Westmoreland Asays

Aaron didn't practice the choir song much during the week, but I still took him to the last practice 30 minutes before church started. He seemed to know most of the words, but he was hesitant to go up by himself for the actual performance unless I accompanied him. About five minutes before the choir was to sing, Aaron whispered in my ear that he would go up by himself. So when the first speaker sat down, the choir director, who was sitting right behind us, walked hand-in-hand with Aaron to the podium, and gave him a notebook with the words in it (not that he can read, but perhaps as a fall-back to hide behind if he forgot the words). I was impressed that Aaron appeared focussed throughout the song--he stood still, watched the director for when to start and stop, and he sang "reverently loud." He was clearly excited and happy when he sat back down with us. After all of our church meetings, one of the members, Dee Carlson, whose older brother once dated my mom back in the d...

Edward really likes sausage. He likes sausage so much that Meg once caught him licking a sealed package of sausage that was sitting on the counter defrosting. He will eat ground sausage from a bowl like it was breakfast cereal. Aaron, on the other hand, plays Yin to Edward's Yang, shunning any kind of meat like he was a vegetarian.

This last week Aaron has been asking how babies are made. We've told him that there are eggs in women that are seeded by men, or something similarly simple. While driving home tonight from delivering baked goods to the boys' primary teachers, Aaron blurted out something to the effect of, "So if you eat an egg for breakfast, do you become pregnant?" He then started laughing hilariously . . . . . . the other day Meg was furiously searching the house for some expensive over-the-counter drugs she had bought to help calm her chronic cough. She last remembers seeing the drug container in the hands of Edward, who (rumor has it) was using it as a make-shift bowling ball. But the drugs haven't been seen since. Meg tried interrogating Edward, and he repeatedly pointed to his diaper (he still doesn't talk much, and when he does he usually doesn't string together many words). Meg reassured him again and again that they were not in his diaper. But the boy persisted to ...

Today's online Statesman Journal had a pretty old picture with me in it. The Capital Mile race on New Year's has been resurrected, but it is being held in West Salem--how lame, and how dare they use a picture of the Capital building? Could there be a better race course than around the one building that makes Salem Salem ?

Our ward is the last to meet for church in our building, so we are responsible for taking down all the chairs used for classes in the gym. My class meets in the gym, and we usually run a little longer than the Primary; our class knows this because Aaron always makes it a priority to come to the gym to help take down chairs as soon as his class lets loose. He always opens the door before we're done, peeks his head in, then closes the door after seeing that we aren't finished yet. He does this every 30 seconds or so. Our class has learned to expect and enjoy this highly-comical act most weeks. Our ward's choir practices right after the last church meeting, so we usually see them congregating in the choir seats as we're putting away the chairs in the gym. After we had finished, Aaron asked if he could sing in the choir. We checked with the choir director, and she welcomed his participation. They will be singing "Away in a Manger" next Sunday, and Aaron picked up ...

We've made it a family tradition to view the Miracle on 14th Christmas light display in Keizer. The weather was decent (i.e., it wasn't rainy or windy) and our schedule was light so we went tonight. I encouraged the family to walk through the display, and everyone was willing, so we parked our car in front of the former Schreiner's house, which by the way is for sale for $280k, and walked down Manzanita, 14th, Rock Ledge, Stone Mason, and Stone Hedge (the street I lived on from age 2 to almost 20). Poor Edward falls asleep in the car like I do during movies Meg gets for us to watch at home, so I ended up carrying the sleeping boy for most of the walk (just shy of two miles)--it was my penance for not bringing a stroller. The lights were nice and more abundant than a typical neighborhood, but the display still don't seem to be as organized as it was back in the late 80's and early 90's. We wanted to drop-in and say hi to the Rafn's (my oldest brother's wi...

A-Ron and I won free ice cream cones at Baskin Robbins at our Ward Christmas party last week, so we all went to the ice cream store tonight. Aaron and I both knew what we wanted and ordered our cones quickly. The store was having a special buy one sundae get one free special, so Meg got one for her and another for Edward. I had licked away about half my serving when the Word finally sat down to eat his sundae, but he immediately demanded my ice cream cone--he had no interest in his sundae--and I had no interest in his sundae either, so Meg and I traded sundaes and I gave my half-eaten cone to the Word. Just before we were getting ready to head out, silly Ed tossed his almost-eaten cone into the trash; 30 seconds later he was whining and trying to fish it out of the trash. He left the store kicking and screaming, but he fell asleep within two minutes of us driving away.

No Turkey Bowl I started off the weekend sick, working from bed on Wednesday with a fever, cough, and all my sinuses seriously clogged--so there was no Turkey Bowl action this year. And that broke Aaron's heart. For the last few weeks we've been playing catch, learning fundamentals, and practicing plays, all in anticipation of playing some football on Turkey Day. I was feeling better when we arrived in Sherwood around 2:00 p.m., so Aaron and went to the park across the street from the Booren's that has a soccer field with an artificial surface--not that we needed it, since it was sunny and dry (but a little cold and windy). The in-laws and cousins were playing soccer (three-on-three), and didn't want to play football at all. Aaron was so upset he didn't even want to play in the soccer game; he just watched on the outskirts, passing the football to himself and kicking it around and asking if we could go home. I offered to play football with him, but he refused, s...

This was the ultimate week of parties at our house--and this doesn't count the party we had at the Booren's on Friday 11/9. Last Sunday we invited a family that had just moved from Okinawa, where the husband was stationed in the Navy as a doctor (he is originally from Georgia). Then on Monday, we invited another family that had just moved into our neighborhood (although they already lived in our Ward, so we knew them already). They have a daughter Edward's age, and they were fun to watch together. And then last night, Meg's birthday, she hosted her own surprise party with lots of friends and sisters. They are a wild and noisy group (although I made them laugh the most with one very timely remark while I was preparing a snack to take upstairs for Aaron), and I'm surprised that I was able to get to sleep--although they did wake me up a few times before the party died down around 2:00 a.m.

Today was another beautiful, sunny autumn day, so Meg suggested that we drive out to the Brigittine Monastery near Amity (not the Amity where Jaws was filmed ) and pick up some famous monk-made fudge for Grandpa Hanna (it's for his Christmas gift, so don't spill the beans to him), who has mentioned that he really likes their stuff. After crossing the Marion Street Bridge, we traveled up Wallace then west through Perrydale and north towards Amity --country that I had never driven through before. The monastery sits about a half-mile off the paved road, and upon getting out of the car Meg and I both remarked how quiet and peaceful the setting was. Both boys had fallen asleep, but Edward woke up when the engine shut off, so we took him in and left Aaron behind to guard the car. The "store" was manned by a single monk (from New Mexico), and he let us sample their product; as soon as the tray was offered, Edward quickly reached in and grabbed one--that kid loves his swe...

Aaron was disappointed that he didn't get to accompany me to Autzen Stadium for the Fresno State game back in September, so I promised that I would talk him to a different game. He told me that as long as it was in a football stadium that would be good. I had planned on taking him to the McNary/South game, but that was on the same date as the ward harvest carnival that Meg was in charge of. So we went to the South/Sprague game tonight instead. It was clear and not too chilly for November, and we had pretty good seats in the Saxon section. I was really surprised how few supporters the Saxons had for such an important game (winner got the better playoff seed--the loser gets to plays Westview (would have been Jesuit, if they hadn't missed that extra point)--stinkin' Beaverton elitists)--and I saw very few parents. Aaron wasn't that interested in the game (kind of like all the students there "watching"); he had more fun running around the stands and on the tr...

Our old Canon point-and-shoot camera died a couple months ago, but Canon agreed to fix it for free because it was a serious defect that they admitted to. The camera was returned to us today, but it was not the same unit that we had shipped them. In fact, it wasn't even the same model. They said they didn't have the parts to repair ours, so they sent us a refurbished higher-end model instead. Not such a bad deal. Its first pictures were of the G20 , of course.

About 13 months ago, I started going to night school at Chemeketa to learn more about computer networking, with the goal of passing the CCNA exam ( see history for why I did this). Once class finished in June, I was theoretically prepared to pass the exam. But I was scared to take it, and then Cisco changed which testing centers could administer the exam and Salem lost its only site, and we went on vacation, and summer was great, etc., etc. But when I saw that Cisco was retiring the current version of the CCNA the first week of November, that was the final kick-in-the-pants I needed. So I just picked a date that would give me a chance to take it twice if I failed the first time. But I ended up only needing the first attempt. I had been studying off-and-on since I finished class, but I stepped it up to a higher gear the last two weeks before the test, reading exam prep books and taking practice tests. I never did very well on the practice tests, so I had a right to be scared. But...

A couple of days ago, Aaron noticed that one of his lower front teeth was loose. It seemed a little early for the boy to start losing his primary teeth, but whatever. I was studying upstairs this morning when I heard Aaron downstairs state that he had lost his tooth. So I grabbed my dinosaur camera (Canon is fixing our point-and-hope digital)--a great camera, but I would prefer a digital SLR--and documented the scene. Sure enough, there was a little tooth lying on the ground next to his computer and a little gap in his mouth. I just hope another tooth is growing upward to take its place, and that the tooth fairy is paying attention and does his/her work. Aaron also mentioned tonight that he wanted to learn more about Elder Uchtdorf. He said that Sister Scott said that he was her favorite apostle (and thus he is Aaron's favorite now, too--Sister Scott is family, by the way--like my seventh cousin), and even though he had a funny name that she laughs at, she never laughs at the...

It's been a slow news month. Utah Roadtrip 2007--Update One thing I neglected to document was that when we were walking around Temple Square, he would point to the SLC Temple and say, "Castle! Castle!" And I finally uploaded the final pics. Bush Park Runs Update: Bush Park Cross Country Runs Here is the official times for Aaron's race (and mine, too--but you have to scroll down a mile). Aaron ran the 500m in 2:57, while I finished the 5000m in 20:07. I was also wrong that he was passing older kids down the final stretch; he actually passed the second place kid just before the finish line. Aaron also had commented that he ran faster than me; he still didn't get it after I explained that I ran over 10 times as fast as he did--it's all about place, in his mind. Asay Sings in the Conference Center My mom sang in the choir that performed at the General Relief Society conference in September. Watch the video (warning: super large file) to catch a glimpse of ...

I have no theme for today's post--just a smattering of semi-current events and thoughts. Meg hosted a birthday party for one of her friends Friday night, so I went to see The Simpsons Movie at Northern Lights after I put the boys to bed. I enjoyed every minute and thought to myself, "best Simpsons episode ever?" Even though it's been in theatres for months, I passively avoided reading about the movie--and I was thus able to enjoy it as if it were opening night. Last year we had a sunflower forest dominating our three garden boxes, but I made sure this year to keep only about 10 plants growing (they're great at propagating and sustaining themselves year-after-year). I did a good job of harvesting the seeds last year, but I was terrible at preparing them for eating--and thus most of them rotted away. I think by keeping the harvest limited in scope has made it easier to prepare the seeds gradually and enjoy them all autumn. Both Aaron and Edward helped me harves...

UPDATE : Here's some nice highlights from the game . And from the Michigan game , if you didn't catch it on national tv. It was awesome to return to Autzen Stadium--I forgot how loud that place gets. Although I'd love to watch a close game, it's kind of nice to see the Ducks blow their opponents away. It's even better when you're in the first row on the 45 yard line, the weather is perfect, and you get to witness historical plays that will live on forever. Meg's older brother invited me to the game, but I felt kind of bad because I left Meg to host a ward dinner party all by herself. But only one person showed up (and she tried to cancel), the kids were at a sitter's house, so it wasn't too much work for her.

For Family Home Evening tonight, we discussed what activities would be appropriate or inappropriate for Sunday. Meg pulled "swimming" out of the idea can, and posed the question to Aaron. After thinking it over for a few seconds, he answered: "No, that's not appropriate, unless you are being baptized."

After waiting nearly six weeks--which seemed like forever--I brought the G20 home to Salem on Tuesday night, where it will graciously wait it out in our third bay for the next year while I finish serving my time driving Alice the Ugly White Corolla, after which Meg intends to give the Corolla to her brother Paul once he returns from his missionary service in Ghana. The seller finally found a newer Infiniti G20 that he liked, so he was finally able to officially sell me his older G20. The Ducks game was essentially over at halftime, so I listened to the final 30 minutes it in the garage while I worked on cleaning the G20's interior. The carpets were extremely soiled, but I spent a few hours making them respectable. The leather seats are in decent condition for a 14 year old car, but unfortunately my cleaning and conditioning efforts didn't appear to do much to their appearance or feel--maybe after a few more times and some better chemicals I'll see a difference. I'm g...

Aaron and I both raced at the Bush Park Trophy Night Cross Country Runs (Edward and Meg said they want to run next year). Aaron completed a perfect season, winning each of the three races he entered. He moves up to a new age group next year, so he probably won't have the same level of success as he has had this year. Aaron crossed the line in about 2:55, about 10 seconds faster than his last race three weeks ago. He excelled at maneuvering through a multitude of kids who started too fast, then slowed down before the straightaway, but really pushed hard to the finish--passing several older kids before finally finishing out-of-breath (but not so much to cause an asthma attack). I was racing when he received his award, but I understand that he was all smiles. It's still hard to believe that Aaron has one more year at home before public schools will admit him. I, on the other hand, finished well behind the leaders (overall and my age group) and didn't meet my goal of 19:5...

We went back to Gateway this morning to visit the stuff we didn't have time for yesterday--the Clark Planetarium and the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum , which we got in for free because we are members at the Gilbert House. Meg and I both fell asleep during the 30-minute "Zula Patrol" show on the Dome Theatre, but the kids said they enjoyed it. In between museums, we hit the California Pizza Kitchen for lunch--worst part of the trip. Neither boy would touch the food that he specifically ordered (drinks don't count). At one point, the Manager walked by and asked if everything was all right. We said no and explained that our kids refused to eat. So the Manager told Aaron that he needed to make up for not eating his meal by accompanying him to the kitchen to wash dishes. Aaron trusted the manager completely, and walked away with him to the kitchen. The manager brought him back a few minutes later and told us that Aaron was all set to wash some dishes--w...

My mom took the day off from teaching public school cherubs to accompany us on a tour of Salt Lake City; Lil Meg also came, and we all fit in our "plush" mini-van. We visited the Conference Center and got a custom mini-tour (they won't let you walk around by yourself--my Dad got escorted out by security one time for doing just that). The boys didn't really care much for it, and they were especially hard to control once we made it to the roof. We ate lunch (Edward ate from everyones plate, as did I (the garbage disposal)) at the ZCMI Centre and then happened to make it just in time for the Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration movie playing at the Legacy Theatre. It was good to see, and even better that the boys sat through the entire thing without much fuss or disinterest. Aaron said he liked it, although it was sad at the end. We tried to scale the Church HQ Building, but it was closed for renovation. So we took lots of pictures around Temple Square. We rod...

I started the day by running about seven miles; it should have been easy, but it is tough to find much oxygen in this high mountain air. We then drove over to our vacation house and worked on it for several hours; I spent my time sweeping the front porch/carport and cleaning out the root cellar. All-together, I swept up like 20 pounds of dirt--which didn't include all of the dust I inhaled while sweeping. We spent the late afternoon and evening at Seven Peaks Water Park --the perfect compliment to working and getting dirty. The boys absolutely loved the park--even after nearly four hours of non-stop fun, they didn't want to go home, and after every trip down a water slide Edward would shout "Again! Again!" Aaron felt comfortable going down all of the slides on his own, although he doubled up with Meg and I on occasion. Meg and I both felt exhausted from climbing the stairs and ramps--we were ready to go home. I went down one of the scarier slides, but after getti...

A few weeks ago Meg tried to coax me into going to Education Week (at BYU); I built my wall and stood my ground. But then a few days before we left on this trip, she noticed that Don Aslett would be presenting--not just once, not twice, but three times in a row. So I agreed to accompany her--and I'm glad I did. Our first session was by the founders of Joy School, which Meg (and my two younger sisters) actually did as a small girl. Aaron still has another year before he can begin kindergarten, and Edward has who-knows-how-many-years left, so maybe Meg can put some of what we learned to good use. We split for the next session; I barely got in to what I thought would be good, but the guy talked a lot without saying much. We then jetted for the CougarEat, where we had reasonably priced food for lunch. The next three hours we basked in the glow of Don Aslett. Our front row seats were totally worth the wait. I won a prize (squeegee tie-tack) for knowing where Don built his self-cl...

Going to church at 9:00 a.m. (compared to our usual 1:00 p.m. start) didn't prove too challenging. We walked about 10 minutes to my parent's ward building; the boys enjoyed primary and nursery (a member of the bishopric told me that Aaron was an all-star and MVP in the primary), and weren't too bad during sacrament meeting. We had to take Edward out a couple of times because he was simply too giddy. He eventually calmed down while sitting with grandpa. Afterwards we all drove to Springville to see my sister Maren's new baby, Ben, be blessed in her home. We are also staying the night here so we can go to the first day of Education Week at BYU tomorrow, and Seven Flags on Tuesday. More to come later . . . Maren's house also has a basement, and this is where we're sleeping tonight. I just can't get over how useful a basement is; I'm very envious . . .

Meg again headed to Springville to work on our house, while my Dad drove we-three-boys to Cabela's, a hunting and fishing store, just across the Salt Lake county line. The store was huge (like everything here in Utah) and had a neat fish-filled aquarium. The boys enjoyed watching the fish, and Aaron reminded grandpa that he wanted to go fishing for the big fish next time. At night Meg and I drove north to Farmington to pick up one of her best friends from high school, Shannon, and her husband Jeff (his mom's an Asay, though distantly related). We then spent the evening at Lagoon . Even though it isn't as big as the well-known amusement parks, the rides scared the crap out of me: Wicked , Wild Mouse , Spider , Colossus , and the worst of all, The Rocket . The first ones were all just different roller coasters, but the Rocket gradually lifts you up to over 200 feet (I was screaming even before we got near the top of the ascent), waits five seconds, then drops you back to...

I wanted to show Megan what the town of Logan looked like, so we drove about 90 minutes from my parents' house to visit Cache Valley. It's much the same as it was nearly 10 years ago (when I graduated from Utah State), but a number of new retail chains and housing developments have expanded its borders somewhat. While driving around, Aaron spotted this park in River Heights , and kindly asked if we could stop and play--so we did. It proved a well-needed break after another long ride in the van. We drove around different neighborhoods to give Meg a sense of the town, and finished the day eating oh-so-creamy and tasty Aggie Ice Cream . Aaron got two scoops of strawberry, and Edward got one scoop of cherry-chocolate--both of which proved to be way too much for them to handle. On the way home we got caught in the middle of another desert storm; this one brought rain and oh so much lightning. That night my dad took Aaron and I fishing on the lake. We first borrowed a canoe (fre...

Our wedding anniversary celebrations have always been odd; this year was no different. Meg woke up early so she could drive down to Springville (just south of Provo) and work on our investment property, while the he boys and I explored my parents' neighborhood ( Daybreak ). We left the house around 10:00 a.m., and it was already hot. We walked five minutes to a neighborhood playground , where the boys spent 30 minutes or so. We walked back to the house, ate some lunch, and then went to explore Oquirrh Lake . We walked around most of the lake, with the boys most eager to find a rocky beach from which to throw rocks in the water--their favorite water-side pastime. We spent the late afternoon splashing at the wading pool, which is right next to the playground. We spent nearly two hours (myself included) wrinkling and tanning our skin in 1.5 feet of clear, cool water--a nice contrast to the hot, dry air. We all returned home around 5:00 p.m., and after we cleaned ourselves up Meg...

Day 1 of our trip to Utah began at 4:07 a.m., when we departed from our house in Salem. The boys woke up when we loaded them in the van, but they quickly returned to sleep. We stopped near Hermiston for a bathroom break, Baker City for gas, Boise for lunch, Tremonton for gas, and that was it. It took exactly 14 hours, but the only long part to me was the two hours in Utah. We drove through a storm in SE Idaho, where tumbleweeds blew all over the road and hard rain pounded us from above--Meg and I both love storms in the desert. The boys both behaved well. When they weren't sleeping, they enjoyed watching several hours of kiddie movies on a portable tv/vcr unit that Meg had found at a garage sale. Aaron asked several times, "When are we going to get there?" but he eventually learned to stop asking. Meg actually drove the entire distance, as she has the tendency to get sick on long trips if not driving, while my sister Megan played co-pilot, and I sat in the back whe...

Aaron ran 3:04 for the 500 meter race this week, probably about 20 seconds faster than last week. He took first place in his age group again. We'll be away for the next two races, but he is excited to be able to run at trophy night. I was going to run, but I didn't know lil' Megan was going to come with us. I'm hopeful to run anything under 20:00 at trophy night. I ran two hard workouts this week, which is a first in about three years; however, I felt pretty slow and it was harder than it should have been. I plan on brining my running equipment with me on our trip; maybe training i n the mountain air for 10 days will pay off.

Aaron won the 3-4 age group for the first week of the Bush Park Summer Fun Runs (Edward has to wait another year to race, but that's good because he slept the whole time in his stroller--he falls asleep almost any time he rides in the car). He took his asthma medicine before the start, which seemed to help a bunch. Last year, he had trouble finishing; this year, he ran fast and steady the whole time and didn't complain about breathing at all. I thought he had finished in second place, but boy was he excited when they called his name last. He was so happy and excited, especially because he couldn't wait to tell Meg that he had won (she had to leave right after the race).

Buttload of Gangs Napolean was obviously lying about all the gang activity going down at Preston High. What he didn't realize--or maybe he did--was that the gang activity was centralized a few miles down the road in Logan. This documentary captures it all (you gotta watch all 12 parts). A friend of mine co-starred in this (and I hung out with the creators on occasion), and I saw it on the big screen in Logan, so maybe that's why I find it so funny. But you decide for yourself . . . WWDD? What Would Don Do (of course--duh!). You can own your very own if you take this quiz (for the record, I got all answers correct on my first turn--he's very much a guy after my own heart). Don has a retail store in Logan , which we plan on visiting on our road trip next month.

Meg came back from her walk this morning and reported that there was a road bike available at a garage sale one block away. She insisted that I come look at it, so I did with hesitation (why did I want another bike?). Even though the bike is probably a little on the small side for me , it was in pretty good shape--and made in Japan . So I gave the man five bucks and rode home happy. I cleaned it up during lunch and can't wait to take it for a spin one of these days. I don't think it is anything vintage or special, but it's pretty cool (read: retro). The guy was also selling a 16" bike for five bucks , which we bought for Aaron. His goal is to learn to ride without training wheels by summer's end, and I was helping him the other night when I tried riding it for him (to show him that it was possible to ride his bike--we were both getting pretty frustrated) and blew out the back tire--whoops. I just need to get a new tube, but it was just as cheap to buy this...

During the three years I played baseball at McNary, I had at most two extra base hits (although one was the best hit ever--it would have gone over the fence if there was one); I was an offensive liability (albeit on a championship team). So I loved getting hit by the pitch because that was the best, high-percentage way I could help out the team on offense, besides pinch-running for the slow guys on the team. So it's great to see Aunt Megan following suit. She called the other night to report that she and Alice had been in an accident (not her fault). Although most people wouldn't even have noticed the slight damage to the front-end, the cost to complete the body work was about as much I could sell the car (pre-accident) on craigslist. So we're taking the guilty party's insurance money and running for the hills of Tigard, where currently resides a well-maintained 1993.5 Infiniti G20 (I forgot to take a picture, but it looks something like this ). My Megan, I guess,...

Aaron and I went to a Volcanoes baseball game tonight. We had decent seats a few rows behind the first base dugout, so we had good views of the Volcanoes easily besting the lowly Canadiens of Vancouver. Aaron paid attention to some of the game, but he was really more focussed on eating candy and playing with the 6-year old girl that sat next to him. They shared popcorn; greetings and meetings with Crater, the Volcanoes' mascot; friendly non-stop banter; and our blanket after the sun disappeared from the horizon. The cutest part was during the post-game fireworks show, when the little girl rested her arm on Aaron's shoulder.

On my run through Portland Heights yesterday, I experienced something like a brownout , where my vision would flash on and off at times and I felt like I was losing my balance. I'm not sure why this happened, or what i means, but I think it was just a fluke associated with the very hot weather that has invaded Western Oregon. Or was it . . . Well today I was running through the Park Blocks when I spotted Kevin " The Assassin " Durant--well, an athletic black man standing about 6'9" wearing a Sonics shirt and consulting a map for directions. With both Nike and Adidas (who are headquartered in Portland) still courting Durant for a shoe endoresment, there was legitimate reason for him being in Portland (forget for a moment that he is in Vegas playing summer ball). But as I got closer, it clearly wasn't him--nuts.

Let's start out by saying we set a record high temperature today (102, and it is still 90 degrees out there at 9:40 p.m.) in Western Oregon--YUCK. Apparently, the heat has warped the minds of at least one of the Asay animals. After coming home from work, I picked some peas from the garden, walked over to a shady spot on the grass, and began to supp on the richness of the earth. Edward came over shortly and begged for some peas--he's a lover of all foods fresh from the ground. So I opened a pea pod, placed the peas in my cupped hand, and offered them to him. Instead of using his tiny hand to grab them and run away, he stuck his whole face into my palm and made animal-like sounds while he quickly gorged the tiny green treasures. He did this until I ran out of peas, or until he figured out he was being filmed--I can't remember which.

I was riding home in the van when I heard that the Blazers selected Greg Oden instead of my favorite, Kevin Durant. Despite what most of the analysts and beat writers said, I still had hopes that Pritchard would select Durant. I was disappointed for about five minutes, until I remembered that the Blazers still got a heck of a player in Oden, who will immediately help the Blazers back to the playoffs (I'm predicting a #6 seed, but more so because of my favorite players, Brandon Roy and Lamarcus Aldridge ). I watched his first summer league game from my computer, and boy did he look clueless (he didn't improve much with the second game, either, although I was at church and couldn't watch it). Almost every time he tried to defend someone, he fouled him; he badly missed all three of his free-throw attempts; and he racked up 10 fouls in only 20 minutes of play. I'm not passing judgment or anything, but this kid has a long way to come. I think a lot of fans will be disa...

Tuesday, June 19th I woke up early and worked from home today so we could get to Silver Falls right at check-in time. The drive in took only 40 minutes or so, which was nice because our borrowed car (we lent our van to Meg's oldest brother, whose family of 7 flew in from Virginia, and are driving Meg's Dad's Camry) was literally packed to the roof. Wednesday, June 20th We woke up around 7:30 a.m. and ate cereal in our cabin. I spent the much of the morning playing (and teaching) baseball with most of the boys which, surprisingly, Aaron said was his favorite part of the trip. The main event for the day was playing on a bunch of ultra-huge inflatable play equipment that Charlotte 's older brother owns for a business venture, and he brought a 40-foot slide , a bouncing castle , and an obstacle course, which we set up in the South Falls day use area. I think just about everyone--including Grandma and Grandpa--took a plunge down the slide. Aaron and Edward preferred spla...

I've often said that I want to live to a 100 (mainly because I need more time to learn things in this stage of life), so long as I was healthy and able to remain active. This guy in Japan has it down. His reasoning for why he's made it to 111 is pretty cool, too.

At the dinner table tonight, I asked Aaron why he didn't want to have his picture taken with our ward on Sunday (my Megan was in Utah working on our vacation house, and younger Megan had a difficult time corralling Aaron outside the church building after the meetings--I was tied up with a screaming Edward on my shoulders). Aaron promptly replied with a straight face, "I thought they were going to shoot a cannonball after the picture."

I was running through PSU's campus on my way to Washington Park on my lunch-time run today, when I saw a dear running around near the soccer field. I think it's finals week, so it was probably best that gawkers were relatively few--but those that were there all had their camera phones taking pictures and videos of this oddity. It didn't seem too afraid of me, but I was disheartened that it didn't challenge me in a race through campus. I think animals have a better sense of how old and physically limited I really am.

Not that I've ever tried to hide my liking of the Trailblazers, I've decided that it is time to announce officially that I am a fan and have been ever since I was young, so people don't confuse my apparent sudden liking with the blazer's latest round of good fortune. I've never camped out in the rain for tickets (pre-Rose Garden and jail-blazers), have only been to about five games total, and haven't followed them that closely, I've always been a fan and wished them well. I watched them on TV a lot this year, whenever I wasn't in school. Even though they lost a lot of games, it was exciting to see them play hard and and compete as a team. I've read and listened to the Blazer's GM (Kevin Pritchard) a lot, and I have a feeling--and I totally agree with him--that he will pick Durant over Oden. Or, possibly, the Blazers draft will Oden and trade him to Seattle for Durant and a future draft pick. I have watched both players (although only a cou...

UPDATE: No visit to the Santiam Canyon would be complete without recalling the countless trips here as a youth with Bart Stam. Here's a recent video of him working (Beware: 5 MB file). Aaron, Edward, Megan (the younger) and myself headed east for a hike in the Santiam Canyon, specifically along the little North Fork. I last ventured here in the summer of 1999, interestingly, with Megan-the-younger and Maren. I don't remember why I took them--M and D were probably vacationing somewhere nice and I kindly volunteered to watch the younglings. I also remember coming here with most of the family in 1994, probably around the 4th of July, and once with Doug Henshaw and some of the Kimball brothers--and I remember hiking up the river in my bare feet. Megan-the-older left us Friday after work to spend time in Beaverton with her sisters. Regardless, Aaron was our scout and led the entire hike at the point position. I was in the middle, carrying Edward-the-Monkey on my back. We wer...

I tire of Yahoo these days, so I've transitioned our photo site to Picasa (Google) . I can upload videos here, too; I've included a great one that Meg captured of Aaron's finish in the Awesome 3000 .

I haven't shaved in a while, and apparently not since I last saw my nephew Ethan (Booren, age 6.9). He asked why I was wearing a fake mustache. When I told him that it was real, he promply reached up and tried to rip it off my face--thankfully, he didn't pull very hard.

Aaron ran in the Awesome 3000 this morning. While the defending champion didn't repeat his stellar placing of last year , he had fun and ran hard through the finish line. Last year they had at least three different heats; this year they made everyone run in one huge heat, which caused a pile-up that never really dissipated . So the kids who were at the front of the line basically finished first. The race ended comically (at least for me), when Aaron plowed over a kid who was unwisely loitering right on top of the finish line. The best part was that Aaron didn't have an asthma attack like the last time he raced. Edward is gearing up for his debut next year. Last Wednesday night I needed to do some work in the clerk's office at church, so Edward I decided to go together (he woke up at about 6:00 p.m. from a nap, so he wasn't quite ready for bed). I had pulled out the jogger and was about to put him in it when he blasted out of the garage in direction of the chu...

I lament that we weren't able to hold onto our vacation home for long, but alas, the time has come to sell it . So many memories, so many stories, so many tears of joy . . .

After mowing the lawn--my usual lunch-time ritual on work-from-home-Fridays--Aaron and I watered the vegetable garden. After we finished, Aaron told me to spray him, or something like that. I refused, on account of him being in street clothes in the beginning of spring in Western Oregon. He disappeared shortly thereafter, but returned just as quick, dressed only in swim trunks. So I proceeded to spray him using all seven modes on the hose attachment. Interestingly, this is the child who doesn't like to bathe. Contrastingly, Edward always requests that we put on his winter coat whenever he heads to the back yard to play, and he had no interest in getting hosed down. Yet he's the child who tries to negotiate a daily shower or bath.

The Church hand-picked me--one of only 400 world-wide--to answer some questions in a survey over the phone. The surveyor clearly didn't have much information on me--save my name and ward and birth date--as they asked a lot of questions that are easily accessible to church membership people. She also noted that only the highest ranking general authorities would have access to the data. Most of the questions were trying to gauge how much I use the various resources The Church makes available (e.g., web sites, distribution services, social services) and what kinds of technology do I use to access information, while few (if any) were on my personal beliefs or perceptions about The Church and its history. But the most interesting one asked what I thought The Church could do to encourage more young people to serve missions. My first impression was to make it financially rewarding (i.e., award scholarships to a church-funded school after you finish, or completely subsidize the two yea...

Original Megan will be boarding with us for the coming months. We picked her up at her friend's house in the old Gubser 'hood, after returning from a gathering at our old Branch President's house in Lake Oswego; besides Megan's sisters , I really only knew one other person there (dare I say that most of the attendees were much older than me?) and with whom I hung out with (and whose sister's boyfriend (now husband) squatted in my Beaverton apartment). Not to toot our own horns, but we roll out the red carpet for our vistors: Meg steam-cleaned all of the carpeting in the house the day before Megan arrived, and I fixed Megan's laptop the day after. Or was it just coincidence . . . regardless, there will be no more walking around the house in the nude.

I stayed up a little later than usual last night so I could read this relevant essay on extreme commuting , which I qualify for on occasion when traffic is bad. I can relate to many of the points the author brought out, including the one that we commuters tend to fudge in describing to others how long it really takes to go from door to door (sometimes you just have to do the math to really see how long it does take). Change may be in the air, but nothing until next year at the earliest--the tax man loves people who move out of their primary residence before two years have passed.

Aaron frequently tells us how he feels towards us, but he's figured out how to be humorous while doing so. Instead of saying something like "I love you to Cybertron and back," he now says "I love you tube." This has been influenced by the many episodes of original Transformers that he has watched on YouTube over the last few months.

More evidence that the "real" mormon football school is on the West Coast. The Ducks are always getting guys like this. Some of you will also notice a familiar name near the end of the article; this could have been my brother-in-law if Bart's and my talks of being the Huxford-Hubbies had actually come to fruition.

We finalized the purchase of our first vacation home today. 2300 square feet of ugly run-downness in Springville, Utah. I'm not sure we'll ever get a chance to stay in it, let alone visit it in person. We actually partnered with Maren and Sean to fix the house and re-sell it quickly for a profit. Maren negotiated an awesome deal with the owner (30% less than its original asking price), and Meg and I are providing the financing to repair it, market it, and sell it. Meg has wanted to do this for a while, so she is excited about doing the work, at least on our end. Maren and Sean will coordinate fixing the place up (they live just a few miles away), while Meg acts as the banker for the deal. We hope to beautify and sell the house within 4-6 months--the sooner the better, because we'll be paying interest every day on it until it is off our hands.

I just noticed that Meg has her own presence on the Web . I wonder if our being born into different generations ( X vs. Y ) has anything to do with our chosen virutual presences. Although, you'll see after visiting her site, even her Dad hangs out here.

More coverage of my sister-in-law's younger brothers.

I eat out on the nights I attend classes at Chemeketa, usually at the strip mall on Lancaster where Pizza Hut used to be located. Being there often reminded me that Mom and I used to go there monthly to redeem my coupon for a free pizza, which I earned for reading a set amount of books at Gubser each month. I realized how unselfishly she would take me--and I don't even think she ever ordered anything, nor do I remember offering her any of my monthly prize. But it was good one-on-one time with mom, which I obviously still remember today. I was reminded of this again yesterday, after reading an article in the Statesman (they have been giving us the paper free for some weeks now, totally unrequested and unwanted by me). Once again the experts have declared that our eating holes--and the giant corporations that make all our eating decisions for us--are the sole responsibility of obesity. Here are some excerpts from the article: "The program is now under attack by chil...

When Aaron first began using his inhaler in October 2006, we asked him what the medicine smelled like. His reply: " It smells like pot. " Aaron has stated that he always wants to live with us (mom and dad). When probed if he ever wants to marry and have his own family, he responds by saying he's going to marry Meg. When he learns that Meg is already spoken for--and that we refuse to raise an Oedipus in our midst--he gets mad and says that if he can't marry mom he won't marry anyone. Unbeknownst to Aaron, he is informally betrothed to Gracie , a girl his age in our ward; so we always suggest that Gracie is a possibility. Replies Aaron: " I could marry Gracie. She gave me a gun " (Aaron invited her to his birthday party in December, and while she wasn't able to come, she still brought a present for Aaron--a six-shooter Nerf gun). Edward's vocabulary has exploded the last couple of weeks. He doesn't string together multiple words yet, ...

This house is a block away from our house today. I didn't want to tip anyone off to what the Capital City Asays are mulling, so I've purposefully kept this hidden until now. But I wanted to capture the experience while it was fresh in my memory. Today stake conference was scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m., but after Meg stepped out of the shower she announced that she had a crazy idea. We've been thinking about moving back to Portland, and Meg had earlier in the week driven through some neighborhoods in SE Portland after visiting her friend in Vancouver. Her visit had confirmed what I had figured out on paper: Westmoreland was a reasonably-priced neighborhood (relative to other nicer areas of Portland, at least), with relatively high number of kids/young families, and very accessible to ADP. So her crazy idea was to skip out on stake conference and attend the Moreland Ward, which is where we would go to church should we move to Westmoreland. The church building i...

The Capital City Asay's have finally made it. We must be super rich, according to some grey-haired lady from PSU. If you don't want to read the whole thing , here is the funny part worth quoting: “The only reason that households have maintained their standard of living over the last 30 years is that they have two wage earners,” she says. “Men understand that they cannot support a household themselves. The male breadwinner is a luxury for only the extremely wealthy.”

It's nice to have family with all the sweek hookups. While I was putting the kids to be on Friday night, Megan's brother Jared left a message inviting me to go to the Ducks/Arizona game with him on Saturday--quickest call I've ever returned. Meg decided to come, too, giving Charlotte some help with her two little ones (both younger than Edward), while Jared and I were at the game. Like my trip to Autzen in October, I've never been to Mac court before, and it was surreal walking up the stairs to our seats on the second level. I hope they never tear down the building just so they can cram more fans in; it is an amazing place to watch a basketball game, and surely a huge advantage to the Ducks (although clearly not enough today ). The building was literally rocking for most of the game. Our seats were in a great spot, and we had a perfect view of what could have been the game-winning shot by Tajuan Porter with 22 seconds left. The entire game was exciting, even thou...

I just came home from a most refreshing bike ride. I usually spend the Friday noon hour with the family, but they've gone haywire and taken our neighbor and two of her boys to Ikea in Seattle (Meg offered to drive, since the neighbor's husband took their suburban on a skiing trip with the scouts). So I pumped some air in my slightly sagging skinny tires, and rode throughout the streets of South Salem under blazing-blue clear skies. I did have an ulterior motive, however, and I found two Inifiniti G20's sitting side-by-side on a used car lot on 12th street. I've walked their lot before, as they have lots of nicer but older Japanese cars, so I propped my bike against the lot's fence and headed straight for the Inifintis. One was ugly beige and an automatic, so it was immediately off the list. The other was a black '94 G-20t (touring edition), with sexy-black leather that my buttocks and back simply melted into--some of the most comfortable car seats to memory--...

Thank goodness this happens but a few times a year. The major downfall about being so far away from the office in Portland is that, when conditions deteriorate, the commute gets really long--three hours this morning. I feel fortunate and blessed to have made it to the North Salem exit without incident (I have class at UCLA tonight--at least I did before they cancelled it), for the roads were one long sheet of ice, with freezing rain falling furiously from the sky. If I had my laptop with me, I never would have left the house--but there wasn't supposed to be a storm today, thus I wasn't prepared. The roads were crazy this morning. About 20 cars were along the side of the road from North Salem to Brooks, having spun-out or crashed. There weren't many problems into Portland, although the snow started to really pack up, and many cars got stuck trying to go up Capital Hill (from the Temple to the Terwilliger curves). The road outside my office has been closed for hours now, wit...

We hosted Uncle Donald, Aunt Lois, and cousin Ben--the new Keizer Asay's--at our house for dinner this evening after church. Aaron had declared earlier that he would spend the time upstairs in his room while our guests were here, but he actually stuck around for dinner--at least for a while. We realized that Aaron was missing some time later, and it turns out that he was out in the backyard playing. Never mind that we are experiencing a cold spell, with the mercury level hovering around 25 degrees. Aaron was determined to make charmigins--which for those of you who don't know, that is dirt with snow packed on top of it (we had a little snow fall this week, but it hasn't risen above freezing so it's stuck around), all in a plastic bucket--it sort of looked like a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting smothered on top. He eventually brought it inside to share with everyone. I'm still not sure how he was able to scoop up the frozen dirt with a tiny, plastic shovel,...