The Big 10,000

Sesame Street taught me a lot! I watched that show all the time. Even when I was at BHS I spent part-time job earnings on Sesame Street products like the gem of 1997. However, I always thought that there was one character who taught me more than I will admit:

Count von Count.

Lately, I have become fascinated with numbers again (this has happened before: like when I started to read the Doctrine and Covenants when I had 138 days left on my mission or when I was turning 15 1/2 and wanted my drivers permit or when I could go on my first date or even better counting the days from when Jesica and I kissed the 1st time to when we kissed again as boyfriend and girlfriend). Though, I must give credit where credit is due - I always remember the Count when my time is spent counting.

And since I'm in a counting mood, today is a really important day for all kinds of reasons:

There are only 2 more days that I have to go to college, ever, this week. (Well, until I start my Masters program next year...)

In 5 days I will be walking in a cap and gown, with passion and gusto.

In 10 days I'm leaving on a jet plane...and the next day (in 11 days) we'll celebrate Jesica's 22nd birthday.

In 98 days we'll celebrate our 2nd Anniversary, but 4th year together as a couple!

In 226 days I'll be 28 - Yikes!

In 2782 days I can run for President - go get those absentee ballots!

And today, Monday, 3 December 2007, I am 10,000 days old!!

So, thank you kindly for any of you who helped me get this far...I CAN count!

Oh, and I usually don't say this, but, "Happy Birthday to me!"

Horror at Work

On Halloween, Jesica and I (and some friends) discovered the joys and pains contained in silent movies. We, for the first time, experienced the horror that is Nosferatu. It actually was a little scary - in more ways than one...I mean, look at the guy, err monster. The point is, as we sat around and made fun of the movie with our friends, we were ingrained with the walk of the monster, with the look of the monster and with the creepy music that played throughout.

So, knowing that Nosferatu could be looming, even after his doomed ending in the movie, it is even scarier when you see someone walk like the monster. If you think that it is creepy on film, I can tell you of an office where you can see this hideous figure daily.

You may think this is rude and malicious - let me explain. She doesn't look like Nosferatu! She only walks like him, hovers like him and I feel the hair on the back of my neck raise as though creepy music is playing in tiny ear pieces I have yet to find when I see her walking towards me.

I'm actually glad that she isn't in my office. And fortunately for you, I won't tell you where to find her. Just know that she is out there waiting for your visit. When you see her, she'll have over-zealous eyes and a craving you just can't understand.

Thanksgiving Delights

Every Thanksgiving for the last four years I've worn my favorite shirt. It is Christmas green and simply states with holly for quotation marks:

Holiday Magic

Jesica hates it with a passion! But she puts up with it because - well, I don't know why she puts up with it (maybe I should be worried). There are a great deal of things to be thankful for today and there is a certain kind of magic in the air. So, as we sat around the dinner table with her family, I stated a few things I am thankful for. The two items that top my list are: Family and a safe place where my family can reside and do what we want to do when we want to do it...

...within the bounds of the law.

But there are some other very important things and I'd like to thank a fellow student of mine in AP Literature in 12th grade - Charles "Chuck" Kidd - for engraving them in my mind. I have lots of quotations and stories to attribute to Chuck, yet one stands out every Thanksgiving.

We were discussing what we were doing for Thanksgiving. I discussed the Turkey bowl, key lime pie and a movie. He had only three things to discuss, as well, and then an exclamation. I'll forever remember his comment:

"Evan, I only have three things planned for Thanksgiving and school work is not one of them:

Eat,

Sleep,

and Watch Football...

GOD BLESS AMERICA!!"

Chuck, thank you kindly! Need I say more? Oh, Happy Thanksgiving!

Patent Pending

When I was a kid we went to Galveston, TX. It was the only beach I knew (until we made it to FL for a vacation)...and I loved it. They had seashell shops by the seashore (say that three times fast). They had salt water taffy. They had those little shark heads with a handle at one end that made the shark bite two feet away.

Yeah, like that, but it was a red handle and it was really fun to pull hair with...I digress.

The point is, I got one of these in Galveston. I loved it and thought that it was really handy for a kid. But then I got to thinking about how beneficial it was because I was short. I could reach the snacks on top of the fridge without a chair, though they had to be light enough to grab and transport. So, my little genius mind began to turn.

The world needed a better grabby tool.

So, I began my creation. In less than a month, and with help from Dad, I had a nice grabby tool able to lift 10 lbs at a two foot distance away. It was made of wood and strong wire cables. It was perfect. And then it sat for years.

When I was a teenager, I saw the first one in a store.

Now you can purchase them anywhere and you can choose from 20" all the way to 48".

Recently, I've spoken a lot about the hope that someday someone will invent a DRR (not the Disneyland RailRoad or a Disaster Risk Recovery or a Digitally Reconstructed Radiograph, but a Digital Radio Recorder), much like a DVR (Digital Video Recorder or TIVO for those of you who like name brands - I have a Dual-Tuner myself), but for the radio.

Imagine listening to the radio and talking on the phone at the same time, but you're really involved on the phone and something is said on the radio that was really funny or controversial. But you don't know what it is because you were chatting on the phone. With a DRR you could easily rewind the radio and listen to what you missed.

Imagine, then, hearing a song that you just love and you don't have your mp3 player in the car. With a DRR you could listen to your song over and over and over again.

This is my idea don't steal it!

So, I missed out on the grabby tool. I'd like to make a DRR, but don't have the knowledge to do so. Then last week I went to the store and found another missed Opportunity.

No, I didn't invent York Peppermint Patties, but Jesica's mom gave me a recipe that I thought only she and I had yet discovered.

Holiday Brownies

They are fabulous. And I've only told a few people the secret recipe. Consequently, I was devastated when I got the bag home (and horded them in secret) because I saw the recipe for Holiday Brownies on the back of the bag of holiday packaged York Peppermint Patties.

Mofra, I'm sorry, Hershey stole our recipe!

What have I learned?

Well, if you have a dream, make it happen. Yeah, and don't let other people beat you to lots and lots of money!

Cream in Laguna

The definition of laguna: a bay, inlet, or other narrow or shallow body of water. The definition of Laguna Beach? Fun in the Sun (near the shallow body of water). Today you can see the effects of the sun on me after our wonderful time on Memorial Day. I've been called red, rosy, stupid, and white boy. And asked by each of those accusers if I knew what sun screen was.
Is it really necessary to remind me of my lack of color? When I hold my arm up to my wife's and her little sister we find that the coloration goes from cream to caramel to chocolate.

The only problem today is that I am now more of a strawberry cream - and I'm hungry!

Today in History for the Birthday Men

So, I really didn't do much research on this one...that would have been a little creepy. I mean I love my brother Jon and Boone is great, but that I would take a grip of time to research their special day may have been a little much. However, everyday I get an email from Reference.com so today here is a copy of this day in History with some additions by me:

Feast day of St. Comgall, St. Credan, St. Maieul, St. Tudy, St. Ansfrid, St Walter of l'Esterp, St. Richard Reynolds, St. Francis di Girolamo, St. Ignatius of Laconi, St. Asaph, St. Gengulf, and Mamertus.
Jamaica: Bob Marley Day (memorializing his death in 1981).

Events:
1647 - Peter Stuyvesant arrived in New Amsterdam to become governor.
1858 - Minnesota became the 32nd state of the Union.
1910 - Glacier National Park in Montana was established.
1946 - The first CARE packages arrived in Europe, at Le Havre, France.
1947 - B.F. Goodrich Co. of Akron, Ohio, announced the development of a tubeless tire.
1949 - Israel was admitted to the United Nations. 1949 - Siam changed its named to Thailand. 1969 - The Monty Python comedy troupe is formed, with Monty Python's Flying Circus first airing on October 5, 1969.
1980 - Mobster Henry Hill busted on drug possession.
1984 - Haunted Castle at Six Flags Great Adventure burns down, killing 8, A transit of Earth from Mars takes place.
1997 - "Deep Blue," an IBM computer, defeated Garry Kasparov in a six-game chess match, who lost the match 2.5 to 3.5.
1998 - A French mint produced the first Euro coins of the 12 European Union member countries, collectively known as the Eurozone/Euroland.

Births:
1803 - Hector Berlioz, French composer.
1854 - Ottmar Mergenthaler, German-born American inventor of Linotype.
1888 - Irving Berlin, Russian-born American composer.
1894 - Martha Graham, American dancer, choreographer, pioneer of modern dance.
1904 - Salvador (Felipe Jacinto) Dalí (y Domenech), Spanish surrealist artist.
1912 - Phil Silvers (Silversmith), Emmy Award-winning American comedian, actor.
1980 - Justin Boone Botkin, future American Senator from Utah, future president of NACTA, poker genius-winner of World Series of Poker 2010.
1984 - Jonathan Gillis Eastman, future former American-born Latvian ambassador to the UN, future Cello playing bass operatic soloist and conductor for the Bartlesville Symphony.

Deaths:
1812 - British prime minister Spencer Perceval, assassinated in the House of Commons.

Happy Birthday!

May 11th!

Here is to my musically-inclined, Cardinal loving, not-so-little brother and Anchos serving, Utah loving, air-controlling friend!

to both of you, I mean:
"daudz laimes dzimšanas dienā!" and "feliz cumpleaños!"

Happy Easter!

Today is Easter Sunday and I am so glad that the Easter Bunny found my basket! There is nothing better than Cadbury Eggs and an Easter tie. Thank you kindly, oh wise Bunny!

I don't need to explain the reason for celebrating Easter (empty tomb and eternal forgiveness), but it was interesting stepping out my door this morning, tying my tie, and looking at my neighbors, who also were on their way out.

You may have read that Jesica and some other neighbors have deemed them the Addams Family compared to Jesica and I. So, I greeted them with my usual smile and a "Happy Easter". They informed me that they were going to do some Black Easter thing. They were all in black and got into their black Scion and left.

Though I'm not really sure if that is what they were doing, or if they just wanted to see my reaction (which was a simple "Oh, have a great time"), I know that they must have been referring to a 1968 book about how an arms dealer requested a black magician to release the demons from hell. So, if you're reading this, this is not what they did today.

I like Resurrection, triumph-over-death, Easter much better!

When I was in 6th grade I had to give a report on Ireland. I actually chose to do this country because there was a girl in my ward that had just returned from her mission there. She was kind enough to allow me to take her scrapbook. This was handy because I just covered some of her strange pictures and goofy comments with some that made sense for a 6th grade report. I think that this shows that it isn't always what you know that matters.

Anyway, since it is St. Patrick's Day I thought that I would share some conviviality that has helped me enjoy March 17th every year I've been alive.

Green Shamrock Pancakes - I love to add food coloring to different culinary items. There is nothing better than the creation of a pancake shaped like a Shamrock! Ooh, and some green milk really helps those go down.

Darby O'Gill and the Little People - I once heard that if a movie has either monkeys or little people it's a good movie. I would just like to add that Sean Connery singing makes a movie great, too! By the way, thanks to Sean Connery's singing, I have wooed many young maidens.

Green Clothing - A nice green shirt always brightens the day. I know that pink is the new black and that lime green is the new pink, but a clover-colored shirt shows that you don't only have to have beer to celebrate St. Patty.

Corn Beef and Cabbage - This is surely an acquired taste and I find that there are a lot of seasoned adults that crave this stuff. There must be a reason you can't find it in a microwavable meal. The problem is that I kind of like it, so my wife must be right about my age...

Easter Candy - I don't know if you've noticed but there isn't a whole lot of St. Patrick's Day candy. Eating clovers from the Oklahoma ground is actually great, but they are a little sour, so with the help of an over-eager confection industry I have already been thankful for that rabbit that lays those beautiful Cadbury Eggs. It was a happy day when CVS/Pharmacy stocked their shelves with those eggs of goodness.

So, next year involve these 5 items in your St. Patrick's Day celebration and you'll be wishing you were leaning backwards with your feet in the air kissing the Blarney Stone so you can be more persuasive throughout the year!!