Snake

3, 2, 1...

Successful launch. Not so sucessful mission. http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_5987414?nclick_check=1
Fortunately (for me at least), the part I'm primarily responsible for worked to near perfection. In fact, in that light, this was the best mission yet.

Macie-Dale Birthday Extravaganza

Here are a few pictures from the Macie-Dale Birthday Spectacular. Pat, Dale and both grandma's came over for a BBQ. We had steak, chicken, burgers, and everything in between. As you can tell from the pictures, Macie loved the cake Pat made.

Another Blog

I've started an independent blog. www.RomneyConspiracy.blogspot.com

This was the original post that started it.

Feel free to share with friends and others. I hope not to embarass any of you, the Church, or be excomunicated for this.

brad

Macie Dale Day

Happy birthday to Dale and Macie!!! Hope you go and do something fun to celebrate!

Where's Waldo?

Still stuck in Kodiak, it's been almost 3 weeks now. This picture was taken on about the only nice day we've had. It's been pouring rain for the last 3 days, and promises to do so for a few more. It probably only really takes about 1/3 of the people you see here to launch the rocket. Red tape accounts for the rest.

weddings

Andrea is getting married on Friday, June 29th at 9am in SLC Temple. Too early for us to drive down that morning, hence the need for a hotel room on Thursday night. That would be great if we could stay at Rich's, but hopefully he will have sold his home by then.

The reception is that night in Sandy. Apparently, there is nothing between so we will just go out and eat or go swim in the hotel or something fun. Then we will drive back to IF after attending the reception.

Mom

Weekend Plans

We are headed to Idaho for Memorial day Weekend. Are there any exciting plans? The Jazz will play game three on Saturday. Is the weather/water not at boating temperature yet? Maybe there is a movie coming out we should rent? I know Rich might be doing some moving, but are the fencing-and-decking plans for July 4th instead? I will be in Phoenix on the fourth, so if you want my labor you should get it now.

brad

Hmmm

Kylie, are you serious about the hair color/IPOD exchange? If you are we could exchange this weekend. Maybe even do my hair if you have time. Let me know.
In other news, Jared, I have forgotten to tell you that we received the freaky government issued check for Todd winning the NCAA pool. I almost threw it away cause it looked so wierd, then I thought we were getting billed for something wacky. It took me awhile to realize that it was for us. Anyway, thanks.
Buffy, when you sign Kade up for sports let me know and we will try and get Riley on the same team. We went to a birthday party at a gymnastics place this weekend and she LOVED it. I will probably sign her up for it in the fall, but soccer or T ball would be fun in the summer.
Finally, our credit card number was stollen about a week ago. They got about $700 on us before we caught it. Apparently they tried to buy a bunch of other stuff but got denied. WE think maybe someone at the hotel Todd was staying at in Goergia wrote it down or something, cause it happened about that time. WE never lost the cards...someone just got our number somehow.
Luckily, we don't have to pay for what they bought, but it is still scary.

Feats of Strength II?

Are there any plans for any sort of repeat of last years activities? I'm sure we've all built up delusions of grandeur over the last year thinking about the glory afforded to previous champions. Instead of T-shirts maybe Brad could pick up that silver bowl he was talking about from DI.

Advance Directives

I am reviewing Utah's new law about Advance Health Care Directives. An advance directive is a document instructing family and physicians of what measures to take should you become terminally ill and unable to communicate your desires.

The seriousness and gravity of the subject aside, I have read some interesting things. They have a wonderful pamphlet that they give to patients explaining how directives and medical decision making works when a patient is no longer able to make decisions themselves. There are a couple activities in the book that are supposed the teach you how to bring up the subject and talk about it with relatives. One of the ideas is to "Take your cues from popular media" and includes the quote "Did you see that guy on ER who was in a comma for 15 years? I wouldn't want to live like that." (or something similar). When I read that I thought "Gee, it is a good thing I watch House and not ER. Everybody on House gets better by the end of the show, and usually in a miraculous way after being on death's doorstep. My advance directive would say something like 'let the crazy doctor try every hunch or experiment that he wants to' if I based in on House."

Anyway, it is a pretty serious issue and everybody should probably think about (1) what kind of life-prolonging measures they would want and (2) who or how they want those decisions to be made if they are not able to.

brad

Happy Little Trees

The following is a conversation I had at work last week.

"Thank you for calling KBYU, this is Alison."

"Why is this stupid flower lady on? Where is Bob Ross?"

"Well, we no longer air Bob Ross."

"WHAT? Why not?"

"Since he passed away several years ago (15 years to be exact) his show went into re-runs and after a few years we discontinued it."

"**GASP** HE'S DEAD!?!?!"

"Uhhhh - Yes. Sorry."

This was followed by several minutes of her sobbing into the phone and going on about how she had just gone to Costco and bought a pack of VHS tapes so she could record his show. It went on for about 15 minutes, then she finally calmed down enough to tell me that we absolutely had to put him back on because he is more than just a painter and it is his spirituality that gets her through the day. Then she hung up.

I get to talk to the most interesting people at work. Aren't you all jealous?

Happy Mother's Day!!

I hope everyone is having a great day today!
Give Mom and Grandma Carver and Grandma Madsen big hugs
from me and Christian and Ezri. We love you!
We are flying to Idaho Falls for the 4th of July, so we will see you then!!
I am not sure about West Piney in September, yet, but maybe we will try doing that instead of flying over Thanksgiving when traveling is so crazy?

Mom, I got the recipes in the mail yesterday - thank you for sending them.

Learning How to Sue People

Weekend Update from the Madsens.

I have started working with IHC in downtown SLC. I am on the 22nd floor of the Beneficial Life tower. Were I not in a closet, I would have incredible views of the whole valley. The internship work has been really interesting, and the lawyers I work with are just excellent persons. One of the things that they don't teach you at law school is how to sue people. Day one with IHC they handed me a stack of files and asked "what can we sue these people for and write the complaint for it." It has been really fun, actually.

Also, I have set a date for my journey to PHX. I will start in PHX on July 2nd and be there through August 10th. This is about 4 weeks shorter than I was originally thinking, but there wasn't any real benefit for working for free for longer as I will have maxed out my internship credit and have to finish everything my August 10th per Law School mandate. The new start date also allows me to go be a groomsman in Eric Jackson's wedding with less trouble.

Morgan is lots of fun. As long as you don't ignore her to watch a Playoff game, she is all smiles and giggles.

Alison has taken up running. She has a Nike+ Ipod delio that keeps track of each workout so you can compare them and make sure you are improving. Unfortunatly, she hasn't figured out how to upload everything to the Nike+ website. I would do it for her, but it is all on her work laptop and we don't have internet at home. I have taken up sleeping on the bus. The commute to SLC is actually pretty slick. I get on the bus at 6 am, go to sleep, wake up at 7am and am in the office at 7:15. On the way home on Friday, however, I did get "Snuggled" by a rather large, kinda sweaty, woman. I was on the back row between her and some guy. I could see her falling to sleep and then kind of swinging from side to side, but I just thought "Eh, if she hits her head on my shoulder she will wake up." Nope, not the case. The guy next to me got a kick out of it.

brad

Oh, Savannah!

Here are a few pictures I took today in Savannah, GA. I forgot my camera so these were taken with my phone and aren't the best quality. I'm here for a records management conference which runs through Friday.

Reunion

This is your official notice of a Hinchcliff reunion this fall. Hinchcliff being my mother's family. All of you are invited to West Piney Friday Sept 21 thru Sunday morning Sept 23rd. Come for a few hours or all weekend. Aunt Karma (Hinchcliff) is paying for the lodge. I think we bring our own food. I will find out about this. If the weather is good it will be lots of fun, if the weather is bad we will stay in the lodge and have lots of fun. Mark your calendars and never say I didn't tell you about it!
Mom

stuff

Brad, funny you should mention the TV/couch relationship. The TV has problems. Todd bought it for a great deal because it was a return, but they said nothing was wrong with it. We have found some wrongs. It has little problems and we should return it, but Todd knows that any other TV will cost tons more so he is rather hesitant. Found out there is a 6 month window for returns, so he is holding on to it as long as possible..then the couch news came. It will probably be returned about the same time. So, you are all welcome to come watch during that time frame. DVD's are awesome, TV not as great.

Trent congrats on the graduation! Brad, One year down!! Woo HOo!!!

Rich and Buff, any bites on the house?

Conversation I had with Riley this week:
Riley picked her nose and was about the put the booger in her mouth.
"Riley! DOn't eat your boogers! It will make you sick."
"What?"
"Boogers are yucky and if you eat them they will give you a tummy ache and make you sick."
Pause as Riley thinks it over.
"No mom. I eat them in my room all the time and they never make me sick."

Jazz Game 7 at the Johnsons?

Jazz v. Rockets Game 7 Tommorow. Are we all going to Todd's to watch it in 50 inch HD Glory? Or did Todd decide to can the TV when Trent took the couches?

I am, for all intensive purposes, done with the first year of Law School. I turn in a 15 page paper about Affirmative Action which will be evaluated for the purposes of extending invitations to write for Law School Publications. This event is a microcosm of the Law School experience as a whole. Let me explain.

In a usual educational environment, there is a pattern where you are taught information, evaluated, corrected, further instructed, and then tested. It is a system we usually refer to as learning. Law Schools employ a different method. In this method, they Test you, evaluate you, and then rank you. The missing elements of teaching and correction really changes things. Like with this write-on event. It went like this: Several Meetings explaining that there is going to be a write-on and we are going to have to write a 'case note'. We are going to have to do it if we want to participate in Journals. Once the write-on starts, we are not allowed to talk to anybody else about the materials, research anything other than the ream of paper they give us, or examine other 'case notes'. The result is that we all show up to a class room at 8am on Monday Morning, are given a ream of materials and told to write a 'case note'. Problem is, none of us have ever seen a case note and nobody is going to tell us exactly what a case note is. All we know is we should use the materials they have given us and it can't be more than 15 pages long. They might as well have handed YOU the ream of paper and told YOU to write a case note. Anyway. . . unless you just love floundering alone in the dark or can't think of anything better to do with your time than read reams of paper, it isn't much fun and you don't feel like you are learning.

Even more interesting, the general-plan is to have a job offer by the end of the first semester next year. So when people tell you that the first year is the only year of law school that really matters, they are telling the truth. The other funny thing is that writing for a publication is a big deal on your resume. . . but you get your job offer before the publications begin, so, really, getting INVITED to write on a publication is the important thing, not actually writing for the publication.

I guess if i were to do it again, I would probably do some things differently. But I think in the end I did pretty well. Even more so than the Mission, it is one of those things that you figure out just as it is ending.

brad

Brad, has your internship started yet? Where is it again, and with who? Are you not doing the one in downtown SLC anymore?

before and after

This is right after i got out of surgery. I have to wear the cast for 2 weeks. It itches like crazy but it doesnt hurt.