Speaking of Sloth...

Doing this at the office :)

Greed:	Very Low
Gluttony:	Low
Wrath:	Very Low
Sloth:	Medium
Envy:	Very Low
Lust:	Medium
Pride:	Very Low

Take the Seven Deadly Sins Quiz

Mini History Lesson

I had to laugh

Saw this in the paper this morning. With housing costs what they are, I can see why a lot of college grads are back with their folks for awhile.

From a purely selfish point of view, I have totally enjoyed the times when my kids have had occasion to move back in with us.

Dear sir, my name is Natacha and I would like to marry you

A slow day at work....

An Australian sheep farmer traveled to Mali to pick up his bride and her dowry -- but ended up kidnapped instead.

Catherine Price

Aug. 14, 2007 | Here's an odd one for anyone feeling sombered by the AIDS crisis in South Africa and/or Roman Catholic disapproval of Amnesty's support of abortion rights for rape victims. The BBC reports that an Australian sheep farmer was taken hostage in Mali for 12 days when he showed up at an airport to meet his supposed bride -- a woman he'd met over the Internet -- and pick up her $86,000 dowry.

I don't know what their e-mail exchange was like (perhaps the woman had read "The Game"?), but somehow the man, 56, believed that a 20-something Liberian refugee named Natacha would be waiting for him at the airport, presumably lugging a huge suitcase of gold. Except, whoops, the men who greeted his plane and said that they were Natacha's relatives turned out to be kidnapping thugs instead. Talk about a bad online date.

Luckily, things turned out all right -- because while the Australian guy was dumb, his captors were dumber. The Australian authorities somehow convinced the man's kidnappers that he needed to pick up the money at the Canadian Embassy because, you know, one wouldn't want to use regular mail to ship $86,000 in cash. When they dropped him off to get the money, he was rescued. And when relatives were asked how he could have fallen for such a scheme, they suggested that he had been "blinded by Internet love."

Thank goodness no one actually got hurt. Still, I'm impressed that the incident happened, considering that it required two large leaps of faith: first, that a 20-something woman with an $86,000 dowry would be using the Internet to court Australian sheep farmers. And second, that a man who would come to Mali to pick up an $86,000 dowry would have $86,000 of his own to pay in ransom. It's the sort of story that makes you wish there were Darwin Awards for Internet dating -- and kidnapping schemes.

-- Catherine Price

Our one and only president

- Don't Let Them Eat Cake - washingtonpost.com

I love reading Miss Manners, she has great common sense and wit.

"Dear Miss Manners:

I appear to have committed a faux pas. My fiance and I are getting married in a concert hall at 6 p.m. He's excited to don a tux, and the bridesmaids are wearing dresses of their choice (so some of them are floor-length and some are shorter). I guess this means we're having a formal wedding, but we picked out colorful, modern-looking invitations.

Now, people are admonishing us for choosing informal invitations for a formal event. Is there any way to respond to their criticism? Is there any way to redress our error?

Since the invitations have already gone out, it is unfortunately too late for you redo the chief part you did wrong -- the guest list."

No wonder they called him Turd Blossom | Salon.com

No wonder they called him Turd Blossom | Salon.com: "At this point, the Current Administration is like a very, very bad canoe trip with a week left to go, and Mr. Rove is the Head Counselor who has found a path to the highway. He left the White House with a wave and a grin and not in handcuffs as some had hoped, followed by the usual backwash of commentary on how important he was, or how not important in comparison to how important some people thought he was, and what I find eerie about the man is his inexhaustible self-confidence and optimism. He was the Master Woodsman. According to some accounts, his positive outlook was responsible for the Current Occupant's sunny disposition in the face of bad news. No wonder Mr. Rove's nickname was Turd Blossom. He could put fecal matter on his lapel and call it a boutonniere."

Almost to Boise

James just called Barbara to tell her that they drove all night and will be in Boise shortly. I worry when people tell me they are driving all night, but on the other hand I know what it is like to travel with small children and how nice it is to have them asleep in their car seats instead of running wild and screaming in a motel room. Not that my children ever did that.

Years ago when James and Rachel were small we were driving back from a visit to my dad and 'grandma Mary' to Euless, and we couldn't find any motel rooms in Barstow, so we decided to keep driving. We finally found a room in Needles, CA sometime after two in the morning. We carried the two sleeping children into the motel and crashed. Since James and Rachel had rested all night in the car, they were up and ready to go at 7 the next morning.

Changes

James and Emily left with the boys this morning to visit Emily's family in Nampa, Idaho. I miss them already, though I am sure Emily's family will be very happy to share my grandchildren.

Last night Will rolled over for the first time, it has been amazing to have small kids in the house again.

From Misc summer p...

We were also very happy and more than a little amazed to see how well John handled having his nephews around the house. He pretty much left them alone unless they were doing something together like playing a video game or watching the Disney channel together.

The first dance

Sarah Jane was such a beautiful bride!

My Kids!

I am so proud of them, I certainly have wonderful kids!

Grandma and Will

Nice picture of Barbara and our grandson Will. It looks like Barbara was holding up much better than Will was.

Groom catches bouquet

In one of the truly memorable (if not most bizarre) moments of the reception, Russell managed to catch Sarah Jane's bouquet. Sarah Jane tossed the bouquet over her shoulder towards the eager group of single women, but the bouquet hit a ceiling fan and it ricocheted over to Russell.



Russell tossed Sarah Jane's garter. I don't remember who caught it but there was a push by some for John to catch it.

Jack and Grandpa

One of the nice things about getting older is becoming a grandpa. Here is a picture of my grandson Jack and myself. We were both having a great time.

John and David D

We were very happy to have one of John's friends David D at the wedding reception. John knows David from school, he is one of John's support staff (I think the term is para-educator but I don't know for sure) and David is also good enough to moonlight from time to time as an attendant. At the reception John needed a break from the program so John and David went to the bar and got cokes and a breather from all the commotion.

As one can tell by looking at the photo below, both David and John were having a great time.



One of the things that John does with David at school is to work out at a local fitness club where John can use the treadmill and go swimming.

Nice picture of Rachel

They are all nice actually..



We were very surprised and happy to have Rachel come and join us last Saturday. She wanted to surprise us by coming the open house but she got an unwanted surprise from the airline with a delayed flight and all (click here to read all the details from Rachel's point of view).

But it was WONDERFUL to have her here for Barbara's and my 29th wedding anniversary. The whole clan was present, so that was very special.

Andrea - Old friend

I was delighted to have my friend Andrea and her husband Corwin attend the reception. I have known Andrea since we both attended BYU together. One year we lived in the same apartment complex and became friendly when she cooked for the guys in my apartment. She also became friendly with my younger brother Richard and they dated seriously for awhile.

Andrea's husband Corwin introduced himself to my children at the wedding as the husband of their uncle's ex-fiance which pretty much summed things up.

22 years ago I had the opportunity to go to Japan for three weeks on business. I attended the english speaking ward in Tokyo and saw Andrea playing the piano at Sacrament meeting. I turned to the man sitting next to me and asked him if that was Andrea (I used her maiden name) and he replied that that used to be her maiden name but that it was now his last name. Small world as they say. Anyhow, they had Barbara and me over to dinner after Barbara arrived and she and Andrea became good friends, even though they have probably only met in the flesh a less than a dozen times.

Little did we know way back when that we would both settle in Texas.

James and John after the wedding

This is one of my favorite photos for a lot of reasons. As recently as a few years ago I never would have believed that John would be a groomsman at his brother Russell's wedding, or that he would be well behaved enough to sit for photos. John is very happy to have James and his family around right now and I could tell that he was delighted to be a part of Russell's wedding. He called his tux his 'penguin suit.'

From Disposable Ca...

Grace under fire

It was very hot and muggy outside the Houston temple when this picture was taken, and I am afraid my grandsons had taken all that they could. I am amazed that Emily was still able to smile when this photo was taken. I really hope whoever took this picture put the camera down afterwards and offered to help with the kids

Bibles on your porch

A few days ago there was an article in the Austin American Statesman concerning a plan to deliver bibles along with the Sunday newspaper. Here is one response.

Begging for no Bibles on the porch:

"Bibles on your porch

Re: Aug. 1 article 'How about a Bible with your morning newspaper?'

The idea of attaching little Bibles to the morning newspaper is obnoxious and offensive, the equivalent of seeing a couple of those Mormon missionary guys with their white shirts and skinny ties standing on your doorstep at 7 a.m. wanting to talk about 'saving your soul.'

It's also a dumb idea, which is pretty well summed up, though unintentionally, by the society's spokesperson, Paul Tolleson, who said, 'It's disappointing that anyone would object to getting a Bible, which is the best-read book in the whole world and has been for 100 years.'

Uh, right! There already are Bibles in practically every home and motel room in America. It's not like a few thousand more are going to make any difference.

BRUCE JONES Austin"

Bridges aren't supposed to fall down | Salon.com

Garrison Keillor has his say....
Bridges aren't supposed to fall down | Salon.com:
"The way to get money to fix a bridge is for it to collapse and kill people, and so Congress promptly awarded Minnesota $250 million for the fallen I-35W. The usual suspects held press conferences to express shock and concern, pledge support, etc. The governor called for a time of healing and he proclaimed confidence in his commissioner of transportation, a large ebullient woman in a bright red blouse. There were prayer services. The Current Occupant came to view the wreckage and to express, in that intense and aimless way of his, his hopes for a better life for us. And then, having raised our hopes, he did not resign from office after all."

August madness

Tomorrow is the open house for Russell and Sarah Jane, so there is a lot of activity going on at our house. Thank goodness James and Emily are there to help us out.

James has been busy out in the yard, the other day I saw him working outside with the our power washer and electric chainsaw (I didn't even know we owned those two pieces of equipment). The gardening gene passed me by but it looks like James has it in spades. My dad loved to work in his garden, years ago when we visited Dad and Mary in San Jose at their home on Urzi Ct my dad would proudly show off his garden and mini-orchard. My father-in-law was also an avid gardener, his flowers in the front yard were his pride and joy.

I think my part will be keeping John busy tonight and tomorrow and doing some last minute shopping for the open house.