Sigh, vacation’s almost over...

It was nice having everyone here (except Charlie). We had an enjoyable Christmas. I got the Pimsleur Spanish 3 set. Maybe I’ll make some more progress.

William wanted to borrow one of my guns. I didn’t want to send him out with the old Lorcin so we went down and found a Polish Makarov at Ace. It’s a really nice shooting gun. Like Robert’s it throws brass all over the place, though William’s is in 9x18 Makarov while Robert’s is 380 ACP (9x17)

I wanted to do some reloading but my press was really stiff. I called Dillon and got some instructions and basically rebuilt the press. They even sent an alignment tool to me free of charge. It works great now except I ran out of 9mm bullets! Ace doesn’t carry my powder so I’m going to try a new one. I’ve still got 380 bullets and some 38’s so I guess I could still do some reloading. Components aren’t cheap, but it’s cheaper than buying the ammo.

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Ah the upstairs bathroom! In the continuing saga, I mentioned I had to tear up part of the floor to make it drain better. That went well and I finally tried it out this morning and found it drained just fine. So I’m thinking it’s finally done. Finally, finally done. Then I go into the kitchen and there is water everywhere. So what did I do wrong this time? I finally put a cap on the pipe where the shower head goes and turned it on. It still leaked so I knew it was in the shower plumbing after the valve. It turned out that it was a cap I could tighten after removing the shower valve cover. Whew! What a relief! So finally, it’s done! (Key fanfare here.)

I got it done just in time, since Valery and family will be here this week.

I was trying to design a custom Rhapsody station for Mannheim Steamroller and Trans-Siberian Orchestra type Christmas music. Using those two groups to set the station’s tone worked okay, but I got stuff like Bing Crosby’s and Dean Martin’s non-Christmas stuff and some new age nonsense, too. Finally when I heard something I liked I’d save the whole album to a play list. Soon I had 18 hours of Christmas music I like, so I don’t need the crummy station anymore.

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Well I finally got the shower “finished” and took a shower to try it out. I had half an inch of water in two of the corners so I guess it’s not finished, huh? I tore up about two square feet and built the corners up more. Tomorrow I’ll put new tile down and grout Tuesday. Friday I’ll be able to seal it again and Saturday I’ll try it again.

It’s been dry and clear for the last few weeks. I washed every car we have except one (since I ran out of daylight) yesterday. So of course this morning it rained. It’s clear now. It just rained long enough to spot all the cars.

I was switched to the new Beta Blogger and found that my archives don’t work. I think what happened is I switched the archives to a separate folder but forgot to put the full path in the settings in Blogger. It took me a week before the darn thing allowed me to complete a republish, but the archives still won’t work. Finally I just moved all the files back to the root and they work fine. Will I have to keep moving them? Because apparently Blogger’s been saving them into the folder okay it just can’t find them in there later!

The house is looking Christmassy. William decorated the house and I decorated the yard including the pine tree and driveway marker snowflakes and the blow up Santa. Yesterday Ace was “giving” away lighted wreaths. Robert, Jessie, and my mom all wanted one too. Too late—sold out! Hey, but I got mine!

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After months (months I tell you!) of work on the bathroom, it is almost done. All that is left is to seal the tile and hook up the last plumbing. Well there are baseboards but that can wait. I can relax for a change, er no I can’t…

I was planning on getting my license renewed as soon as Jessie went on track break, but I completely forgot and now I have five days and just realized I need a physical before I can have it renewed. Plus the physical form is not available on the web so I have to go in to get one, then get the physical, then go back in for the license renewal. Of course if I decide it isn’t worth it to have a CDL I still have to go in to get a regular license so I might as well renew the CDL.

Last year Jane wanted me to decorate the tree outside, but I didn’t want to tempt anyone to cut it down and take off with it. This year it’s so big that it would never fit in anyone’s house so I went ahead and decorated it. It’s almost too tall to reach with the tallest step ladder I own.

I wanted to go out and cut a tree this year, but we simply have no time. So we’re using the artificial one again. It would be nice to have a real one, but I won’t pay the outrageous prices they charge. Of course once I pay for gas and all for a tree cutting outing, I’ve spent that much. But at least that’s a fun family outing and well worth the cost.

Today the Logandale 6^th ward (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) put some little gingerbread type houses out on display. The Spanish Branch was just letting out. Senaida and a friend both have sons the same age and they rushed over to the houses and Senaida’s friend’s son said, “¿Comemos eso?” His mamá yelled, “No!” There was a guy from the 6^th ward sitting there with his wife and he cracked up. His wife said, “What? What did they say?” and he had to explain it to her. (Obviously a Spanish speaker to some extent.) ("Can we eat this?" is the translation.)

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I lost my election on Tuesday. In a three way race, I got 28% of the vote while Ken got 54%. Kelby got 18%. When I went bed Lanny was also losing his election. I got up at 3 and checked the results again. Lanny won by 23 votes! Rush Limbaugh says he’s liberated by the Republican loss. He doesn’t have to carry Republican water any more. He points out Republicans moved to the left and lost. Democraps moved to the right and won. (Except for the ones that only pretended to move to the right—they lost!)

We went up to St. George to go to Ashley’s sealing on Friday. We stayed overnight and went to her wedding the next day.

I’m still working on the tile in the bathroom. It’s close to being done. I may have it done when Val and family arrive. I’m not thrilled with the job I did yesterday. It’s not my best work. The first part was much better. There’s just one wall left plus a little bit of ceiling. That cheap little tile saw was worth every penny. It does a wonderful job!

We’re about to enter a full week of work again, Next week’s only three days though. Nice!

It’s getting quite cool here now. I’m looking forward to some of that global warming!

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I got the floor tile glued down in the bathroom shower—finally. I hope it turns out okay. While the glue was drying I put plastic on the greenhouse. I put notes on the wood to tell me how everything fits. It didn’t work since it was all faded out. One idea that did work, I used a $13 bathroom exhaust fan to blow up the plastic. It does a better job than that other fan. Given the price of plastic, I hope it allows the plastic to last for more than a year this time.

I got my campaign signs. They’re magnetic, and I got enough for three cars. Kelby and Ken are not campaigning at all, so with my newspaper ad and my magnetic signs maybe I can win this thing. At least they aren’t campaigning yet. Maybe when they see my ad they’ll get one of their own. There are still two newspapers coming out before the election.

Mat L. is campaigning like crazy for power board. Mike F. is running against him and has one little sign up in his yard.

My son William still doesn’t have a job. He’s really frustrated. He could get a job anywhere, easily, except in a LDS college town. There are just too many exceptional people!

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A few weeks my wife and I went to Mesquite and ate at a new restaurant. I had “Camarones Del Diablo” and it was very, very good. Yesterday we went to St. George and tried a new restaurant there. I had “Camarones al la Diable” and it was even better! Although there was a delayed reaction. After I finished the top of my head was sweating and I was sweating around my eyes, though my mouth wasn’t burning all that much. We’re talking “mucho picante!” here. Yeah, I’m ready for more. The second restaurant made a mistake, though; they used dipping shrimp that still has the tails on instead of shrimp for grilling that has the tail removed. It was messy, because of the sauce, to remove the tails. I had to remember to keep my fingers away from my eyes afterwards, because the pepper doesn’t wash off the hands very well.

We listened to the first session of conference going up to St. George, but didn’t get to hear much of the second session and it was just ending as we started to drive home. We heard the whole thing today of course.

We weren’t shopping for a vanity for the bathroom at Lowes, we were going to go to Home Depot for that, but on the way out of Lowes I noticed one I liked a lot in the clearance section outside the store. I asked the guy how much thinking if it was under $150 I’d buy it. He said, “$27.50!” Hey what a deal! Later we paid more for a medicine cabinet than that.

I was talking to another teacher and he asked me if I’d noticed a difference between the ninth graders this year and the ones from last year. I told him yes and he said they are monsters this year. Yes they are. I don’t know what they did to them in middle school last year. I’m making lots of calls home. Some times the guardian tells me the brat doesn’t live there any more because they can’t handle their behavior. It’s sad, because that means they go to live with a horrible parent or something.

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Oh, it has finally cooled off here. It’s been nice.

I’m finished with my Master’s—done—finally. It’s so nice to have that over with. Now I can have a life again.

I took the chain saw to the gooseberry bushes under the palm trees by the print shop. However, I didn’t cut one of the stumps short enough, and I bent the shaft of my brand new lawnmower, the one I bought last fall. The last lawnmower lasted many years. This one didn’t even make one.

Something I did yesterday caused me to have an allergic reaction. My hands swelled up and began to itch, but we have no idea what is causing it. We did go out to dinner the night before to a seafood buffet. I had many things I’d never had before so maybe that caused it, but I also had a reaction three months ago so I don’t think that was it.

I’ve been planning all summer to have my brakes done. Thursday they started grinding so I can’t put it off any longer. I really thought I had more pad left than that, but they wore down quicker than I expected.

I installed the new toilet in the third bathroom yesterday, so we have three again. No sink yet, and I still have to do the tile in the shower. Of course I have some time now!

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We found out something interesting. Not only does William not have a job yet, but Ivan no longer has one either. He’s even talking about going back to Chili.

I have a student whose name is Yvan. When I called his name in the correct Spanish pronunciation (Ee von) he made certain I knew he wanted it pronounced Eye-vun! I told Ivan (who also pronounces it Ee von) about it and he thought it was funny.

We went to Enterprise for Tyson’s wedding yesterday. He married a nice girl. I was impressed even though she’s not been active or maybe not even a member of the church—I don’t know for sure. We stuck around and went to the open house in Ivins. Her parents never showed up for that at all!

I only got an 80% on my project draft. I rewrote a little and turned in the final draft last night. I have no idea what I’ll get since the grading rubric is not the same as the one for the draft. They’re each 20% of my grade. The final paper is due next Sunday but it’s only 10%. The other 50% of the assignments are all 100% except for one 95%. If I get no better than an 80% on each assignment I have left I’ll still get a “B.” I’ve been approved for graduation and since I had to pay for my regalia, I might as well order it even if I don’t walk in commencement. I can wear it around the house, yeah, sure.

Our temple recommends expired in August. It’s funny but it just didn’t feel right until we got them renewed today. It still doesn’t feel right since we still need the signature of one of the stake presidency. I can see the importance of having a valid recommend even if there is not a temple near by. Just having it means you’re worthy and that’s a good feeling.

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Well, what an interesting week! We flew down to San Diego on Thursday. Friday while Jane was in meetings, Randy, Rod, Larry, and I went to the Air and Space Museum, It was hard to drag Larry and Randy out of there. Then we went sailing. We never left the lagoon but we had plenty of fun learning to sail. Supposedly this 23 footer could be handled by one person--not very easily. I worked the jib sail and the motor the 3 times we used it. We left the dock with the motor then used it when we ran aground. The stupid boat wouldn’t turn from the shallows. Finally we spilled the air from the sail and just kind of drifted lightly aground, the motor got us right out. We didn’t need it again but we were running out of time so we used it to get back in time. When it was clear we would make it, I shut it down. We sailed right up to the dock and spilled air and stopped perfectly! The man at the dock acted impressed. It was great! We even almost capsized a couple of times. Tried to go too fast – too much sail. When that happens you have to spill a little air quick. Someone else tipped but it wasn’t us!

We didn’t get to go to the San Diego temple because there was no room in the car; we went to Sea World instead. It was really crowded, but we had fun. We went with Peter and Debbie and Chuck and Kathy. We didn’t at first know Chuck and Kathy’s last name, so I didn’t recognize him as the man that ran CO Bastion the last two years I was there.

I found out you get extra security if you board with just a computer bag. Stan told me that’s probably why they did the extra search on me. The guy behind me had a roll-on bag with a computer pocket. Stan says they don’t worry about those. I guess I need one!

We stayed at a nice hotel but the restaurant really sucked! The food was good-service was lousy! We left feedback – you betchya! The weather was perfect. We never once turned on the air. Nor the heat either. It got just a little cool after sunset at Sea World.

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We flew up to Idaho non-stop in a 737 Model 700, Southwest's latest. It was packed. We would have been able to get William a ticket going up but we couldn't get him anything coming back, yet the flight up was packed. On the way back (which took three flights, Spokane to Boise, Boise to Reno, and Reno to Vegas) we were on an old 737 model 300 (two actually) and it was half empty. So why couldn't we get William a ticket?

We had a busy week. It was really hot at first, but it cooled off until the last day was actually pleasant. Today, after we left it was cool. I guess we picked the wrong week.

While we were up there the TV died. We knew it was going because the screen has been looking weird in the corners. But it was a surprise it went so quickly. I’d really like a LCD TV, but they’re a bit pricey. Even if we go with a CRT I want a bigger one than what we have so our entertainment center will be too small. Crud! I’ve looked at the big plasmas and I don’t think they’re all that great. Since digital is the wave of the future most people have to change anyway, but we don’t! Our satellite is digital, it doesn’t matter what the TV is. But we’re forced to make the change anyway.

Oh well, it’s a chance to get a new idiot box.

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We flew out of Vegas at about 6 o'clock Friday. I'd never taken a laptop though security So the TSA was a little peeved that I left it in the case. But they were very professional about it. Just took it out, checked it for explosives, x-rayed the case, and beat the crap out of me. Well okay the last is a bit of an exaggeration. Okay a lot of exaggeration! We landed in Spokane which is a nice little airport. Mark had left us his car in the parking lot, so we drove that to Post Falls. I was surprised at how close that was. Coeur d'Alene on one side and Spokane on the other.

The temperature here in Idaho is only nine degrees cooler than the temperature in Overton! According to the long range forecast it will drop down to normal (low 80's or high 70's) next Monday--after we leave! Yesterday Mark and I went to Wal-Mart and saw a few A/C units on the shelf and I thought surely we could find better units somewhere else. Nope--sold out. When we went back to Wal-Mart and sure enough they were all sold out. So we're dying here. It was nice to go to church today. Three hours of air conditioning! It's supposed to slowly cool off over the next week but won't be bearable until just before we leave. We did buy a fan. I put it in the window last night and it actually got cold for a short time early in the morning. Mark has his Dad's van but the (you could see this coming, huh?) A/C is out. We tried to fix it but it looks like the compressor.

We just ran a neighbor boy off who was peeking in the window. Valery went ballistic on him. Another neighbor just peeked in and wanted to play with the girls, but Valery told her it was Sunday and the girls couldn't play.

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I've bought my son Charlie a camera. I had great fun on E-bay losing the auctions with seconds to go! I finally won one. I'm replacing his 4 mega pixel Kodak C330, which was stolen, with a 5 mega pixel Kodak Z700. It’s bigger. It looks more like my Canon in shape so it should be easier to hold on to and it has a 5x optical zoom instead of the 3x he had in the 330. The controls should be almost exactly the same so anything he learned about the old one should apply to the new one.

We went to my niece, Terilee's wedding yesterday. The groom, Jared works at Concrete accessories. Rick and I were in there the other day, but he didn't tell me until we were on our way home that Jared was Terilee's fiancé.

I’ve started taping in the upstairs bathroom. It’s going fast, but it’s a lot of work. I’ve taped in the shower; tomorrow I’ll do the rest of the bath. Then comes texture and paint. Then tile, reset the toilet and install a new sink (since the old one’s color doesn’t match the new floor). I don’t have a lot of time though with two vacations coming up and my class started.

This is my last class and I will be done! Sweet!

We bought a new ride on lawn mower because the old one would no longer start. Well I fixed it, so now we have two. I’ll use the old one for mowing weeds.

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To repeat another post. I now have a source so I'm publishing again with a link to the source


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I’ve taken to spending 30 minutes a day digging under the house. The hole under there is not getting much bigger it seems. I’m doing that instead of running on the treadmill since my foot won’t allow much running. I replaced one section of AC ducting under there, and I thought it looked good but the duct tape isn’t holding so I have to keep redoing it. I’ve stripped the upstairs bathroom. I’m going to have Rick finish the floor then I’m going to completely rebuild it with a tile shower instead of a tub. I’ve found that the water leak was just water running out of the tub and not a problem with the plumbing. The new floor and tile shower should fix that.

Yesterday we took Grandma’s old John Deere up to DI but they wouldn’t take it! I think they were just too lazy to lift it out of the truck. Mike, my brother-in-law took it. Cosmetically it still looks really good. It just had flood water in the engine and the transmission wouldn’t go into reverse. I bought another John Deere. I was using an old door for a ramp but it folded in the middle with the mower halfway off the truck. I ended up with the back wheels on the ground and the front wheels on the truck. William and I used a 4 by 4 beam to lift it up and set it on the ground. No harm done.

We went to Adam’s funeral Thursday. The graveside was very hot, so they didn’t spend much time there. His first wife showed up with a paper and took their son. Ivan and Meredith are exploring legal options to keep him. I don’t know why Adam had custody, but I do know he’d be better off with Ivan and Meredith.

I just read that Mexico has a cliffhanger in their presidential election. The last thing they need is the marxist. (The driveby media is calling him a "liberal"!)

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Is Hamas crazy? Their little show of force against Israel is summed up nicely in this cartoon from Cox and Forkum.

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I almost missed the deadline for filing for Ivan Cooper’s last two years on the water board. I’m running against two other people. Last time I ran I lost by less than 100 votes. Let’s hope I win this time. And this time I’m going to actually campaign!

You know those stories of people who are fired and they go nuts so the cops have to shoot them to keep them from harming others? Well there was a guy who got fired at a mine and he jumped into a 70 ton dump truck and did 1.5 million in damage, including starting a huge fire. When the fire trucks arrived he rammed them with the dump truck. So a rookie highway patrolman had to shoot him. You know some cops go their whole career and never pull their guns and this guy has to kill someone after two months on the job. What’s worse is this happened here at Simplot less than 10 miles away and it was Adam Cooper who was shot and killed. He's the son of my neighbor Ivan Cooper. He was angry about being fired and his wife divorcing him. Charlie Cooper his brother was the one who had to identify the body since everyone else was out of town.

Some moron said the cop should have shot the tire out and it would have stopped him. Yeah right, if the bullet didn’t bounce back and kill someone else instead. I’m really sure a bullet from a pistol is going to penetrate a three inch thick truck tire!
Adam used to be like part of the family. It’s very sad.

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I spent all week getting the fifth wheel ready to take to the family reunion. First the tires were old so they were dry rotted and I didn’t want to go through what Stan did with his—one blowout after the other. So five new tires. Then the refrigerator didn’t work on gas so I looked for a new control board. I finally found one online but they called back and told me it was no longer available. I started looking around and whenever I found one I called to make sure they had it and they all referred me to the place that I’d already tried to buy from. I finally gave up and bought a new one. I found a huge RV store in Vegas that had them in stock. Then I had all the little repairs… On the way back I expected my battery to charge, but it didn’t. I thought I had fixed that!

We had a good time. We went up Friday and stayed until Sunday. We probably stayed longer than anyone; of course we had the nicest “tent”. My father-in-law looked at the fifth wheel and said: “So you’re going camping, huh?” I told him “Sure, city style!”

Judy told Patty she’s so glad she married John since everyone is picking on Patty now instead of Judy. Some of the kids were shooting lizards with BB guns and showing them to Patty, who would scream and create a scene. Nothing fazes Judy anymore so they don’t tease her anymore.

The Yankees blew a 9 to 2 lead yesterday—losing 12 to 9. They blew it again today—losing an early lead because of bad pitching. It wasn’t even a good team! Washington?

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From Cox and Forkum:

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I think people have lost sight of what the immigration debate is all about. It’s about controlling our border so that we are protected from terrorist attack. It’s become a debate on what to do about illegal aliens who are already here. That debate won’t make us safe. We must control the border first.

There are a few hateful and bigoted people who are making the debate unpleasant for everyone and making those who want to convince illegals to leave and become legal before returning look bad. I heard a story on the internet that may or may not be true. It goes like this. A woman sat down in her seat on an airplane and the man next to her seemed hostile. Finally he asked her how long she’d been in the country. She asked him, “Well how long have you been in the country?”

He proudly replied, “My great-grandparents came to this country.”

She responded with, “I’ve got you beat. I’m a Native American.” He shut-up and didn’t say another thing the whole flight. It’s a nice story if true. This next one is true.

The Review Journal, a Las Vegas newspaper, reported on a woman whose husband was being deported as an illegal alien. She was of course upset, as she should be since her husband, the father of her six children, was going to be out of her life unless she chose to go to Peru (which would require her own immigration nightmare) or figured out some way to bring him back. As she was being interviewed someone drove by and yelled out the window of his car: “Go home!” With tears in her eyes she said, “I’m a native American. Where can I go?”

Now I’m sure the idiot in the car didn’t know what the interview was about. He just saw brown skin and spouted his hatred. How many more idiots are out there ruining the landscape for a reasoned debate?

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Notice the difference between Cynthia McKinney and Condie Rice. The congresswomen has no class, is looking for trouble, and seems to be a racist bigot with something to prove. Condie is a classy lady, doesn't have to look for trouble, (libs cause her troubles and she deals with them well) and has absolutely nothing to prove to anyone.

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Cynthia McKinney

Condie Rice.

Some of my crazy students decided to protest Congress’s decision to do something about illegal immigration. When the little darlings came back, I asked them what they were protesting about. None of them could tell me. They hadn’t a clue. I think I like Newt Gingrich’s plan best: set up centers in Mexico so people can get checked out and get an ID which they can use to enter the US, any employer hiring someone without such an ID gets a huge fine, and the twelve plus million illegals will leave because they have no jobs. They can come back if and when they qualify for an ID card. And of course seal the border!

We’ve had proficiency testing this week. We caught one girl with a cheat book. Dumb girl, now her test is no good. I guess it’s still not over. She’s denying she was using it to cheat.

I was all ready to finish chopping up one of the trees tomorrow, but I guess Eric finished it today. Of course he left a mess on the ground for me to clean up so I guess I’ll keep what ever I clean up.

I finally got the phones system I want. We hung a base unit in the kitchen and we have nine cordless phones to go with it. We went a little crazy with the buy two get one free sale. We can actually add one more, but we’re done I think. All the phones are speaker phones. They have voice mail (which I don’t know how to use yet), and they can act as walkie talkies. We only have two other phones still hooked up. They’ll go soon.

We had a staff development day Monday. This crazy guy was the speaker at the Orleans casino. Apparently he was the teacher of the year or something. The parking lot was so packed it took almost an hour for Robert and me to get out of the parking lot. He was so late getting to his meeting. As we got in the car I noticed the lady next to us in her large SUV (which proved to be too large for her) had her wheels turned way out. I told Robert if she kept backing out like that she was going to hit us. Can you see it coming? We didn’t even try to pull out because it was too busy, but she did. And (you can still see this coming huh?) she scraped my mirror across her fender. It left an 8 or 9 inch crease on her fender, but only a little scratch on my mirror. She gets out—doesn’t even look at her fender—and says, “Looks like someone parked too close! You’re going to have to move first, because I can’t get out.” She gets back into her large SUV and she still hasn’t looked at the damage to her car! I wiggled the car back and forth until I was well away from her and after a few minutes she left. I guess I could get her for hit and run.

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It’s a strange thing. I’m working on a Master’s degree at Capella University. After I finish this class, I’m two classes away from finishing. (I’m burnt out! I want it over!) Like I said, it’s a strange thing. I’ve found that when I have a paper or project due, I sweat and fret; do more research, then sweat and fret again. This usually happens over several days. Finally I kick out a decent paper in an hour or two. I think that my mind has learned to refuse to produce until the junk I’ve collected percolates in my brain a while and then when it’s ready (usually just before a deadline) it slips into output mode and out pours the paper!

Last Friday, I had a kid tell me to shut-up. My immediate reaction was to grab him by his jacket and tell him not to ever speak to me that way. Now a week later, the story is that I picked him up and spun him around my head! When the kids ask me if that is true, I just smile and flex my “incredible” muscles. Rumors, aren’t they great?

Wednesday, the 1^st of February I put my youngest in the MTC (LDS Mission Training Center). Charlie’s going to Viña Del Mar, Chile on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was hard to let him go, though I’ve done it four times now. (My first son went to Islas de Gran Canaria (Canary Islands), my second son went to Orsorno, Chile, and my third went to Argentina. Everyone in my family except my daughter and me speaks Spanish—well Charlie’s still learning but he will be—so it’s interesting around here, especially since there are four different dialects, between my sons and my wife who was born in Mexico.) I guess he’s a little harder to let go because he’s my last one.

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