I felt like Michael Jackson

Only becuase I had nothing else, and because a) I really laughed, and b) it goes with the daily bread quote. For your viewing pleasure, I give you this:

project status

"we accidentally destroyed the french satelite and are now at war with france. On a positive note our headcount expenses are trending downward."

It's been a great last many days. I know I promised to post more often, and I will continue to strive to do better. In the meantime, let's see if I might catch you up a bit...

Last Thursday:
Rise and Shout! BYU rocked - 'nuff said.

Last Friday:
TK, SK and I took the day off and traveled to Satan's summer home (aka Rice Eccles Stadium) to watch the state High School 4A semi finals. We had a great time hanging out together, and we saw lots of other PHS fathers and sons there too.

Too bad Box Elder fell apart in the 4th quarter - it was a heart breaker for them, but Highland was able to capitalize and come back to win in overtime 24-21. (It was 21-7 Box Elder at the start of the 4th quarter...)

Timpview D managed to save the team's collective bacon and keep them in it to the end. They held East twice in the redzone, giving Timpview the win 10-7. Provo represents yo. My prediction? Timpview will easily beat Highland in the 'ship this week.

While at the game I also ran in to a friend from high school who was there with his son. It was great to see him and spend 10-15 minutes catching up. He lives across town, but we don't see each other all that often so it's a genuine pleasure when we do. Turns out that SK and his son were good friends when they both attended Farrer in 7th grade, who knew?

Also on Friday TK took off for California with my younger sister. Thursday night my brother-in-law had called and invited TK to attend the USC - Oregon game with him on Saturday night. Meg heard and said "I've been wanting to get out of town anyway, I'll take him down there", so off they went.

Last Saturday
I got somewhat caught-up on all the church responsibilities (I figure I'm only a couple of weeks behind now - whew) and spent a couple of hours at the church with the primary kids (including QK and Baby Girl) as they prepared for the primary program on Sunday. I love being able to watch the practice, and then the real thing to see the difference.

They really come together on Sunday, no matter the stumbles they have on Saturday. The Lord loves and blesses His little ones for sure, and nothing seems to bring the Spirit quite as quickly as hearing them sing and bear testimony.

In the evening La Reine and I went out with friends and had a nice dinner and fab conversation. It was great to get back into the regular dating schedule now that football is over for the year.

TK also called to report on trip status and the game. He thought it was pretty funny to hang with his uncle and his game crew (my brother-in-law is named Troy in honor of USC - their family is fans of USC like we are of BYU, and yet I didn't name any of my kids Cosmo...), and it was made more interesting by the fact that Troy is a fairly recent convert and his crew still parties like it's 1999. At one point Troy's godfather turned to TK and said "boy hold this for a minute", handed TK his cigar (still lit) while he put on his game shirt. TK said that by the end he was getting just a bit overwhelmed by all the cigar smoke and beer fumes, but that it was worth it to sit in the coliseum and watch USC romp the ducks. (As an aside, TK is a huge football fan, his favorite teams are Florida, Oregon, BYU, and way, way down the list, USC... So he had to be a little careful not to accidentally cheer for Oregon)

It was homecoming for USC and so there was lots of stuff to see and do and a veritable plethora of "hot chicks dad". All in all a great time.

Last Sunday:
The Primary program was a highlight, so was spending time with La Reine's family celebrating birthdays.

I'm looking forward to changing church schedule in the new year so that we have more time for extended family activities in the afternoon's and evenings (I average getting home about 6:30 on Sunday night).

Today:
Hope you enjoy Walt Whitman week.

And, as usual, the fam is fab, life is grand, and my heart is full of joy.

warmest regards,

-jake

Get out the vote

Good thing I saw this, I nearly voted for Billy. Or I would have it Utah County polling hadn't been down this morning - aargh. I'm totally doing the early polling next go round.

and because i still haven't finished anything

here's an interesting exercise.

If you're interested, you may contribute to mine here.

Or should you prefer, you may also choose this anti-version, and contribute to my version of that one here.

Come on - you know you want to. Contribute anonymously and get it out of your system.

-jake

poetry and thoughts worth thinking

a quick one today.

i do have several draft posts which I hope to finish soon, but i'm curious about your thoughts (bloggers and lurkers alike) on the "pain quotidien" section of the blog. for those of you who don't speak french, "pain quotidien" translates in english to "daily bread". A very literal translation, and not the one used in the scriptures, but that's intentional on my part.

i've been throwing random stuff there that has caught my attention in some way - has it caught yours?

Slide away

This is totally awesome - have fun.

p.s.

here's a video which shows what you might do with the "toy".

what i did over uea

last week we made our annual family trip to park city. we used to go to california, but with all the football we live now, that's not really an option anymore, but park city, while no dizneeland, is a great alternative for us.

we stayed at the marriott's mountainside resort, quite a nice little place right at the ski resort, just steps away from the baja cantina and the rocky mountain chocolate factory.

la reine and the 2 youngest spent the whole week up there but came down on tuesday and wednesday for games. after the phs game on wednesday, we all went up for the balance of the week.

i must say it was about the best family vacation that i can remember. a great blend of lounging, exploring, playing, conversing, eating, and just enjoying. T had friends come up for short periods of time here and there, but for the most part we all just hung together and had fun.

i was impressed at how well the kids all got along with one another, at the patience everyone had with each other, and even the work ethic to keep the condo clean when we needed to.

the highlights ranged from having a great time just playing in the pool, playing pool, watching movies, riding the alpine slide & coaster, and the 4 boys riding the "worlds longest zipline", taking the whole fam to dinner at baja cantina, and la reine and i enjoying our first dinner at prime steakhouse - taking advantage of the off-season 2 for 1 entree special, finding a new artist and a specific piece that we're considering (don't worry la reine, i won't just run out and buy it... this time...).

sorry for not posting last week, but even though we had internet connectivity, i found much better things to do.

respectfully,

-jake

p.s. - neglected to mention shopping, see comments for more details, and here's a pic of the bag la reine picked up...

why we believe it

In President Faust's Priestood session talk he related the following account:

Many spiritual nutrients come while serving on a mission—from being totally involved in the work of the Master. They come from helping people become spiritually awake so that they can accept the gospel. Over a century ago when Elder J. Golden Kimball presided over the Southern States Mission, he called for a meeting of the elders. They were to meet in a secluded spot in the woods so they would have privacy. One of the elders had a problem with one of his legs. It was raw and swollen to at least twice the size of his other leg. But the elder insisted on attending this special priesthood meeting in the woods. So two of the elders carried him to this meeting place.

Elder Kimball asked the missionaries, "Brethren, what are you preaching?"

They said, "We are preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ."

"Are you telling these people that you have the power and authority, through faith, to heal the sick?" he asked.

They said, "Yes."

"Well then," he continued, "why don't you believe it?"

The young man with the swollen leg spoke up and said, "I believe it." Here is the rest of the story told in Elder Kimball's words: "[The elder] sat down on a stump and the elders gathered around him. He was anointed and I administered to him, and he was healed right in their presence. It was quite a shock; and every other elder that was sick was administered to, and they were all healed. We went out of that priesthood meeting and the elders received their appointments, and there was a joy and happiness that cannot be described." Their nutrient of faith had been replenished and their zeal for missionary work revived.

I was in staff meeting this morning when my phone rang. I glanced down and saw that the call was coming from my younger brother. I was prompted to leave the meeting and answer the call, so I stood from the table, excused myself, stepped outside of the room and answered my phone.

On the other end was Matt. I could not at first understand his words through his tears and his broken voice. After a moment or two, he was able to regain sufficient composure to ask if I would be able to come to the hospital and assist him in administering to his newborn son, my newest nephew. He proceeded to tell me that he'd not wanted to disturb me at work, but he'd tried to get ahold of our Dad and had not been successful.

I stepped back into the meeting, asked for everyone's understanding and informed them that I would need to leave to handle a family emergency, gathered my things and dropped them in my office on the way out.

As I drove to the hospital I prayed to the Father to allow his Spirit to be upon us as we prepared to bless this new little one in his hour of need. I prayed for my brother and his wonderful wife. I prayed for their other children, my sweet neice and nephew, who at 4 and 2 were struggling to understand why they couldn't come and see their new little brother or why both Mommy and Daddy had to be away from them. I prayed for myself that I might be ready and able to assist.

When I arrived at the hospital I was pleased to see that our dad had pulled in to the parking lot just before I, and together we met my brother for the walk upstairs. We first went to my sister-in-law's room for a family prayer, and then proceeded down the hall to the nursery for the blessing.

Tears filled our eyes as our Matt placed his hand on the wire covered stomach of his new little Caleb, with my father's hand on his, and mine on both of theirs, he proceeded to pronounce a blessing.

We are at peace in our faith now. We know that the Lord has the ability to make whole those things which are incomplete. I have experienced it many times in my life, as I'm sure you have.

Dear little Caleb Asher, be well and strong and whole. And may the Lord bless each of us to be the same, through the Atonement of His only Begotten, is my constant prayer.

- jake

and everything after

There are days which call to the soul, questioning the measure, generating a sense of wonder, of looking askance at the living of life to ascertain whether we are fulfilled, happy, and receiving joy.

Today was such a day for me. I think it had something to do with the weather over the weekend which changed today into one of our first true fall days. That, likely coupled with the time spent in conference sessions. Conference is one of those times when I do a lot of self-evaluation against the metrics put forth by the Lord's chosen.

I've found myself more introspective than usual. It's happening more and more lately. La Reine has observed a veritable multiplicity of times over the past few months that I am "in a funk." Mid-life crisis? Nah. Am I planning on walking away from it all? Nah. I suspect that I'm simply being a tad bit selfish and doing a lot of "I wish..."es. But it's just as likely that I'm being prompted to evaluate and make necessary course corrections in order to better align myself to the things I should be doing. This doesn't mean though that I'm unhappy, in fact, it's quite the opposite, and simply likely that I'm paying more attention to the process as I get older I think.

I do know that I'm subtly unhappy at work. I've blogged about that before. That's one of those “I wish...” items. I wish that I were teaching history and literature somewhere rather than playing politics with a bunch of engineers. It gets awfully tiresome being the bad guy enforcer. I've had a few calls about jobs which sound awfully nice over the past few weeks, but they'd all involve either a) tons of travel or b) relocating to another state. I'm simply unwilling to do either. I keep hoping that something local will come up eventually. I remain sure that it will if it should.

My family is gloriously wonderful. This is what it's all about for sure. The I love yous, the games and play, the hugs and kisses, the prayers – all of it is truly grand. In that same vein, my friends are also a true joy to be around. These are the things which build and strengthen the soul.

Pardon the rambling, and thanks for reading.

- jake

waiting for wednesday

I've been reading a new book entitled "America's Constitution, A Biography" by Akhil Reed Amar, a law professor at Yale university and noted constitutional law expert. I've not made too much progress in the book as yet (I only started it yesterday) but I'm loving it.

I've always been one who believes that it's incumbent on each citizen to have an fine understanding of the law and civil process etc. For those of you who enjoy understanding the constitution, this book is an awesome read. If you don't enjoy it, but you feel compelled to understand more about the history of the constitution, still a great read. I'll plan to summarize and give a review when I've completed the book.

Let me know your thoughts - does this intrigue you as much as it does me?

Lost and Found

Sorry for not posting yesterday. It's been a pretty hectic last few days.

On Saturday Q had a football bye which was wonderful since we had about a billion other things to do that day, okay, maybe only 10 other things to do.

Started the morning helping T get off on his homecoming date. I remember when these date dances were only dinner and the dance. Now - it's an all day thing. I know they have a blast, but wow - talk about added magnitudes of work and expense - oh well. T doesn't seem to mind at all.

Once he was off (and I'd taken him the football he forgot to take along), I went and picked J up and headed over to my parents house to help with thier move. I spent much of last week helping them prepare for, and then move. We'll miss having them close (they're moving about 35 minutes away to the south of us, and they've been only about 3 minutes away). But we're excited for them to be able to move into their "retirement" home - no steps, all one floor, nice and open, but smaller, so less to clean, smaller yard, smaller town, more relaxed and conducive to retirement-like activities I suppose.

Once we'd helped them get the truck loaded, moved and unloaded, we came back and tried to get our normal Saturday shopping etc. done. Then we helped clean our car until it sparkled inside and out so T could use it for his date (on account of his car is "lame").

Then we met some friends for dinner, which was fab!

Finally made it home for more than a 10 minute stretch at about 9 that night, changed and went out and sat in the hot tub for about an hour just soaking out the tensions and cares of the day - bliss.

Sunday was the standard round of meetings. I really enjoyed testimonies that were shared, the Sunday School lesson, and the portion of the young women's lesson I was in time for.

Yesterday was the funeral of a good friend - a gentleman in our neighborhood who'd lived a full rich life. Participating in his funeral was a great reminder of what's really important in this life, and in the life to come. Thanks Thirl for everything. For your gentility and grace, for somehow enticing every small child you ever met to allow you to "count" their ribs, for sharing your wisdom and the fruits of your labors, and for your example. I'm looking forward to seeing you again. Oh, and did you know it's only 2 months and 29 days until Christmas? I knew you did.

Sir Elton - the recap

The concert was fantastic. La Reine and I met our friends just up the road a bit at a park and ride where they joined us. We drove up to west valley and had a wonderful dinner. During dinner we talked about our favorite songs, and which songs we thought he'd play, and which we hoped he'd play.

We arrived to find that our "cheap" seats were actually fantastic. We were in the upper concourse, but only about 50-60 feet from the stage with a great view of the piano (on our side) and of Elton the whole time.

And, it turned out that our thoughts on what he'd play and our wish list were not too far off from what he actually wound up playing!

The setlist from Tuesday:
1. Funeral For A Friend / Love Lies Bleeding (One of B's favs - didn't think he'd play this, but really hoped he would.)
2. Bennie And The Jets (thought he'd play it)
3. Philadelphia Freedom (didn't discuss)
4. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (thought he'd play it)
5. Believe (thought he'd play it)
6. Tiny Dancer (thought he'd play it)
7. I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues (thought he'd play it)
8. Take Me To The Pilot (didn't expect this one - loved, loved, loved it - Elton played a 10 minute "intro" which ranged from blues to gospel, to classical, back to blues etc. while his band took a bit of a break off-stage. AWESOME!!!)
9. I Want Love (didn't discuss this one)
10. Someone Saved My Life Tonight (Hoped he'd play - B's other fav)
11. Postcards From Richard Nixon (From the album that released on the same day as the concert - I bought it the next morning, most excellent)
12. Tinderbox (also from the new album)
13. Blues Never Fade Away (also from the new album)
14. The Bridge (Also from the new album - My fav of the new songs)
15. Old '67 (also from the new album)
16. Captain And The Kid (also from the new album)
(Note that Elton "introduced" each new song, and also explained the whole album, which is essentially the companion to the Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.)
17. Mona Lisa's And Mad Hatters (One of my favs, didn't think he'd play it, I was thrilled that he did!)
18. Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word (Another of my favs, didn't think he'd play it.)
19. Rocket Man (Thought he'd play it)
20. Daniel (didn't discuss it)
21. Levon (thought he'd play it)
22. Crocodile Rock (thought he'd play it, and when this one started this dude 10 seats or so to my left, probably in his 50's, started be-boppin and fist shakin' and singin' along, very fun.)
23. The Bitch Is Back (thought he'd play it)
24. Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting (didn't discuss this one)
25. Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me (thought he'd play it)
26. Your Song (thought he'd play it)

We've seen Sir Elton now four times (once with Billy Joel, three times just him) and this was without doubt the best I've ever seen him. The voice was as pure as the early seventies, though he no longer hits the falsettos like he used to. He seemed very connected to the audience and super happy.

The concert lasted about 3 hours total, with no intermission, though there was about a five minute break when everyone, including Elton left the stage - right after "Levon" I think. When Elton came back out onstage, he spent probably 10 minutes moving from one side of the stage to the other signing autographs, smiling and laughing the whole time.

Dear Sir - please come again soon. We've missed you.

- jake

A most excellent diversion

Can be found at blufr.com.

Let me know how you fare.

An example
The bluff:
Only one state that ever applied for admittance into the United States was ever rejected.

I said - "No way"

and got this answer:

You’ve been bluf’d: (Along with 47% of the people who saw this bluff) The State of Franklin originally seceded from North Carolina and existed from 1784-1788 in what is now eastern Tennessee. It received 7 votes when it applied to the US Congress for statehood, a majority, but not the necessary 2/3 majority.

Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters

A date with Sir Elton tonight. I'm very much looking forward to another evening with good friends and good music. I'll certainly have a review tomorrow to let you know how it goes.

The weekend in review

Friday night - Provo lost to Timpview. TK played the second half at quarterback because the t-birds did their best to re-injure WJ's shoulder, (they were successful), at least when they weren't pulling off WJ's helmet and punching him in the face. The bulldog response to the face punching cost Provo a touchdown. Great fun! TK played well and looked great, but we just couldn't seem to capitalize, and the bulldogs lost by a touchdown.

Saturday was continuous running from 7:30 in the morning until bed at 11:00 or so. The running included a QK game (the team lost but he played well), grocery shopping, the neighborhood luau, running TK dinner at work, taking SK over to babysit his cousins, and then a couple of hours working on ripping all the game footage from the previous couple of days, making DVDs, updating the football blog, etc., etc. At the luau the Bishop called me up to sing with him - a task I usually quite enjoy, but unfortunately my hawaiian music repetoire is nil, so I mostly harmonized and sang the chorus when I knew it. Sigh.

Sunday began bright and early with a 7:00 am stake priesthood meeting. I very nearly convinced myself to skip it, but ended up doing the right thing, and I took all the boys with me too. Turned out that it was a truly fantastic set of messages, and I would really have missed out if I'd stayed in bed. Best part is the boys agreed!

After priesthood meeting, I spent the rest of the day in other meetings which were equally fulfilling as the first, and finally got home around 7:00 pm. La Reine had already taken the rest of the family up to her mom's to celebrate family birthdays. I called to see when they'd be coming home, and it turned out that it wouldn't make much sense for me to go, since I'd wind up being there for about 1/2 an hour before it was time to turn around and come back home. On a plus side - the dinner that was waiting for me was fantabulous, and I had some time so just relax, enjoy the meal, and wait for my sweet family to rejoin me.

After we'd gotten the younger kids to bed, La Reine, TK and I went over to play some games at my parents (a near regular Sunday occurence) and I even won! The last time that happened was back in July sometime (I keep stats okay, let's just leave it at that), so it was a nice cap to the day. Of course we enjoy the play, but we go for the coversation and company.

We got home just before 11, and I nodded off around 12:30.

A truly rewarding weekend, spent in the company of friends and family - I'm very blessed.

Something just for the fun of it

Something I stumbled across today. I'll be keeping track just to see where it goes and how much it sells for. So, just for fun, we all can:



Started by Cambrian House as a fundraiser for charity. What a cool idea. I really like the idea of cambrian house and what they do:

"Cambrian House Mission Statement

Cambrian House's mission is to discover and commercialize
software ideas through the wisdom and participation of crowds.
Contributors earn royalties, sharing in the success of the products."

Have a great Friday all!

So far this week

Lot's to think & talk about:

• A multi-regional conference for our church with a witty sermon from a senior church leader
• The 5th anniversary of the September 11th attacks
• Brit has boy number 2
  
• Who's a better dancer Emmitt or Mario?
• Whitney dumps Bobby
  
• The remarkable Ann Richards passes away
• I help in baby girl's 1st grade class
  
• Segregated "Survivor" premieres
  

haec olim meminisse iuvabit

A new look and a new start. A recommitment to a more consistent update. (I've said this before, so we'll see.)

I'm excited to start afresh on a clean slate. It's like writing on the first page of a new journal. The old journal is still there for reference, but the new one just feels right. Sometimes I've started a new notebook just so that I can have that feeling, even though the old notebook was only partly full. This is a similar exercise.

Anyway - for what it's worth, here I go again.

And one day, we will look back on this and smile, won't we?