Friends, Service, Home Improvement Projects, and No One Dying of Typhoid

Joy says, "It was a great weekend on little sleep. It started out with Mommy reading scripture with Hyrum and feeding him before Daddy got home."

I had promised that I was responsible for dinner because it was my night for the date.

"And that made me feel free to not have to make any dinner for that night. So I totally exploded and made dinner for Sunday night instead."

Which is her preference anyway - making dinner for a future is much happier for her than cooking for today. "Less stressful, more enjoyable."

"So, feeling well prepared, Derrill got home with ... PIZZA!" PIZZA! Whole wheat crust pizza delivered as I walked up to our door from tiny local pizzeria Pizza Aroma. It was Nice. "Hearty and Tasty." Joy's comment throughout was "This is very flavorful, but still good." I teased her about the word 'but' - I think flavorful pizza is great because it is flavorful, not despite.

Then I took her out on a play date. "Which was easier to prepare for because we were all ready which made it nice to go. When we go play games with our friends, we put Hyrum down for the night at their house." He sleeps through Guitar Hero, Mario games, and loud Uno riots remarkably well. "I'm always amazed."

"We had a nice time visiting with them. We also played some games. I got to do the drums and the vocals. They have a great Beatles Guitar Hero where we know lots of songs and that makes it fun." The regular Guitar Hero gets old since the four of us only know about 5-10 songs of their 80 or whatever it is. "Twist and Shout!" Beatles songs are interesting in part because the Bass has a harder part than the lead guitar, and since Shari likes to be the lead guitar, I get the harder parts. "We played til my wrist gave out on me."

"Then we played Uno. It was fun hashing out what rules we were going to play." People were amazed at how many I wanted to clarify before the game started, but they weren't half so many as the ones we later debated during the game. "It was all friendly, and we all won at least once." Now variants to me: go again when you play a wild card (we ruled that one overpowered); ask the person you want to win what color she would like "That was cute"; and kiss your spouse if you play the same card "same color, same number."

"Then we got home and stayed up late together to read Potter."

Saturday morning was the Primary activity. When they called Joy to be a Primary teacher, there was a whispered warning that 'maybe I could help her out occasionally.' They asked me (and also Joy) to teach the kids about the symbolism of the Passover meal. Joy and another sister passed out the food while I explained the stories - not entirely in costume, but definitely with props. "I appreciated that you did it Derrill because I didn't want to do that part. I could've, but didn't want to."

I had a lot of fun. It was interesting to see what each group of kids remembered about Moses and the children of Israel. Some kids started talking about the tabernacle in the wilderness, another kid stole my thunder and told about the last plague before mentioning the others including details about the blood on the doorposts and on and on, and several kids got confused between Moses and Jesus. We served them a little chicken (instead of lamb - not my fault), romaine lettuce for the bitter herbs, matzo, and grape juice courtesy of the Primary. I told the story of the Passover as it happened to us (one group asked me if this really happened and I got to bear testimony that, yes, it did. Well before my time, but it did.) and when the Primary leader came to switch groups, I asked 'Moses' if it was time to go to the promised land and cheered them away.

One of the youth was kind enough to watch Fantasia 2000 with Hyrum and follow him around the building afterwards. Hy was happy to find us. "I had a really great time helping. I helped prepare the plates to go out to the kids and I really enjoyed visiting with Sis. Haney." Joy identified her as a kindred spirit.

Then we got home and took a nap it was very painful to wake up from. "Only because of its brevity." Joy finally convinced me that she was interested and happy to take over a house project that I was willing but not looking forward to: repairing our leaky roof by putting on another coat of aluminum stuff. I mixed the goo while Joy swept the roof, then she scrambled on up and started painting the roof while I cared for Hyrum and let him practice saying "yes." "That's going to take some time since he's accustomed to just echoing, but I think we'll get it."

"Well that project was bigger than I'd planned! Derrill seemed to have a better idea of what it entailed. I thought 'Half hour - no problem.'" *chortle* "Two hours later and not done yet I decided I'd better stop. Two blisters, blackened hands, black up my arms, on my legs past my knees (seeing as how I'd worn shorts and all)." I meanwhile, had discovered that rubbing alcohol is not the same thing as mineral spirits because it certainly didn't clean the aluminum off my hands. "So we had nothing to clean it off with! And it was kind of painful. I do have some exhema and the aluminum was pretty rough on my hands and legs." The Dawn foamy dish soap did a decent job, but left a lot to be desired. We both figured we'd be colored for several days. Thankfully, we had managed to keep Hyrum away from it. I went to the store last night to get some kerosene and that washes it off very quickly. So the next time someone like me googles: How to clean off aluminum mobile home roofing they will find this blog telling them to use kerosene.

Course, now the house smells like a fire trap inside and out after Joy bathed in aluminum, in kerosene, in water, and in skin moisturizer. I am very thankful for her. I don't like new heights - I'm fine with old heights, but new ones aren't my friends, and I didn't really trust our roof to hold my weight, so I was apprehensive and she saved me. My hero!

We were in so much pain when we went to bed! What a day. Oh right, and Friday we were fasting because one my mission areas was doing a 40-day fast and I had signed up for Friday. So this was the day of and after and while I was struggling with that evil scale that lied to me.

And we're all pretty healthy finally - no strep, no typhoid, no dysentery, ... "just the normal allergies." And today the Primary grabbed me to lead the music singing "Follow the Prophet" (a real learning experience for me!) while Joy taught her kids about Easter. Now she needs to go pick up the sister missionaries to feed them stuffed peppers. I need to do some cleaning, some table setting, and our son will probably wake up from his 4 hour nap eventually..... "Could he really still be asleep??" If not, he's happy. "Well, he didn't sleep well last night....." (fade)

Renaissance Fair

(Joy’s comments as usual are in quotes. Derrill is not. We haven’t done a joint blog in a while, so we thought it would be good to remind you. “I’m usually in quotes because Derrill is usually the one typing.”)

“We have been looking forward to going to this fair since the first year I moved here and married Derrill. I found out about it and Derrill’s family has always enjoyed them in the past. We have just been taking turns going other places and this year was the fair.”

Sterling, NY (location of the Ren. Fair) is a back water place off of three broken trails. It took us a while to find the place despite google maps. “Gratefully Hyrum took a nap on the way up, that is what I call the best case scenario for us to enjoy the fair while we were there.” If you go looking for it go North on the 38 after the 104 until you see signs for it. “Their directions didn’t get us quite far enough”.

“After buying tickets you walk into a little village of buildings and what I saw first was a costume shop, so that you costume yourself. It was really fun to see so many people there already. It felt like we were joining something instead of creating something.” We had looked through the schedule of events for the day and decided contrary to stereotype that Derrill was most interested in hearing music and that Joy was most interested in seeing theatre. “These choices helped us a lot in prioritizing the possible events to attend.” There's a LOT there to do. You could easily come back for a second day.

“We started out (after a bathroom stop) at a Bagpipe and drum concert. Hyrum was really excited. Even before they started playing he would breakout clapping at what seemed to me random intervals.” Hy mentioned that they encouraged audience participation, which they defined as raucous cheering, rolling on the ground, throwing babies in the air, or something else I won’t mention in a family blog. “I’m sure we raised our eyebrows.” I obediently tossed Hyrum in the air at the end of every song. He loved it. As he’s gotten larger, the ceiling has been closer and closer, reducing Dada’s chances for babytossing. “Derrill also mentioned Hyrum has gotten more wiggly” and that reduces safety. We enjoyed them muchly.

Before lunch we tried out another couple acts, but we found them in poor taste. We later learned that the schedule provided a parental warning “which we hadn’t quite noticed” that warned of ‘Bawdy Baskets.’ We lucked out in not having chosen them, but we are good little Puritans and walked away.

They had an assortments of games that we didn’t play, but that looked fun: toss a cannonball into the cannon; really really long wooden slide; shooting crossbows at targets; archery; and the ubiquitous strong man competitions, dart throwing, etc. As several of our hopeful acts let us down, we had some time to amble through the shops instead. I tried on a very comfortable merchant’s shirt which I imagined buying someday when I’m a successful merchant. Joy tried on some floral, ribbony headwear whose name we can’t recall, also to be purchased when I’m a successful merchant.

We did get me a new Robin Hood hat, though. I’ve needed a Merry Men cap for quite some time. “They did have Maid Marian hats there too, but I didn’t try any on.” There was this fetching Byzantine number, though, that accented Joy nicely. “They looked like they’d last a bit longer, but I didn’t think they looked as pretty. Derrill started looking at hats while I was on the camel. We also got a wooden bird for Hyrum that you fill with water and it sings like a cardinal. That guy did a very effective sales pitch when he made my crying baby laugh." (It was quarter past nap time by that point.)

During lunch, I got to sit and chat with a fellow who performs as Will Shakespeare in a one man play (he's the fellow in gray there in the middle). It was a very nice conversation – what he does and why and how long. Comparing the different plays going on that day. Joy’s conversation with one of the behind-the-scenes folks was much odder. Joy had seen the Queen’s lady-in-waiting several times and had commented on her nice dress. “I, of course, didn’t even know she was the lady-in-waiting.” To me, it seemed like she really needed to spend 15 minutes in the shade with a bottle of water. She started this strange response about how nice clothing is, and how it feels, and that she has a lot of it. It was rather disjointed – she had to say something – “I bet they had to do that a lot.”

We did get Joy one good theater piece, though. They performed a shortened version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Wisely, they decided, instead of shortening the entire play to 45 minutes, to just pick out a short section that could be done well in 45 minutes which still gave the flavor of the entire play. Since I was in that play many long years ago, that was my #1 concern. “I liked it. At first I couldn’t hear very well, but we got to a spot where I could hear better. It went on well from there. Puck was pretty funny.” I thought Bottom did quite a good job.

We ended the evening with a lovely trio of medieval instrumentalists – they designed and handmade their own instruments! – who told us the stories behind the songs and showcased 3 different versions of the bagpipe. Who knew? Their music (Bells and Motley) was really what I came to hear. Sitting under the sun, in the shade, listening to floating, lilting, harps, bagpipes, fiddles, and much more unique instruments was rapturous. Joy's favorite instrument is featured in the video above: a hand cranked violin with a keyboard. "I loved the harp, too. That was just my favorite of the ones he made." The strangest instrument - featured in the lower video - was a one-string fiddle that has 4-5 other strings inside the case to reverberate and make the string instrument sound like a reed. Funky.

Actually, the ending piece was the joust. The sound system needed help, and the choreography was silly. “When they finally got to the joust, the couple of minutes of joust was fine. That’s probably why they did the silly choreography: they wanted it to last more than a couple minutes of joust.” They made all of 3 or 4 passes.

They fist-fighted a lot. “They could have done some elimination, you know.” Several people jumped off horseback WWF style. Crude humor was made. Hyrum loved the large crowd cheering. “I think he liked the horses too.” The louder the crowd got, the more boisterous he was. He also clapped for the gratuitous violence, as you can see here. (Note: You can hear Hy screaming in the background. I can't change the zoom on my camera once it's started filming, so I can't get Hy in better focus when I move to him. You can still see his excitement."

Joy loved the mile high, moist chocolate cake we bought on our way out. “That was the best food I ate all day long.” We picked up some CDs of the groups we listened to. They did an effective job parting us from our money.

An exquisite chess set in gold and silver (which we did not get).

The Anniversary According to Hyrum

My parents are trying to find time to finish their blog post about their third anniversary. It'll probably show up as the post before this one, so watch out for it. While you're waiting, though, let me clue you in on what really happened on Day 1111 of their marriage:

11 hours of DRIVING, that's what happened. And there's me in the back seat with nothing to do. Of course I slept nearly the whole trip! It's that or listen to Dad turn on yet another CD of romantic music while they reminisce about mushy stuff and kiss at each red light. C'mon guys, get a partition! It's at least nice they'd stop every 2 hours to feed me. (Mom tells me that if we hadn't had to stop to feed me, it would have taken much less time. Stupid seat belt laws.)



So finally we get to some place called Viagara Falls, ... or something like that. I don't know what the big deal was, but Mom loved it. We went on a boat that goes right up to the falls. I drew an arrow on the picture to show you.



Of course, Dad had to get a picture of me sleeping through one of the world's natural wonders. Give a baby a break! I mean, the falls were, like, the best white noise machine ever. How was a guy supposed to stay awake?

So then Dad gets lost in rush hour traffic and heads the wrong way down the wrong freeway, and I'm starving. Meanwhile Mr. We'll-be-there-in-15-minutes-tops doesn't want to pull over to feed me in case he forgets which wrong way he turned and can't figure out which way is north with the sun setting in the west. It's not that hard, Dad.

Finally we get to the Toronto Temple. Mom and Dad take turns watching over me while the other one gets to have fun in the temple. At least, I think it must be fun in there. Dad came out looking much more alert and calm, and Mom was smiling and happy to see me again. (Note to self: she's happier when I coo than when I cry. Maybe it's me.)

Here's me at the temple. In my car seat, of course, as if I hadn't spent enough time in there. Dad did take me out for a moment and let me touch the temple, though. He says it's the House of the Lord and he hopes that someday it'll touch me too. He's corny that way. He talked to me a bit about why it's such a special place, and he hopes someday I'll be able to go inside too. That might be cool. It must be important if they drove all the way out here just for that. They've been looking forward to going for months.





Dad took me on a tour of the temple grounds while Mom was inside. There were fountains and flowers and shrubs all over the place. Here are a couple pictures of me enjoying the grounds and being with my dad.






Oh yeah, the tour also included the foyer bathroom. (Greeeat time for a picture, Dad. Sheesh. The man is incorrigible.) On the plus side, I'm one of the few people my age who can say the temple has already changed him.



We ended the evening at the Mandarin Restaurant, some fancy schmancy Chinese buffet where Dad took Mom on their first date. Now that was cool. Every one of the waiters and cooks (and they've got something like 3 dozen!) wandered in to see the cute baby, or asked Mom and Dad to open up the baby sling and show them my gorgeous 3-mo. old self. The patrons at the other tables thought I was cute too, and some of the other kids under 1 came over to play with me. Everyone thought I was adorably cute and were amazed to learn I was 3 months old today. One of the teeny little waitresses commented that she has a 2-mo. old baby girl who's 12 pounds. Then another said her 2-mo old was 15 pounds. FIFTEEN? Maybe I am still tiny....

Every room has a different theme. This is Dad trying to make me look interested in the fish. The other aquarium was better: they had a live scuba diver in there scrubbing the place during dinner. They had a bird room and a bamboo room too. I think Mom and Dad will post some pics of it.

We didn't get there until it was almost their closing time, and the buffet disappeared before Mom was all the way done. Bummer. But I think everyone had enough. Then they put me back in my car seat for the 5 hour drive home. I decided to sleep through that too. We got home about 3:30 am. Dad fed me, Mom pumped, and then we went to bed while Dad went to take a friend over to the airport at 4:30.

Well, Mom thinks it's time for me to go to bed. She says I'm sounding just a little bit cranky in this post. I'm glad they enjoyed themselves, but I'm just thankful to be home and able to wiggle and squirm all day. Hey, Dad, where's my midnight feeding, yo?!

Lesser-Known Gastronomic Treasures

So Joy took me out to dinner last night, and it was fun. We went to the Souvlaki House, a Greek/Italian place in Collegetown I've really enjoyed whenever I went but haven't been to in a couple years. While I was there, my alter Ego -- let's call him Anton, shall we? -- reminded me that I've always wanted to just write into a newspaper with a few gratuitous restaurant reviews. Well, I can do that here, can't I? So here are two short reviews, and hopefully later Joy and I will sit down and compare Chinese places around here.

I love The Souvlaki House. I discovered it my first year at Cornell just wandering about. They have a large tray of baklava on the counter, and they let me take a menu home the first time I visited so I could give it a good look over. I confess I haven't tried any of the standard Italian fare there, focusing instead on the Greek food, which I have always loved. I was leery about the eggplant parmigiana, but tried it anyway to be adventurous and loved it. It startled me. I've had their lamb Souvlaki and their Gyros, and this last time I had the Moussaka, which is a ground beef meatloaf with eggplant and Greek spices and potatoes. Greek shepherd's pie, maybe. It was heavenly. I'm about to go on a web search for a good recipe for it. I've never been a big fan of the feta cheese in their salads, but those and the sour olives are just part of the experience. The breadsticks are very good too.

The other place to bring to your attention is the Manos Diner along 13-S out of town. Now, there's a story. Back at BYU, I was introduced to what Mystery Science Theater 3000 calls the WORST movie ever made: Manos, the Hands of Fate. It's terrible. It's awful. It's very funny how they handled it. Quentin Tarantino calls it one of his favorite comedies. Torgo, pictured right, is the henchmen. "My name is ... Torgo. I ... take care of the place ... while the Master is away." I bought it for myself one year, I love/hated it so much. So when I saw there was a Manos Diner, I just had to go. The look Joy gave me when I told her I wanted to go to a restaurant because of the worst movie ever made was classic, and I'm sure most guys know the look I'm talking about. (PS - The restaurant has no relation to the movie. It was built by a guy whose last name is Manos. But I can see Anton over there is sharpening his talons, so best get back to the review:)

The polite term for the Manos Diner is a greasy spoon. The correct term is a dive. It is a dive for two reasons. The first is that the bright red plastic bench coverings are held together by packing tape. Now, a low-class establishment would have used duct tape, but Manos uses packing tape, so it's a high-class dive. The other reason it's a dive is that you can dive in and swim around in the sauces they put on your sides. My side salad could tread watery vaguely-white salad dressing for five minutes, all without acquiring any flavor! The marinara sauce on my pasta not only demonstrated a shocking disregard for cornstarch, or even tomatoes, but dripped off the sodden noodles like so much B-movie fake blood.

So why do I recommend you go anyway? Why have we gone back multiple times? 1) They have the world's greatest beef in au jus, as testated and tastetested by the Lovely and Gracious. In fact, we've taken to asking them for a styrofoam coffee cup and lid so we can bring the leftover sauce home. I guess since their specialite de la maison is watery sauces, it makes sense that one that's supposed to be would be perfect. 2) It's nearly impossible to get a decent burger in Ithaca outside of Friendly's, and they do good burgers and other very nice, well seasoned (if a touch lukewarm) entrees. They even profess to do a cordon blue I haven't had the gumption to sample yet. So when you go, stick to the french fries and you'll be fine. The fries are safe.

The Well-Behaved Economist - 1

During the weekend of our first date, Joy and I attended a ward dinner party. She left me at the table with several venerable brethren, and we talked a bit. When she returned, she asked if I had been telling them all about economics. They responded that I had mentioned it a little as they asked about it, but hadn't inundated them with it. I forget what Joy intended to say, but what came out was, "Yes, he's my well-behaved economist."

In line with that reputation, I don't often bring up economics on this blog. I'll likely start up an econ blog once I have a job to participate in some of the broader discussions, but this is a family blog, come on. But while I was driving with the brethren to the stake priesthood meeting, someone asked a good economics question that's being tossed around on the econ blogs and I came up with a thought no one has mentioned yet on them! So I've been actually excited to talk about economics on here. And the great thing about blogs is, if you don't care about fiscal stimulus policies, you don't have to read the rest of this post!

So, some quick background. Many economists are guessing the probability of the US slipping into a recession in the next year is about 30-40%. Some say higher, some say lower, that's the mode guess. Some folks, concerned about this, are trying to think of ways the government might avoid or ameliorate the recession by increasing spending or cutting taxes [and hence increasing our spending]. The question was asked, do I think a flat tax rebate given to everyone will help?

Some of the important points brought up by professors Craighead and Mankiw include:

1) It depends on how the tax rebate/spending is actually implemented. To the extent it gets to people who are a bit cash-strapped at the moment (we call it liquidity constrained), they'll spend it and have nice Keynesian effects on the economy.

2) The problem is, fiscal stimulus nearly always comes AFTER the trough has been reached and the economy is back on the rebound, and getting this Congress and this President to agree on just what the package should entail will take a while. There's little reason to stimulate an economy that is already rebounding, and it can in fact hurt our economy longer-term by increasing the deficit and the effects of future tax increases to pay it off, as well as by making monetary policy more complicated to use.

2b) Although it's also pointed out that our last two recoveries produced very few new jobs and there might be some point in stimulating an economy IF it provided new jobs. See point 1 on how the stimulus is framed.

The point I thought of that I haven't read elsewhere deals with the fact that the current specter-recession we may be facing is largely driven by just a few key sectors of the economy: housing and banking. Giving a lump-sum tax rebate to everyone in the country of about $300 (one of the economist preferred means of doing things because it's the least distortionary) might increase some people's spending, but will have almost no effect on healing the housing and banking sectors' ailments. They would still go down, and though they might not bring the economy as far down with them, the effect would still be the same. Far better, I argue, to keep our measures focused on the area where there are problems.

So I weigh in on the side that says the fiscal government shouldn't get involved. This is banking's arena and monetary policy should have the go-ahead (if anything should be done).


Copyright: For more comics by Tom Toles, click there.

I've been tagged too...

Well, my friend Shari asked me to do this, so I'm going to try.

Name 4 or more...

Places I've lived:
1. Logan, UT (I lived more than 4 places there, so I could stop there, but ...)
D says: Then you'd have to give street addresses or something. Yes, I'm here too, just to take dictation and make snide... helpful remarks.
2. Orem, UT - close to the University Mall
3. Costa Rica - for my mission
4. Wendover and Tooelle, UT - teaching elementary school
D -- And she's never going back!
J -- That's the truth!
5. Provo, UT
6. Edinboro, PA
7. Titusville, PA
8. Ithaca, NY ... That's about it, isn't it? I guess I lived in..
9. near Flagstaff, AZ, only four months.

Places I've been on vacation:
1. Lagoon was always fun, in UT.
2. Christmases to California and Chicago
3. I took a cruise that was Jamaica, Mexico ... some other places, leaving from New Orleans. It was a Carnival cruise. I don't recommend Carnival for those who ... have moral standards? I skipped a lot of the entertainment.
4. Holland -- a one week tour, visited the Hague Temple, the tulips and the windmills :D
Joy loves windmills.
5. Germanies! My honeymoon with my sweetheart. That was very fun. Rented a car... drove on the Autobahn... Stayed in a wonderful bed and breakfast...
Visited dead people... I take my wife such romantic places, like the cemetery where Goethe's buried. Goethe popped up in the most unlikely places on our trip, come to think of it.... Though probably those two sentences should not be read in that order. Suffice it to say, we went to a lot of places where Goethe also went. To my credit, we also sailed up the Rhein most romantically.
6. Baseball Hall of Fame and Joseph Smith birthplace for an anniversary.
7. Disneyworld. We went with Derrill's parents. I want to go back! Sci-Fi Dine In Theater was awesome...
8. Disneyland a couple of times with Derrill's family.

Foods I like: Actually, that's a little difficult right now, with my pregnancy. So this is an unusual list for me:
1. French fries
2. Seafood Sandwich from Subway
3. Pumpkin Pie
4. Chocolate muffins
These are indeed the cravings. From September until Joy left I was making 2 pumpkin pies a week for my sweetheart. I'm looking forward to not having any until NEXT Thanksgiving.
Poor Derrills.

Hobbies I have: hmm, we're getting down to the harder stuff... My hobbies .... hobbies, hobbies, hobbies....
1. I like to read! Mostly historical fiction, some romantic fiction but only if it's clean.
2. Right now, for fun I create new projects for myself.
You might be surprised how fun a hobby that can actually be. ... Doing any of them is another story.
True.
3. I'm looking forward to watching my Little House on the Prairie DVDs I got for Christmas. I enjoy watching a movie or listening to a book on tape while I do work around the house.
4. Finding out what my husband's doing.
Now There's the favorite hobby! *lol*
*lol* Really, I like to spend time with my husband, that's the real hobby. I have some funny hobbies, don't I?
5. I like to spend time with friends.

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. I would put money into retirement.
That money has worked hard enough. It should retire.
2. I would pay off a house.
3. Go on a mission after my kids grow up with my husband.
It'll take a good 25 years more for me to grow up, it's true.
He's the only one I have to grow up right now.
4. Give some money to the Church.
5. Save the rest, I guess....

TV shows I like:
I can't do this one.
You can do really old shows.
I guess so. Alright. I haven't watched any real TV for about 11 years, so it would have to be old.
1. Little House on the Prairie.
2. Smurfs
3. The Cosby Show
4. Fraggles. I never watched it on TV, but Derrill is introducing them to me.

Places I'd like to be:
1. With my husband
That's a nice place. Can I come too?
2. Visiting extended family -- UT mostly
3. Italy -- I have some extended family there too
4. I've been thinking that Hawaii would be a nice place to visit.

Things people don't know about me:
1. I'm shy about many things.
2. I wanted to be a cheerleader in high school.
3. I don't expect other people to be perfect -- that one's for my brothers.
4. Something that was surprising to my husband: I don't like to clean.
That needs a qualifier. Her apartment when we were dating was pretty close to immaculate. And she talked about the importance and necessity of cleaning a lot. It was shocking to learn that she didn't actually enjoy doing it, just having it done.
Yup.
And that the chore she talked about most she liked the least too. So that became my job.

Now I'll tag:
I don't want to tag four people.
1. Derrills
2. Claudia doesn't have a blog. I would tag her if she did.
3. Steve
4. Emilee
There. That's four people. Guess that's it, hunh?

Golf N Stuff

For Joy's birthday, we had decided to go miniature golfing, only to discover that the course we wanted to try was closed that day. Since we didn't have enough time before she left town to try another day, we decided I would take her to Golf N Stuff in Ventura while we were in California. Dad went with us for our date, and then the whole family went another day just before I left for New Orleans. Here are some of the pictures I took of our fun and victory laps:


It was lightly raining (or heavily misting) the first night, and so Joy wore the decorative headgear while I was in my broad-brimmed Aussie hat.

Our holes-in-one. (It's a pity Dad has asked I not post pictures of him on here. He had a magnificent "Hattah!" pose.) In the second game, I had only 8 strokes for the first 6 holes! It ... went downhill from there.


Ahh ... California. Land that I love!

Steve hit the ball through the gold mine so hard, it went off of that course and onto the next, scoring a hole-in-one on the next shot - a very difficult shot too. We gave him the hole-in-one for the next shot, but he had to redo the gold mine. He was doubled over laughing and had just started to recover when I got this shot.

This is my brother's favorite way to putt, and he did seem to hit pretty straight that way. Patent pending.












Watch out for the water hazards! Actually, a friend of mine is really in to hippos, so I get pictures for her occasionally.