Getting Old

I guess I can live with the grey hairs, the increasing candles on the birthday cake, the fact that none of the kids in the neighborhood were in pre-school when I graduated from Cottonwood. The way I can tell how old I am getting is playing touch football. Saturday a few of the guys from the neighborhood got together and played for about an hour. I can't tell you how sore I am!!!! You know it's bad when after 60 minutes of light running on the field I'm saying things like, "Owww! My groin!" I guess I'm going to be one of those guys that spends more time stretching before the game than running during the game! We'll have to see if I can get my body ready to play again this Saturday. Today, I'm Doubtful on the Injury Report. Hopefully, by Friday I'll be listed as Probable.

A Night Out with my Witches!

It's Halloween time again and that means it's "Trunk or Treat" at the church. In typical fashion the entire week the weather has been warm, so tonight it snowed! Still, it didn't slow down the evening. Kennedy, on the other hand, had a rough start to her Halloween season. As we were getting ready for the night she kept saying, "I don't want to be wear a costume." She really meant it to. We fought and fought to convince her that it would be fun to dress like a witch to get some candy. Finally, she consented and we headed over the church. I know it isn't a surprise but we didn't have any problems getting Alex into his pumpkin costume.

Even though it took Kennedy a while to warm up to the activity, once the candy started coming her way she was "on board." I think she has finally figured out that Halloween means CANDY!! Alex will have to wait til next year so he can hit people up for some loot, tonight he'll have to settle for being the cutest pumpkin in the patch. In the end, we all ended up having a blast and Kennedy brought home quite a haul.

Bad or Biased?

Today I was down at UVSC teaching a Google Tools class at a conference for Adult Educators. I showed them all the basics: Google Earth, Google Calendar, Picasa, Blogger, etc. Everything seemed great. The facilitator for the session gave me back some evaluation forms and they were all the same. Comments included, "Thanks for a great session" or "I never knew Google had so much to offer."

Then one evaluation stood out. "Mormon info on calendar inappropriate!" What?! The group had asked to see an actual calendar in Google so I showed them mine. I never even realized it mentioned that I have Bishopric Meeting tonight. I never even mentioned what was in my calendar, but just the fact that someone saw "Bishopric Meeting" was enough to offend. I guess that's a sbuliminal form of preaching or something. I don't know. So, what was it: bad teaching or a biased point of view?

Our New Friend

A couple of weeks ago we got a new friend on our doorstep. For some reason he wasn't very happy. After a little wardrobe change, Little Papi's world brightened up!

Goodbye Duane

Today was a sad day for the Measom side of the family (my mother's side). We said goodbye to my cousin Duane. He was 49 years old and left behind 3 kids- the youngest is a senior in high school. Duane was an amazing person. Duane and his wife Judy were neighbors with my sister, Charlene and I spent countless hours hanging out with Jessica and Charlene. I practically grew up in that neighborhood and that included Duane and Judy's house. Jessica and I would hang out with Duane and Judy, eating their food, making cookies and "sparking" in the bathroom with Duane. He told me that "sparking" with him counted as my first date. "Sparking" includes breath mints, a mirror and a dark bathroom. Needless to say, we always had fun with Duane and Judy. Duane had a way to make you feel so important. He was such a happy, fun loving guy. He loved life and lived it to the fullest. He had a great booming voice and you always knew when Duane was in the room. He was usually the guy telling the stories that happened to get better each time he told one.

I didn't see Duane as much as I grew older, usually at family reunions, but whenever I saw him, he always had a way of making me feel like it was yesterday that we were hanging out at his house and going "sparking". I realized as I walked into his funeral today, that Duane had the same affect on everyone he met. The church was packed and they said the line for the viewing the night before was 6 hours long. His family members told stories that made us cry and laugh at the same time as we remembered his great life. What a pity that he had to leave his family and friends behind in such a tragic way. 2 months ago, Duane had a severe headache. 5 hours later, he was taken to the hospital, fell into a coma and never woke up. I visited Duane in the hospital a couple of weeks ago and left knowing that he would probably never leave alive. Even though I know that Duane is in a better place, I will miss him.