Miscellaneous

We have some new hurlers in the family. Uncle Brian & Aunt Ann (Thank you so much!) sent the boys hurleys, sliotars, and a book about it all! Erik & Henry think it is so cool, and are now wondering why the Utes (University of Utah) don’t have a hurling team. For those of you not familiar with hurling, HERE is a link to explain it all. In a nutshell, it is an ancient Gaelic game that is like a mixture of soccer, field hockey, ice hockey, and boxing played at 100 m.p.h. with no pads! I included boxing because Uncle Terry taught me from when I was young that there are always two matches during a football (soccer) match, the actual football match & the boxing match that coincides with it!

Because of recent world economic happenings many of us have re-considered & adjusted our Christmas budgets and activities…
I like this guys approach (the house on the right)!!!

The view from my living room window, looking in between two of my six giant maple trees is quite breathtaking. We are so lucky to live in and around such geological wonders! Here is a great photo of Lone Peak & the rising moon.

11,253 feet (3,429.9 meters)
40°31′36″N 111°45′19″W

It’s a little belated, but here are some pictures of Henry wrestling. At each meet he would have 2 matches. The first match was for points, and the second was pin to win. Henry was undefeated!! Some of his point matches he won by more than 30 points (42 to 7)! What a champ!

While Erik and I were blousing…uh, hmm, er I mean browsing the internet last night for Star Wars toys, I came across a great article at the Geek Dad section of Wired.com. it is titled “The 5 Best Star Wars Toys Ever Made” (link is HERE). As a child I only had one on the list, but it is probably the one I enjoyed the most, and the one that now triggers the most memories. It was the Imperial Troop Transporter. Grandma Lois bought it for me. I think she probably enjoyed watching me play with it more than I was enjoying playing with it. I would try and describe it to you, but while I was reading this section of the article I felt like it was exactly what I remember, and exactly what I would say.
“This was ridiculously fun to play with despite never having appeared in the (original) movies. It was supposed to have been part of the destruction of the Sandcrawler, but I don’t remember caring about that. It had “brainwashing” hoods you could put over rebel action figure prisoners, which I used all the time—in retrospect, as a parent, I wonder if that might be a little close to torture for comfort, but I seem to have turned out reasonably OK. The best part of this toy was the sounds. There were six buttons on the top that each made a different sound when you pushed them–there were your basic engine and laser sounds, but also R2-D2 squealing, C-3PO saying “R2-D2, where are you?”, a Stormtrooper saying “There’s one, set for stun,” and a few more. I pushed those buttons so many times I can still hear the sounds in my head, and recall how funny they sounded when the battery was dying.

We attended the Sandy 4th celebration again this year. The festival is held on the grassy South Towne Promenade between Sandy City Hall and the South Towne Center. They have rides, activities, vendor booths, food, a parade, and fireworks! In the parade this year they had a group of competition rock crawlers that were climbing over each others 42 inch tires, and, my favorite part, bag pipes! It was great! The boys had a great time, and got these trick 4th of July skulls painted on their faces.

What a great weekend! Friday night we had more of the same rain we have had for weeks. But Erik and I caught a camera pic of this great rainbow while out cruisin’ in the Jeep. Sunday Jon and Noemi came over for a barbecue, and fire in the backyard. Erik gave Liam some great driving pointers. Look Ma, no hands!

I was entertained most of the way home this evening by a C130 being escorted by four F16’s. However, once I got home the air show really started! The five aircraft would approach from the north, as though they were following State Street South. They would then bank East over the top of my house to the East bench then continue North. The group of aircraft repeated this approximately a dozen times, only slightly varying their flight path each trip. It was so much fun to watch! I attempted to capture them with my camera, but the pictures just cannot relay what reality was producing. I did get the group on video, and will share the video clips here once I get them edited and uploaded. Until then here are a couple photos:

I randomly came across this political test while searching for completely unrelated items on the web. I found it very interesting. We all have defined ourselves politically in one way or another. Some of us because we attempt to be educated and involved politically, and others because of tradition. What ever your reasons for your political views, it is interesting to see where you actually find yourself. The politics test is impartial, written by mathematicians, and it explores your ecomonic and social ideas, and then places you into a 2-D spectrum of political thought. The goal of this politics test is self analysis, and that’s it. Your answers should be your answers, not how you believe somebody else thinks you should answer. Anyway, take the test, it is very short. I think you might be surprised what you discover about yourself. You can take the test HERE

Cheers!