Dale's Catch

Dale, Don and I went fishing Wednesday and these are the five pictures of the TWO fish we caught - and when I say we, I mean Dale and Don. Dale claimed the prize for the biggest fish - 3.5 pound Cutbow (VERY NICE!). Don caught a Cutthroat that weighed a little over 2.5 pounds. Not all was lost for me, however, as I claimed the prize for 'Most Carbs Consumed'. We went to Henry's Lake and took Don's boat with Dale's Suburban. I didn't contribute much to the trip, but did offer to pull the boat with the Subaru next trip.

Liftoff

The launch was a success. There's a pretty cool video on the MDA website. http://www.mda.mil/vids/Sept_28_2007_Interceptvideo.wmv

T minus

Approaching launch, stress levels increasing.

It can be nice

Every once in a while we do get a nice day in Kodiak. After work a few of us went up to a nearby mountain and hiked up. Here's a picture. Pasagshak Bay is in the background to the left. You can probably Google it if you want.

This shot is taken in the other direction, toward Ugak island. It's an uninhabited (and inaccessible) island. I always think of some older James Bond movie when I see it. The missile flies over it as it launches. The launch pad isn't visible, but it would be just out of the shot to the left.

Must Be An Idaho Potato

Riley and I were quite surprised when we pulled this gigantic red potato out of our garden this afternoon. Our first garden was definitely a learning experience, but I can say our carrots, beans, pumpkins, potatoes and tomatoes were a success. We are already looking forward to next year's crop.

funeral

My fathers sister, Ruth passed away on Sunday. She was 85 and had been in bad health for a while. I don't know if any of you remember her. She was a tiny, pretty lady who always ssent me a christmas card. I took Morgan to her husband's funeral when she was a toddler, so he died years ago. I will be taking Mom to the funeral in Ogden on Thursday. You can go to Myers Mortuary in Ogden's web site to view the obit. Ruth Carver Devries. (This is your mother, I don't know how to make a link to it!)

Thanks everyone

I got an offer for the 911 job - thank you everyone for helping with the background forms.
I was also selected for a program at the airport called "pro-Track" I kinda applied as a joke to make fun of the program, but they took me seriously and selected me for one of the 10 spots out of about 80 applicants. When they posted the names of the candidates they picked - I talked to the director of the program to re-affirm my lack of desire to actually be in his program, and tried to withdraw - give my spot to someone who really wanted it - and he denied me! So I thought it would be easy to get kicked out by skipping the orientation . . . wrong again.
Also, you are expected to work whenever they call you. I got called to go in tomorrow at 5am. Well, it will probably only be for a few weeks while I wait for a posting for a Junior supervisor of the team I was on to open up - or- until dispatcher training to starts in October.

Ezri is doing very well - singing and blabbering away. She is growing into a very fast runner and loves to throw and bounce her balls around the park and apartment. I have been taking her to Rockaway beach (about 5 miles over the hill) in the mornings before I go to work about twice a week. It's fun to see her run in the sand and throw rocks into the surf. Also, she loves her new car!! Thank you again for helping with the down payment. I wish I had pictures to post, but we still haven't found the camera. Anyone notice a blue and silver sony cam? Just post a message if anyone sees it anywhere -

DOT Video

Sorry it is kind of long (6 mins). Also, there was a Kylie wreck that didn't show up in the final. . . I don't know why.

Twilight Series

A couple of girls at work have been telling me to read these books for months so I took advantage of being sick the past few days and read the first one. I got copies of the next two and read all three over the weekend. They're by a BYU grad (Stephanie Meyer) and about vampires. I know that sounds kind of weird but trust me, they're good.

I am kind of a Paprazzi Dad. . .

Ali bought the hat for Morgan at the first home game. She really, really likes to wear it. If she sees it on the shelf she will freak out until she has it on.

What was it like in India?

Many times over the last 12 years I've been asked, what was it like in India? To which I've never really had a good answer. Well, yesterday I may have finally come up with a way for people to understand. I was watching some PBS show about a photographer who was at Varanasi in India. I'd actually been through there once, and remembered what it was like. He was down by the river, romanticizing India to the hilt, like all the programs I've seen tend to do. He talked about how the river was sacred, how it was used to cleanse away sins, renew people's karma, clean their clothes, and was a place for 'last rites'. The last rites he was referring to are when people dump either ashes or complete dead bodies into the river. Somehow he didn't have any visuals of this. So, I was watching and thinking yet again, this really doesn't convey what it's like. It looks so clean and mystical on TV. Then Adri brought in Alexander with an explosive diaper incident to change him. Let me tell you, aromas can really bring back memories. Suddenly I was back in India all over again. It felt just like it did when I was there. So, if you really want to know what it's like in India, watch pretty much any documentary of the land, but be sure to have a stinky soiled diaper to hold under your nose while you do so.

TV Update

Because I know you are ALL interested, I thought I would tell you that BYU v. UCLA will be on the TV channel Vs. Saturday at 4:30 pm.

You might be thinking "Who gets Vs.?" Well, this week at least, every DishTV subscriber is getting a free preview of Vs. on channel 282. So set your DVR, buy some chips and watch BYU continue a trend against ranked opponents (it isn't a good trend).

I went through our channel guide with Alison and we counted all of the channels we would actually be willing to pay for. Not counting locals, it came to about 22. If you included a small number of sports channels that I don't get but would like, it comes to about 25. Even at the high price of $2.00 per channel, 50$ a month would be reasonable if I could only get the channels I want.

I was just thinking about Ala-carte TV when we counted. The industry tells us that there is no way Ala-carte channels would be better than the setup now. I don't believe them. I think alot of small, niche channels would curl up and die but anything worth watching would be just fine and most people could save money while the TV distributor made more money than they do now.

brad

This was on our other camera -

They grow so fast!!!

It just can't get better than this

Watch out mom, your two favorite things are about to collide. Yes, Dancing With the Stars and Marie Osmond will come together this season. I sense a new need for DVR at the Madsen residence.