Blog
Hawaii-4, 2007
Hawaiian sunset. Becky and I spent some time on Waikiki beach today. We parked at the zoo which has parking meters that cost 25 cents an hour. We didn’t have any change, but managed to find a quarter and a spot that still had one hour and nine minutes left on it. That gives us two hours and nine minutes.
Hawaii-3, 2007
I have never seen so many rainbows in my life. Every day that we have been here, we’ve seen a rainbow. Two essential ingredients to rainbows are rain and sunshine and there are plenty of both here. This rainbow pictured here is right across the street from where we are staying. There is a valley right behind the house and the rainbow went right down into it. Very cool sight!
Hawaii- 2, 2007
The beach. Ahhh! Guess which one is me. Yeah, I’m the really WHITE guy amongst all the brown bodies. If I were to lay down in the sand, I’d be camouflaged.
Hawaii- 1, 2007
Becky and I are in Hawaii right now and we spent most of the day on the beach. But before we even got to the beach, we just HAD to stop by Matsumoto’s to get some shaved ice. This isn’t like the grainy snow-cones that you get at the county fair. This is ice that is shaved so thin it almost melts as soon as it hits your tongue. The last time Becky and I were here was 10 years ago. I’ve been waiting 10 years for my Motsumoto’s fix. Good stuff!
Once we got to the beach, we went in and got tossed around by the surf a bit. We then went to another beach where the waves were too big for swimmers, but just right for surfing. We set some sand chairs down and watch the surfers for awhile. We had a good time relaxing and taking it easy.
Topix
Over the last four weeks I’ve been spending a good portion of my day on a web site called Topix. Quancast describes Topix as,
“Topix is the leading news community on the Web, connecting people to the
information and discussions that matter to them in every U.S. town and
city.A Top 20 online news destination (Hitwise, July 2007), the site links
news from 50,000 sources to 360,000 lively user-generated forums. Topix also
works with the nation’s major media companies to grow and engage their online
audiences through forums, classifieds, publishing platforms and RSS feeds.Based in Palo Alto, Calif., Topix LLC is a privately held
company.”
The user generated forums spoken about are where I have been spending my time. There are thousands of forums for just about any newsworthy topic imaginable. I just happened to stumble upon the Jehovah’s Witness and Mormon forums.
LDS Breaking News General Conference Prophecy!
Brian Brumfield is a friend of mine with a very twisted sense of humor. We get along really well. He owns a web site titled, “SmithBusters” (DANG, I wish I would have thought of that!) and puts some really great material up on the web. Here is one of my favorites.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhHNkt9jNYI&rel=]
Sixth Birthday Continued
As promised, here are the scans of our daughter’s book. I made them into a slideshow so that you can view it sort of like the book is in front of you. We are very proud to have an author and artist in the family!
The picture to the left is a better picture of the family sitting around our daughter listening to her read her story. Even Kisses, our dog, is interested in hearing the story! (There is a bad dog in the story so she better listen up!)
I’m sure the book will not last forever so I am glad that we were able to capture the images digitally and save them for years to come. Slide is such a cool free program too so there are lots of options to display your pictures. Enjoy the book!
[slideshow id=72057594049291219&w=400&h=320]
Happy Sixth Birthday For Our Daughter!
Our daughter turned six today. She had a good day and received lots of “princess stuff” as gifts.
One of my favorite moments was when our daughter had a surprise for the whole family. It seems that she and Mommy have been working on a special project for close to five months. Only the two of them knew about it and they did a good job of keeping the secret.
Becky bought a blank “board book” with about 10-12 pages with nothing on them. Our daughter wrote a story about a girl named Rapunzel who had a dog and took a walk with a little boy. Not only did she write the story, she also drew all of the artwork. As a present from her to the family, she wanted to read it to all of us on her birthday. What a neat moment.
It is too late now, but once I get a chance, I will scan the pages of the book and post it here.
Happy Birthday Big Girl! We love you very much!
Halloween 2007
Remember the pumpkins from United University Methodist Church? Last night was the first time we made jack-o-lanterns for the kids. I carved them, the kids dug out all of the gunk, Becky washed the seeds off so that we could cook them and eat them and she also made pumpkin pie.
Tonight we went to University Baptist Church for a “Trunk or Treat”event. Members of the church parked their cars in a line in the parking lot and gave away TONS of candy. If any Church in your area offers a trunk or treat event next year, it is totally the way to go! The kids each got about five pounds of candy in less than a half hour. Less walking and more candy. Works for me!
After the trunk or treat event, we went over to the houses of both of the grand-parents. We all had plenty of candy and have lots left over for months to come. Enjoy this slide show of our first trunk or treat event.
[slideshow id=72057594049268302&w=400&h=320]
Oh yeah, one more thing. After last night’s pumpkin pie, Becky was putting our daughter to bed and asked, “Is the pumpkin pie nice and warm in your tummy?” Our daughter replied, “No, it’s probably in my large intestines and small intestines by now.”
Pistol League Shooting Video
Here is a video of me shooting a course of fire during the pistol league at the Bullethole shooting range. It is week four of league 12. I’m practing my new found skill of shooting while on the move. As you can see, I’m not moving very fast, but I’m sure I’ll get better with more practice.
The course of fire is two shots each on 10 paper targets and four large steel pepper poppers and YES, this was as fun as it looks!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyDIS3FXYyU&rel=]





