-Having just watched The Lord of The Rings with Abby from beginning to end, I am reminded how much Mt. Graham reminds me of the Misty Mountains from the book The Hobbit. Especially on days like yesterday where clouds swirl around it in the wind all day. One of my favorite scenes from those movies (and from any movie) is the lighting of the beacons on the mountain tops. It is just an amazingly well done scene. However, it still does not inspire me to want to go with the venture scounts and do that thing each spring where they flash each other from mountain top to mountain top. Does not inspire me in the least. I guess if there is no threat of death from disgusting looking beings called orcs as part of the equation, it just loses something.
-Congrats to Braden for getting his Wolf rank in Cub Scouts. He was awarded this at our recent Blue and Gold Banquet. I should leave it there. I really should....But I won't. Why, from the Blue and Gold to monthly Round Table must we sing ridiculous songs. When I was eight and I sang Alice the Camel, it was fun. If I am asked to do it at a Blue and Gold Banquet, I guess I can handle that. When I am 37 and attending a Round Table with only adults and I am asked to do some weird chant or sing a ridiculous song, I'm not having fun anymore. Anyway, sorry for the aside. Many congrats to my son.
-I believe the thing that is of utmost importance to me in this life that will be of no interest to me in the next is the interest rate on my mortgage.
-At the suggestion of my cousin Michael and his wife Amy, Shannon and I finally got around to renting the first season of The Gilmore Girls. So far, it is a pretty good show. It definitely had my favorite quote of the week. "So how many weekly dinners are we going to have to go to before we are off the hook?" "I think the deli spread at my funeral will finally do it." That made me laugh out loud.
-Braden and I took our first attempt at building a pine wood derby car this year. I learned that I don't know a whole lot about making pine wood derby cars. Fortunately, we didn't come in last in every race, but unfortunately, we never won a race outright. I gave the best pre-race speech ever: "Son, we are probably not going to win. In fact, we are probably going to lose. I'm sorry." Braden was pretty good about it. He said, "It's all right dad, I know." I got on-line to look at different cars and maybe get some ideas for what to do. Man, I came away from that experience feeling worse than ever. I clearly do not take this event seriously enough. I would have to start next week in order for us to be ready for next February's race if I tried to make some of those cars. Anyway, one pinewood derby down, five to go.
-In an effort to make up for my shortfalls in the pinewood derby area, I got out Braden's model car that we got him a while back and together we started working on putting it together. We are not going to win any awards here either, but we are having a great time. Braden made the comment that it was too bad Grandad Rapier couldn't be with us, he would definitely love making the model with us. One night when we hit a stopping point, Braden came up and hugged me and said, "Dad, this is the best father/son activity we have ever done." Wow, either he really digs model cars, or I don't do enough with my son. Don't answer that.
-Best Kate quote from the last month: I was up on the stand during the sacrament a couple of weeks ago when I decided to shut my eyes and contemplate. All of the sudden, in the quiet chapel, I hear Kate start yelling out, "Wake up Daddy, wake up." My eyes shot wide open and there she was looking at me in great concern. Of course everyone in a five pew radius was stifling laughter with not a great amount of success.
-Best moment as a father in the last month: Logan came to Shannon with tears starting to well up in his eyes this last week as we were preparing for Braden's birthday party later that day. He asked her why he couldn't go to Braden's birthday party at the bowling alley. Shannon tried to explain that this was a friend party that Braden got to choose who came. He asked if he could at least ask Braden if he could go. She said sure but tried to prepare him for rejection. He left the room and she followed him just a few seconds later to hear Braden respond to Logan's request. "Of course you can come to my friend party. I would always invite my best friend." The kid can't remember to put his towel away for a king's ransom, but he sure has it together in the areas that count.
-More than anything, Braden wanted a GPS for his birthday. We were not as prepared for his birthday as we would have preferred to be and so on his birthday, Shannon ran to Wal-Mart in search of a couple of gifts to supplement the sparse offering we had managed to come up with at that point. She got him the GPS. This may have been a mistake. We are now getting minute by minute updates on how many miles and how many hours it would take us to drive to various points across the country. When he started up, he said he didn't like the woman's voice so he went and changed it to a man's voice. What??? I didn't even know you could do that. We are trying to be patient with this new fascination and hoping that it will eventually play itself out. If it is anything like his fascination with time...may we request prayers on behalf of the GPS unit that it doesn't accidently fly out the window on our way home one evening.
-The other night, we somehow got into a game where I would say a town name and everybody had to guess which state it was in. This lead to not just town names, but interesting facts about specific states. The longer it went, the more I realized how much useless crap I know. I can't help but wonder how it is that I know so much stuff that nobody else seems to. I can't figure it out, but it does help with Trivial Pursuit.
-I believe the second thing of utmost importance to me right now that will be of no interest to me in the next life is March Madness. I can almost taste those chicken wings. Three weeks baby, three weeks.
-I do not care for the way my daughter looks in her new jeans that she bought. In an unrelated topic, I am forming a petition to be passed around in the Thatcher school district requiring drab, shapeless school uniforms. Anyone with me?
-My kids begged for a dog and when we finally got one? They weren't that interested anymore. That is until Kate got old enough to care. That girl loves her Buddy. She begs to go outside and she will pet him, lay on him and just all around love him to death. The sad part is that he gets so little attention from the rest of us, that he actually loves the overzealous (abusive) attention he receives from Kate. Just kidding, she is actually very good with him and him with her.
-Here is something I can't figure out. Why does anyone care about the Academy Awards? Even more so, why does anyone care what people wear to the Academy Awards? I love movies, but I do not get the hoopla over this ceremony.
-I just downloaded my first Fleetwood Mac song. I hate Fleetwood Mac and generally thought Stevie Nicks had a weird voice. Is it maturing in my musical tastes or is it that I am going deaf in my old age?
-Do you ever wonder what happens in your kids bedrooms after they go to bed? Braden has his own bed but we will often come in and find them both in Logan's bed along with a huge stuffed Shamu. Despite our best efforts at trying to discover what they are doing that gets them to this point, they are both pretty tight lipped about what happens when we leave the bedroom. Maybe some things are better unknown.
-Wisconsin legislators fleeing in the middle of the night to keep from having to vote on a bill, Billy Ray Cyrus blaming The Disney Corporation for destroying his family, Arizona taking the time to pass an immigration law that is completely against the Constitution of the United States when we have a budget to figure out and BYU possibly being a #1 seed in the upcoming NCAA basketball tournament. These are, as Sports Illustrated used to say, Signs That The Apocolypse is Upon Us.
-It is March 1st tomorrow and I still am struggling not to write 2010 on my checks.
We'll end there.
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