disneyland for more than 20 years together. (I did go with Sara on Take Your Daughters to Work Day 13 years ago, but that's a whole nuther story.)

We arrived on Tuesday evening, and on Wednesday morning we drove to Little Tokyo in LA on our ongoing Best Ramen in America quest. Of course, the ramen shop Chieko had found on the Internet didn't open at 11:30 as the sign indicated it would. The girl working there said in very broken English that they didn't have enough soup. "We have some soup, but it takes ten hours to prepare. We also have some little soup, but we may need it for dinner. I don't know when we will open." I asked, "Do you have any idea, say in 30 minutes, or 1 p.m. or 5 p.m.?" She said, "Yes." So we ate at another ramen shop. It was pretty good. On the way out, we noticed the first shop was serving customers. Santa in San Mateo is still on my first-pick list, along with the Sapporo ramen shop in Vancouver, BC.

Then we drove to San Diego and watched the sun set.













The weather on Thursday was wonderful. We spent the day at California Adenture with the Crawford Gang. We really enjoyed Soaring Over California and the Bugs show--Ooo! But mostly we enjoyed seeing John, Misa, Caroline, Elliot, and Mei Mei. When we met the C Gang in the parking lot of the Best Western Park Place (don't stay anywhere else--you can't get closer to Disneyland), Caroline ran up to me excitedly, jumped into my arms and said, "Hi, Grandpa!" She is so happy to see people. She did the same to Kate, when Kate met us at Space Mountain on Friday evening. Caroline spent most of the time hanging with her cousins, so we didn't see too much of her, but we spent a lot of time with the remaining four, and especially Elliot.














We made the mistake of taking Caroline and Elliot on the Tower of Terror first thing. Elliot didn't want to go and wouldn't stand up straight under the you-have-to-be-this-tall post. We coaxed him in and kept telling him it would be fun. It was not fun. It scared him to death. He didn't want to go on any other rides and refused to stand tall enough to go on Soaring Over California. (Susan got him to go later, and he loved it.) After a while he did find that he actually enjoyed the roller coaster rides. Caroline, on the other hand, had wanted to go on Tower of Terror. Afterward she said she enjoyed it, but when I asked whether she wanted to go again, she said, "Maybe tomorrow." She loved the other wild coaster rides, though. As soon as we got off Space Mountain, she asked, "Can we go again?"

I guess Elliot can be a bit of a wampaku (he set off the buzzer at the airport, so a search of his pockets ensued, and that turned up house keys, a metal bracket to a car seat, and a screw driver), but he was a lot of fun. We spent lunch at Mimi's on Friday drawing on his place mat and identifying the items printed there. If he didn't know what something was, he said, "Boo boo." And then laughed and laughed. That became a joke between us for lunch. When we said good-bye the next morning (we came home, while the C Gang was staying until Tuesday), as I was walking away, Elliot said, "Boo boo" and laughed. He's a really cute boy. The only kid I know who willingly puts his hand up to hold when crossing parking lots and roads or getting in line for a ride.

At Disneyland on Friday evening, Mark had taken Caroline on the Go Coaster several times--she kept getting back in line. Elliot decided he'd like to go, so I got in line with him. But he wanted to go with Mark and grabbed his hand (Mark's still his favorite, but I'm working on what bribery I can devise to change that). Expecting to deal with a sulking three-year-old or a tantrum, I said, "Caroline's already going with Mark. Do you want to go with me?" To my surprise he said, "OK" and was happy. I was just impressed with how happy he is to do what he's asked.

On Thursday evening, we watched the Disney Christmas Parade. Then Chieko and I watched the fireworks set to Christmas music over Sleeping Beauty's Castle, while the kids went off to bed. We decided the fireworks were the best entertainment of the day, aside from hanging out with the kids. "Silent Night" ended with a single slow-shooting star.

Mei fed popcorn to Elliot while waiting for the parade.

Friday morning we woke up to pouring rain, which lasted until mid-afternoon. Chieko and I spent Friday morning walking right onto all the rides we wanted--Small World, Pirates, Indiana Jones. Because of the rain, there were zero lines anywhere, except at the new Nemo claustrophobia submarine, which we didn't ride. I'll take rain to people any day. But by lunchtime we were pretty well soaked, despite buying ponchos along with all the other die-hards at the Quick Stop. So we dried off, changed to dry clothes and went back to hang out with the C Gang.

On Saturday morning, we walked to Goofy's Kitchen in the Disneyland Hotel, where we stuffed ourselves on the biggest and tastiest (and most expensive) breakfast buffet I've ever enjoyed. Ham, omelets, creme brulee, Mickey pancakes and waffles, cakes, bread puddings, pizza, and a whole lot more. But not just the food, Disney characters came around to the table signing autographs and entertaining the kids every so often. Goofy also gathered the kids a couple of times during breakfast to dance the Macarena or play cups in a band.

Saturday afternoon, Chieko and I went to Torrance to find more ramen restaurants. The one we chose, Shin-sen-gui, served a "Hakata" (Fukuoka) ramen. The pork-based soup was very good. The noodles were skinny, too skinny, and too soft. The barbecued pork slices were good, but too thin. We gave the shop about a B- overall. We also stopped at Mitsuwa grocery store in Torrance. That has to be the biggest and busiest Japanese store in the United States. I thought I was back in the lower floor of Itoyokado department store in Japan. And the seven or eight checkout lines were 20 people deep. We actually went into the store twice, once in the afternoon, and once in the evening on the way to the airport, and the crowds were even larger the second time. The store is very close to the U.S. Toyota headquarters and Hitachi.

We also drove to Redondo Beach, where we nearly froze in the chilling wind, and watched the sun set. And we looked at all the crab and fish and sea urchin shops on Redondo Beach's Board Walk. Chieko would like to live there just for the fish.

Sad Day

I was happy when Jamie, Brian, Kali, Caleb, and Emeline lived only 30 minutes away. With the John Astles and Weavers so far away, the Austins weren't just our kids and grandkids, they were also surrogates for the others.














They came to dinner many Sundays. As well as spending Memorial Days, birthdays, Mirror Lake Days, and all the other get-togethers with us.




























I was sad when Brian was laid off from his job last summer. Most of us younger than about 65 have been through that.

I was happy when he found a promising job that he likes.










I was sad that the job was to be in Colorado Springs.












I was happy that they were able to sell their home here relatively quickly, especially in today's scary real estate market.











I was happy that they were able to buy a house in Colorado Springs in just one day (after Jamie did her homework on the Internet and with the real estate agent).





I was happy that Jamie and the kids could stay here for a few days.

I was happy that they all were able to spend Thanksgiving with us.








I was sad the day after Thanksgiving.

Hooray!!

The Broadway strike ended while we were at Disneyland! Spamalot, here I come.