The "Mighty Wurlitzer"

Michaela's mom and sister was in town yesterday. We enjoyed time with them, and in the evening we went to the Organ Stop, which has a very impressive Wurlitzer organ. Oh yeah this was impressive. There are only a few theaters that still have one of these, but this was a pizza parlor that you got to eat while he did a recital. It was really neat-o watching the Wurlitzer raise out of the floor and twist around and sound coming from everywhere. A great treat for all who come to visit us (it is in Mesa, so you could visit Bret also).

Update me please

Wow, where did the time go. Crazy evenings has kept me away for a while.

Updates:
Traffic Ticket: So, they dismissed it. Supposedly they thought the SUV was my car, and I could take a picture of any car to say it wasn't mine. Also, they don't trust the DMV, or the title for that matter. I don't know what they trust besides my drivers licence, which they looked at the picture to determine it wasn't me driving. They didn't even trust me standing there, because I could be a plant. Anyway, I was happy to get off.

Scooter: We bought one. It is a happy little fun ride. We already have over 1000 miles on it. It is fun, but it is also slow. It is a 150cc "Il Bello" Fly Scooter.

New Blog: Michaela Started one. scriptoriumblogorium. It also has Michaela's book in webpage format linked there. She had around 50 visitors reading her book, and lots of people linking to it. Check it out. It took me a long time to get it online.

That's about it. Oh, like everyone else I spent way too much time watching the Olympics.

Transformer Car

A couple weeks ago we got a ticket from a traffic camera. Does this really look like our car? We own a green Toyota Camary. The licence plate on our car is 579 RLA. So the only thing close is the plates, but the tire obsures the last digit.

Facebook

Facebook-- I never liked it. Why?? Well having a site that could only be accessed by register users is annoying. Lets face it, Facebook is a form of peer pressure. Any Facebook user realizes a registration is needed for friends to read their updates. If somehow a friend becomes registered, they are locked in and can't change social networks or they loose everything. Finally, a log in every day and staying logged in is important to stay up to date. I am sure ads on Facebook are in impression heaven with this last detail.

So, why am I ranting about this? Well... I joined Facebook . I guess the peer pressure got to me when Michaela started updating Facebook daily. Thoughts like "I'm her husband and I am not in the know*" and wisps of "Where did she find this out" started occurring frequently enough to loose any resistance. I still don't know why she won't write a entry for my blog, but I now know she updates Facebook regularly.

* I think Michaela and I have a good relationship. Of course I am "in the know", but thoughts are crazy like that.

The Geo affair

Many of you are aware of my blog in October called car poll. Well, there still isn't a new car in my driveway. I am still driving my Geo Prism, and this little car has led to the question; "Why my family loves a good Geo Prism?".

Before we take this question further, maybe a little history is in store. Around 1996, Dondavid Powell, the auto shop teacher at Ricks College, told my dad about getting good deals on wrecked cars to fix up. This idea sounded good to my Dad as a way for his kids to earn money. Well, buying these cars was easy, and we were pretty good at fixing them, but didn't do too well on selling them. Not really a bunch of salesmen. So, me and my brothers would drive them with for sale signs in them trying to get someone to bite.

As we were buying these cars, it became evident that there was a hierarchy to how easy a car was to sell. On the top of the list was Honda and Toyota vehicles. GM and Chrysler which we got were not. The problem was that even broken Honda and Toyota cars were more expensive then we we wanted. Then Dondavid told my Dad a Geo Prism wouldn't cost as much, and they were pretty easy to sell. So, we bought a Geo and the rest is history. In total we have fixed up six Prisms. Two were sold and we kept four for me and my brothers.

It is now 8 years after the last Prism was fixed, and only Kensey has sold his. We now come back to the question of why my family loves them? It might be that we know that we can embarrass kids (or Michaela) when they ride with us. Or, maybe the mechanical refresher courses we get. Maybe the answer is to show how strong we are to not succumb to buying a newer car.

This last week, my car was able to demonstrate all of these traits as I took co-workers to lunch. Normally they try to stay away from my Geo, as they try to show off there own cars. But this time the Geo didn't fail to impress. As we drove down the road, one mentioned it sounded like an airplane, and he liked it because he felt he was going fast. I laughed and all of a sudden a cup holder popped out (the latch broke) and I was able to show my ingenuity by jamming a piece of paper to keep it closed. In the end, they couldn't get out because the door handle was broken, and I had to show them "The Door Handle Knack". Sheesh, you wonder if they really are engineers. And when they got out, they looked so happy to have driven in the car. Maybe they will drive with me again.

Why now is not a good time to own a house

To ever say "it is not a good time to own a house" is very questionable statement. The statement in this case is just a very generalized hook to get you thinking, and it probably is not true for many homeowners. A matter of fact, only a few home owners would say this is true, but don't chalk our landlord as one of them. If you haven't read the previous post (look down) then you wouldn't know our landlord was having problems. He is having problems with loosing money on his rental unit. Now when he tries to get an increase in rent, the tenant has lots of power, especially one who has a good credit score and the ability to buy a cheap house in a depressed market. Or we can go to one of the many vacant houses for rent on the market.

On a quick related note, I was talking with a source (who asked to be unidentified) who is starting to see an interesting phenomenon around the East Valley. Many people with good credit but owing more than there house is worth are buying in this depressed market and then filing bankruptcy. The expensive house falls into foreclosure while they keep the newer house with the cheaper payments and there is nothing the banks or credit card companies can do. Smart??? I guess.... Dis-honest??? definitely!! You do have to live in the house for seven years, and if you are late on any payments you have no recourse as the bank with attack you for all you are worth. But it is happening.

Ummm we are going to raise your rent..

Last Monday Michaela called me up at work telling me that our landlord just called, and said his ARM loan was increased and he would be raising our rent. "He said what" was my first reaction, quickly followed by "We just signed a contract in January, there must be something wrong". So, when I got home sure enough he wanted to raise the rate. Now, most people would have gone to there landlord demanding that they have a contract, and they could take legal action on this. Michaela and I had another plan. We called up the landlord telling him a rent increase was out of the question, and we would start looking for a new house immediately and hoped to get out by April/May. Well, that changed his tune and he was telling us we were still under contract. Sheesh.........

Old Computers

One thing about computers in my family is that we keep them. I think my family keeps old computers with the idea that they were important at one time. Well, I inherited this desire to keep all things computers and pack them.
Michaela is the opposite. She really likes to simplify her life, and old computers should be sent away (dump, recycle, donated, whatever).
So, this last week I gave in and sent two computers away. So, we are back down to ummm 4 computers for the both of us. If only I could find a way to cluster them all together then I could tell Michaela " I can't do family history because you know it needs so much power."

Reunion

What software do most people use for genealogy? If you are a member to the LDS church, the answer would probably be PAF. That is unless you are a Mac user, then PAF doesn't even register unless y0u are still on classic.
So, what about a mixed computer family like ours? Well, we have been using PAF, but with Michaela taking a Family History class she started testing other programs, and she came up with using Reunion on the Mac. She really likes it, and it seems to do everything that she needs for the class. Of course, me being cheap, asked if it saved enough time to offset the $100 for the program.
Well, she decided to go ahead and get the program. So, I even decided after much deliberation to move my family history there.

Weeds

So, from about the middle of January until now both Michaela and I have been busy. I am wrapping up my project, which releases Feb 21, while Michaela's semester is in full swing. Yep, we have no time. So, what did we do for Valentine's Day??

Well, we weeded our front yard together. Yep, we had weeds growing everywhere and with the time we set aside for each other it was decided that we should go a weeding. Anyway, it looks better and I sprayed some herbicides to keep them away after. Well, I should of checked the weather forecast, because that night a storm blew though and poured on my freshly sprayed area. Oh well, I will see how well it sticks before putting any more down.

So, not a good date??? Well, Michaela thinks we bonded better by pulling weeds together. Okay, I still took her to dinner, so it wasn't all attacking noxious weeds.

Watermarks

Recently we were sent some proofs to view. As I looked through them, I couldn't get past the very ugly watermark and my thoughts turned to how easy it would be to take the watermark out. Now, before I go on, photographers want you to buy photos. I understand this, but just look at that watermark. It is huge!!! So, I fired up poor mans Photoshop called Gimp and had at it. Anyway, five hours later I got it cleaned up. It took a lot of touch ups, and I would never say it looks as good as the original, but it can be done.

Multicultural Festival

After going to the temple, we went to Multicultural Festival in downtown Chandler. It was pretty interesting.
We saw a Ti Kwon Do demonstration with lots of breaking boards. They yelled “Keyaaaaah!” in unison about every 10 seconds or so, and there was somebody’s enormous dog nearby that decided the yelling was a bark, so every time the group Keyaahed, the dog gave a thunderous bark, which sounded nearly the same! “Keyaah!” ARF! ……“Keyaaaah!” ARF! …..“Keyaaaah!” ARF! There was some giggling in the audience about this.
There was a girl in the Ti Kwon Do group that was quite impressive. She had long black hair, olive complexion, an extremely determined expression, and very lithe. She and this other guy did a sword demonstration to some very vigorous music from “Pirates of the Caribbean”, and it was fascinating to watch her wave that blade around in a blur. The sun sparkled off it. I could just imagine the little boys in the audience would probably go home and start practicing the same with their mama’s biggest kitchen knives. The same girl also did a staff-fighting demonstration, and a sparring exhibition. I didn’t like to watch the sparring. It’s all very well to watch people punch the air to atoms and kick their shadows into next week, and break pine boards into kindling, but I’d rather not watch anyone get flipped on their face and stomped into the ground by someone else, thank you.
The group was so disciplined. They kept up the discipline even when off-stage after their show. Every once in a while we’d hear a “Keyaaaah!” in response to their dragon master’s commands and communication, all while the MC on stage was introducing the next group. At that point the Keyah-ing started to seem ridiculous, probably because it was no longer appropriate to be yelling; it sort of distracted from the main focus on the stage. Imagine them going to Disney world together to see the sights. (“Have a magical day!” “Keyaaaah!” The parade goes by. “Keyaaaah!” They go on the Magic Mountain roller coaster. “KeyaaAAAaaAAAah!” They meet Mickey Mouse. “Keyaaaah!” Mickey runs in terror.) But I digress.
Next were some chinese dances, one with colored paper parasols, another with fans with material on them that fluttered in the breeze. It was very cute and feminine and gentle and watching it made me happy. The fans were interesting to watch because they used them all kinds of different ways in their dance. They pretended they were a hat shade, a beard, something to wave with, a flirtation device, and so on. I thought the costumes were a little peculiar, because they showed what appeared to be a Spanish influence. The colors were white, red, and black, their hair was tied back with a red flower behind their right ear, they had dangly things hanging from their shirt, and they wore what looked like gaucho pants.
Next were some Mexican dances done by little girls between the ages of 6 and 15. They seemed to emphasize waving large skirts around and stomping and hopping. There was one boy that did a solo dance, called “The Old Man”. In this dance he walked out hunched over at the waist, supported by a cane, which he waggled in time to the music to depict tottery agedness. Then he seemed to gain strength and do a lot of hopping about, and at the end, he keeled over on his back, as if the old man had died of a heart attack from the excessive exertion of dancing. A very cool touch of humor.
The announcer for those dances kept making jokes about how good-looking he (the announcer) was. He was a middle-aged, slightly pudgy guy, with no particularly distinctive looks, quite average. The first few times those jokes didn’t seem funny, but towards the end it was hilarious. I’m still not sure why.
Then there was Hopi Native American dance, one representing the introduction of the horse to the Indians, and it featured two guys in native regalia, one dancing and the other beating the drum and chanting. The costume of the guy dancing really did make him look like a horse. He had a long, thick, black tail of horse hair popping perkily out of the top of his waistband in back, which swooshed delightfully about, and he had a headdress of black feathers that started at the top of his head and went down his neck to represent a horse mane. He bounced around on alternating feet, shaking a rattle and occasionally waving a stick with feathers fixed to the end, and sometimes gesturing with an ear of corn. He represented the prancing, the galloping, the jumping of the horse, according to the wailing and caterwalling and guttural singing of his buddy beating the drum, “Ale-ale-ale-aa-aa-aa-ale-ale-aaaaaaa-ii-ii-ii-ii-ii-aale”. The guy singing seemed most partial to A and I vowel sounds and L consonant sounds.
After that, the guy who was drumming told the audience that the drum was supposed to symbolize the heart beat of mother earth and of all living things, and to this purpose the beats were even in rhythm and emphasis. He said that Hollywood depicted Indian drum beats differently, with a sort of BUM-bum-bum-bum –BUM-bum-bum-bum” and that if our hearts ever started beating like that we should go see a cardiologist. Much laughter in the land. Excellent to educate the audience and remove misconceptions.
Then they did the hoop dance, which was quite amazing. The guy doing it started by picking up one hoop and put his body through it in the most elastic manner in time to the drumming. Then he picked up the second hoop and made pictures with it and then put his body through and around both of them together. Then he picked up a third hoop and made a globe-like thing with the three hoops. He kept adding hoops and making all kinds of figures – butterfly, bird flying, planet earth with the moon, putting the body through all the hoops and making all kinds of designs, Olympic rings, playing jump-rope, etc. It was acrobatics to music and it was supposed to symbolize how interdependent everything on the earth is. I’d say it was an excellent object lesson for that. No wonder they like these dances and consider them great and important.
The Assyrian dance was a combination between female eastern European styles (lots of stepping and hopping in a line) and Israeli dances. (They probably would hate the comparison to Israeli dance, so don’t tell them I said that.) The last dance they invited the audience to participate and join in the line and a bunch did, including me, but I got my ears blasted out by the speakers when I went in front of them and that was very bad. On the whole, dancing with them was very fun and reminded me of folk dance at BYU.

Reality Distortion Field

Michaela was hit with RDF (reality distortion field). She needed shock therapy to come out of it, but that is another story.

So, Macworld was last week. And the keynote was Tuesday. And Michaela watched this keynote and was hooked on the Macbook Air. So much that she was sure her next computer would be said computer. As we went out for our annual post-Macworld walk (coincides with the daily walk), I asked her why she wanted this one over the already released notebooks. Well, she came up with lots of good uses for this aluminum jewel, but all of the new uses could be done with her current iBook with a airport card. But she had never expressed an interest in doing ultra-mobile computing before. Well, we went to Frys to look at sub-notebooks, and looked at Macbook Air reviews and finally the RDF wore off. She is now back to just wanting a nice plebeian Macbook.

Okay

Okay, I use okay a lot. But I feel okay. OK?

Birthday

Okay, I have now cut off the date for my belated birthday.

I enjoyed a good birthday, and we went to eat at Golden Corral. I guess the days of being young enough to eat at all you can eat steak is gone. I ate about 1.8 plates and a bowl of ice cream before I was floored. The problem now is that it will take the whole year to burn off those 1.8 plates.

First Class

Okay, so we flew first class. As you can see, Devon's serenity after airport security, and a long vacation.

What 1st class gives:

• Legroom and side room.
  
• A dinner (salmon and pasta).
• All the drinks you can drink.
• Hot roasted cashews, almonds, and pistachios
• Did I say leg room and a nice reclining chair.
  

Let it snow

"We had a white Christmas. Just like the ones we used to know. With snow drifts plenty and blight, and a cold wind blowing through the night."


*Note: Blight was used on purpose. Michaela didn't follow, but it was suppose to be somewhat negative. In this case a blight shows negative activity by keeping people inside. Like a blight would keep a plant from growing. Okay, hard to follow, but I like the post. Made me feel clever.

Christmas presents

Michaela and Devon opening presents. Thanks everyone for the gifts.

Devon and Michaela got a lovely blanket, wheat grinder, and a signed copy of " The Gift". Oh, and first class plane tickets lest we forget.

Michaela got scrabble and battleship board games, scarf and hat.


Devon received a scarf, shirt, coat, LooneyTunes DVD and Airwolf DVD.

FYI: Devon is still wondering if Airwolf is as cool as he thought. Anyone wanting to borrow the DVD, or another 80's show "Greatest American Hero" are welcome to. He now has first seasons of both.

Photos

Well, one thing we did on the trip is take photos. Here is a picture of the Walker family being situated, and I am sure Michaela helped out by taking pictures of the mayhem.

Hat trick

Michaela was working on making knitted hats for Christmas presents this year. At first she tried using circular needles but got frustrated so she started to knit a pannel and was going to sew two sides together. This was taking a long time, and just before they left Devon found a solution. A knitting rings was being used by a sister he home taught. After finding out about it he explained it to Michaela and after getting the ring two hats were done in two days.