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. 

All Grown Up

            What can I say?

Tagged

Looks like I've been tagged by Sara. I might be able to come up with six things about myself, but I don't know whether I can come up with six people to tag. 

1. My boss gave a little class last week on how to present effectively. He said we should stay true to our own style and personality. One of the personality traits was introvert versus extrovert. Extroverts can stand up and start talking with little preparation, often walking among and feeding off the audience. Introverts prepare carefully for presentations and practice them, sometimes for hours before presenting. After I spoke at church one time someone told me I was a natural speaker. I thought, Sure, after I just spent six hours writing this 20-minute talk and the past two hours practicing how to deliver it naturally. I am an introvert. 

2. I like to drive. I enjoy the adventure of going anyplace. I look forward to getting away from the everyday and doing something different. Driving usually means new adventures, getting away, and avoiding the ordinary. Flying has a bit of the same feeling, especially if I'm going to Japan or Italy. But if I can drive, flying deprives me of the adventure of getting there. I'd rather drive two days and feel like I've really gone someplace--and seen the in-betweens--than spend two hours flying there and feeling like I just went next door. When I bought an old GMC pickup from our neighbor several years ago and drove it over about 90 miles of dirt road along the old pony express trail, I thought it would be fun to drive every mapped dirt road in Utah. But that wouldn't be possible in one lifetime. One time I drove on that dirt pony express trail in our Astro Van on Presidents' Day in February. When I stopped to put chains on the tires to get over an icy pass, I found a 16-penny finish nail in the sidewall of a tire. I pulled the nail out, and air hissed out, too. So I stuck the nail back in, put the chains back inside and drove the remaining 90 miles of dirt road to Wendover and then back to Salt Lake on I-80. That was fun. 

3. Foods. There aren't many I don't like. There are some. I don't like the little fish eggs in some sushi. There's a lot of authentic Chinese food that I wouldn't mind if I never knew existed. Chicken feet aren't the worst. If my eating senses went on cruise control, I'd probably eat beef steak, baked potatoes and asparagus every night. But I also love real ramen--the best ramen in the United States is chaashu tonkotsu ramen at Santa in San Mateo, California--Italian, Greek, and seafood. My favorite seafood includes scallops, king crab, salmon, and halibut. I was on a quest once to find the best fish and chips in North America. There's a place on the pier in Victoria, British Columbia that's really good. I was also on a quest once to find the best barbecue in America. When I was in Atlanta once for a trade show, just before the Olympics were there, I decided to try all five BBQ joints listed in "Parade Magazine" as the best in the city. I made it to only three, but Fat Matt's Rib Shack was the best, and I stopped there every time I went to Atlanta. I even ate there three times one week. Last summer we bought a small smoker. BBQing is a great hobby that comes with great rewards. We've tried salmon, turkey, baby back ribs, and brisket. Ribs and brisket are the best. 

4. The outdoors are inspiring and invigorating. Mountain biking, hiking, camping, fishing, sitting, smelling the evergreens, anything you can do outside that isn't an extreme sport is great. Someday I'd like to road bike down the coast highway through Washington and Oregon, but road biking is a little bit scary with all the traffic and little room for bikes on most roads these days. 

5. I like to tease kids, mostly challenging what is obviously true. I don't know why. Sometimes I tell myself it teaches them to be on their toes. For example, if they have a book, I might say, "That's a nice shirt you're reading." They have to be thinking and willing to defend what they know. But that's not really why I do it. It's just fun. And they're gullible. It's not fun if they're too gullibe, though. They have to catch on at some point. I usually make the stories more unbelievable until they finally catch on. When I was about 17 I dated a girl in American Fork. I remember visiting her at her home once with my friends, and we started telling her wild stories about the rules at Murray High, something about going to jail for impersonating teachers and more. The more she believed us, the wilder our stories got. She never figured out that we were making it all up. She was too gullible. 

6. I need to lose weight. About 60 pounds. I love Dr. Pepper. It's been my favorite refreshing drink since I was a young teenager. Randy and I used to ride our bikes to the Cottonwood Mall, stop at the Walgreen's store there, and buy a quart bottle of Dr. Pepper and half-pound Hershey chocolate bar with almonds. All the people at Hart's quick stop know me from my daily visits. And the 7-Eleven down the street. And the Phillips station on State Street. Pepsi, too. Novell had soda machines in the halls, with a can costing 50 cents. I almost always had a can of Pepsi on my desk. When it got a little warm, I'd dump it and buy another one. I used to say that if I quit drinking Pepsi, Pepsico stock would crash. Last June I decided that if I am going to lose weight I need to quit drinking sugared soft drinks. And if I'm to quit drinking the sugared drinks I need to give up the caffeine drinks. At first I thought I'd quit slowly, allowing myself one 20-ounce bottle a day for a few weeks. The first day I drank one bottle. The second day I drank half of a bottle. The third day I drank the second half of the previous day's bottle, but I didn't enjoy it. That was then end of that. I have still been drinking caffein-free, sugar-free drinks, but none of the loaded stuff. Now I need to cut down on the fats and carbohydrates, and I need to exercise a lot more. 

THE RULES

1. The player lists six facts or habits about himself or herself. Try to find six you haven't already posted. 

2. At the end of the post, the player tags six people and posts their names, and then goes to their blogs and leaves a comment to let them know they have been tagged and to request them to read the player's blog for the rules. 

I don't know six people with blogs who haven't already been tagged. 

More Ticket Woes

More than two years ago, Monty Python's Eric Idle created a Broadway play called Spamalot. It's based on the movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." I promised myself I'd go see it. I downloaded the soundtrack on iTunes. I was determined that the next time I got a chance to go to New York, I would be sitting in the Shubert Theatre watching the show. Then last Christmas we went to New York City. But Chieko has never been excited to see this show, and we were with Sara and Jared and their kids. So we didn't consider going. I had to wait for my next opportunity. 

My boss asked me recently to manage our relationship with a research partner based in New York, and I said, "Sure, that would be a great opportunity to advance my career." What I thought was, "That means I'll likely have to go to New York and see Spamalot." I mentioned to the research partner that I should meet everyone and go over our objectives and strategies. We decided that December 11 would be a good time. Even before I arranged the travel, I bought a ticket for a great seat in Center Orchestra in the Shubert Theatre on the evening of December 11 for $120.50. This was going to be a super business trip.  

But then I read in the paper two weeks ago that the stagehand union called a strike and shut down most Broadway shows, including Spamalot. Maybe the strike would be resolved before December 11, I thought. After all, the last strike, by the musicians, lasted just four days. The strike previous to that was way back in the 1970s. However, this time the union and producers weren't talking. But then they spent all last weekend negotiating, and surely they'd come to an agreement before the Thanksgiving holiday. Nope. The union said the producers weren't generous enough. Now it looks like this strike will go through Thanksgiving and possibly through Christmas. December 11 is not looking good at all. I could see Spamalot in Las Vegas or even the traveling show coming to Salt Lake, but those shows have been cut shorter than the Broadway show. The intermission has been eliminated. Worse, they aren't Broadway. I'm really bummed. 

Going to See Celine Dion

Chieko is a Celine Dion fan, and since we resisted the $600 to $1,800 tickets to see her in Las Vegas, we decided to go to Celine's concert in Salt Lake at the Energy Solutions Arena next week, the day before Thanksgiving. Actually, Chieko said it would be fun to go. I said, "Uh huh." Then she mentioned it again about 10 times, and I said, "Sure, whatever." When the full-page newspaper ad for the concert appeared on my desk I decided I should try to get tickets. They were to go on sale Saturday morning at 10 o'clock.

I knew enough about Celine Dion to understand that the tickets would go quickly, so I logged onto the Tickemaster website about 9:50 a.m. A message said the tickets weren't available yet. About 9:58 I started hitting the "refresh" button. At exactly 10 a.m. the tickets became available. I hurriedly selected two $125 tickets. "Not available." So I selected "Best available." Two tickets showed up in Section 10, Row 5. Good seats for $125 each. I selected them. On the next screen, I had to enter my email address twice and a password, twice. And I had one minute to do so. I entered the information, but I typoed the email address and had to redo it. Then I got a message that said I already had a Ticketmaster account. So I went to the other computer, looked in my password vault, and found the account info. I went back to the Mac and entered the password. A message said that my minute had expired. Too bad. Go back to the beginning. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Do not sit in Section 10, Row 5.

I started all over and zipped through all the screens, past several error messages (the site was busy), and finally got my tickets. With only a minute on the selection screen and on the credit card page, I didn't look at the details. And when I did, I discovered we had tickets in Section 130, Row 5. This is officially called the Nose Bleed Section. I think the seats are suspended from the Goodyear blimp over Rice Eccles stadium. With powerful binoculars and Celine Dion playing on our iPods, we may get the feeling of actually being in the concert.

But the story doesn't end. Later Saturday night I was looking at the tickets and I noticed that the date said, "Friday, November 21." I thought this must be a typo, since November 21 is on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. Then I looked more closely and realized it said, "Friday, November 21, 2008." This concert is next year, in 372 days. I just hope Celine doesn't retire before then, or we don't lose the tickets, or we don't forget we even have tickets.

Weekend with the Grandkids

Jamie and Brian went to buy a new home in Colorado this past weekend, so Chieko and I tended their three kids. We learned three things: 1) Kids are a lot of fun, 2) Even young grandparents get tired quickly, 3) Forget trying to keep any room within three blocks of the kids orderly.

They came over late Friday night while we were at the movie "Martian Child." Good movie. Three and a half stars.

Jamie and Brian were gone when we awoke Saturday. Chieko cooked French toast using thick French bread. The kids also ate scrambled eggs, and so did I.

Later, I finished putting cedar trim around the door I built for our shed at the back of the patio last week. Now no one can mozy into the backyard and walk off with our bikes, firewood, mice, and spiders. Kali and Caleb were going to help me, but when I pulled out the circular saw they high-tailed it into the house to watch from the kitchen window. No loud noises for them.

They did a great job after that sweeping up the sawdust and leaves from the patio and dumping it into the black garbage can, while I raked the leaves from the Japanese maple in the front yard into a big pile. Then Kali and Caleb jumped into the pile and made a mess. But they also grabbed big armfulls of leaves and stuffed them into a black bag until almost all the leaves were gone.

They joined me on the east side of the house to scoop up the rest of the leaves, but their interest was waning at this point and no leaves made it into the bag. I suggested they call Marcus to come goof off with them, so they did but ended up going to his house. Janet also came by on a walk by herself. She was her usual happy self.

About 5 p.m. we all (including Marcus) went to see "Bee Movie." It was cute for children. The kids shared a big barrel of popcorn. I think Caleb likes movies only because they mean popcorn. When I told him beforehand to be prepared to go to a movie, he said, "You mean bring popcorn?" Emeline drank half of my 20-ounce bottle of diet rootbeer. I then cut the top off the bottle and filled it with popcorn. She ate about five bottles full of the popcorn. She's unbelievable.

On Sunday we went to church. Emeline was happy to go into the nursery. Caleb was a bit shy to go into his class, so he went with Kali to Primary. They were all good in sacrament meeting, although I had to drag Caleb out once. He stood with his face against the wall for a while. I told him to tell me when he was ready to be reverent so we could go back in. He said he was ready, so we went back and he was pretty good the rest of the meeting. I was impressed that they were able to sit quietly through three hours of meetings with such little hassle.

We ate pot roast for dinner and made chocolate sauce from cocoa, butter, powdered sugar, and water for banana splits. The kids had never had a banana split and weren't that impressed. They didn't eat the bananas.

We visited Grandma and Grandpa Great and headed for the kids' house about 8 p.m. We forgot a key, so Kali broke into the house like a burglar, climbing a rail and sneaking into a patio window. They all brushed their teeth and went to bed very nicely.

I was very impressed that they were so easy to tend, even if our house looks like the aftermath of a typhoon. Kali is very mature and ready to please and help out. Caleb is a bit of a handful, kind of like a five-year-old boy. I don't have a lot of patience, so he didn't get away with much, and he listened pretty well. Emeline is just a sweetheart. She smiles and laughs a lot, and loves to be held.

We're sad that they're moving, but I'm really glad we had this weekend to spend with them. They won't be too far away, so I hope we'll still get to visit them often, and maybe they can spend some time with us during the summers (I don't know about all three at once, though).