Rise and Shout...

Alana and I had the opportunity to attend the Las Vegas Bowl while returning from Utah for the holidays. The Cougars didn't disappoint demolishing the Oregon Ducks 38 - 8. Along for the ride was Naomi Nardotto, a friend from Switzerland. She enjoyed her first collegiate football game and loved seeing all of the fans dressed up in their Cougar blue and Duck yellow and green. It was a great time with some great friends and capped off my undergraduate football experience in perfect fashion.

Falls in a Well and Eyes Go Crossed...

If you have never seen National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, then this article may not be all that funny. However, if you have seen it and remember Cousin Eddie's little girl you will find this funny. Have a read.

This is a Christmas Party!!

Every year neighbors of ours have an Open House for their friends. Mary is a professional food stylist for major corporations so everything is done expertly. These two pictures are just the dessert table (and she decorates everything herself). Her husband is a woodworker and their gift to the guests is a handmade wooden ornament. . .this year it was penguins (yes, James and Ster, we saved you one because you have been to this incredible party before). Hats off to Mary, Dan and their family for all of the work that they put into this holiday masterpiece. We really enjoyed ourselves.

 

Our Stake Presidency Rocks

Tonight the Magnusson, Cornwall and Steimle families came caroling at our house for Family Home Evening. . .their singing was only surpassed in excellence by the outstanding treats that they left for us. . .thanks for a great treat!! (Sue, I posted this as quickly as possible so fewer people would see the "dancing Santa" routine as the latest blog. . .if my constituents ever saw it, I'd be recalled). Merry Christmas!! 

Dancing with Santa

Here is a funny video of Mom and Nantie getting their groove on with the Santa on the street. Nice moves!

NLC 2006

Auntie, Mom, and I all had the chance to ravel to Reno, NV this past week to participate in the 2006 NLC Conference. Due to the fine hotel accomodations that we had, most of our time was spent outside of the hotel traveling to places such as Virginia City and participating in the Habitat for Humanity project. We also had the opportuity to bowl in the National Bowling Statidum (this place had more than 100 lanes). The pictures shown here are of Mom and I at the National Automotive Museum where we had dinner one night. Next we have Darrell (City Manager of Duarte), Auntie, me, and Mom at the National Bowling Stadium. Finally there is a picture of Auntie, me, and Mom working hard at the Habitat for Humanity site. Good times in RENO!

 

Weekend in Yosemite

Last weekend, Dan and Helen journeyed to Yosemite so that Dan could attend an Academic Senate conference at the Ahwahnee Hotel. This hotel is quite beautiful and rustic, built at the park in 1927. We enjoyed the Native American charm of the hotel and loved that fact that Yosemite National Park wasn't very crowded. On Saturday afternoon, Dan and Helen hiked part of the way to Upper Yosemite Falls and were able to view the entire valley floor, with Half Dome in the background. The weather was clear and cold, but very invigorating. It was an outstanding time of the year to explore Yosemite National Park.

Snow Leopard

Today was pretty exciting for me. Since my mentor at the CVM is the veterinarian at the Zoo here in Lansing I was able to go and help with a physical exam on a male Snow Leopard. It was a really neat experience. Basically this leopard is going to be shipped off to another zoo since they don't want him to mate with the female here since his genes are "over represented." All animals shipped across state lines must have a bill of good health so that is what were were checking. We did an ultrasound, dental cleaning (done by yours truly), blood collection and a direct/indirect arterial pressure measurements among some other things. This cat was an amazing creature. Despite having a not so great odor, I still wanted to use it for a pillow.

Dan's Stocking - It's Finally Done!

After 18 months of working on this cross-stitched stocking, I finally have finished it. . .good thing too because Dan's stocking last year was a plastic bag. . .Santa didn't quite know what to make of it!  

When You Lose to Pine Tree

Notice the before and after pictures of me after having gone for a joy ride on an ATV. I lost control and in a panic hit the gas instead of the brake. After taking out an aspen tree I decided to get overly ambitious and go for a much larger pine tree. To say the least, I am happy that the damage to both the ATV and my body were minimal.

 

Merry Christmas!

When we got home from Canada today we decided to get all decorated for the Christmas Season. We both knew that with finals coming up this might be our last chance to trim the tree together. It was tons of fun to see it all come out of the boxes. We had much more Christmas stuff then we had originally thought. Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight (it is past 11pm here so I am pooped!).

Oh Canada!

On Thanksgiving day Megan and I decided that we wanted to do something fun for the weekend because Megan had to work on Friday. We chose to travel international and go to London. Well, we did go international and we did go to London, but it was not the London that might first come to mind. It was London a city of about half a million people in the Province of Ontario in Canada. So We crossed over the border Saturday morning and before long we were saying "surry" and "aboot." There was a Winterfest of sorts going on in London which we went and saw. They had a large parade, fire eating man as well as many other spectacles. That night went went to see the Disney Musical Beauty and the Beast at the Grand Theatre. It was a marvelous show. It was nice to be in Canada because everyone was already celebrating Christmas since they did not have Thanksgiving to worry about, ahem I mean "aboot."

Thanks Larry and Susan

We had a great Thanksgiving today at the Marino cabin up in Strawberry Valley near Duck Creek Village in Utah. We were hiking to Cascade Falls and to Strawberry Point.. . .incredible views. . .then we had dinner with smoked turkey and all of the fixins'. The final picture is sunrise from Larry and Susan's front deck. What a great place to spend time with family! Just wish all of the rest of the family were here with us.


 

Fire Hydrants with Spirit!

Last weekend when Dan, Helen, and Erin went back to the Mid-West they also stopped by Notre Dame. They really enjoyed the campus and saw many of the familiar sites - The Grotto, Touchdown Jesus, Sacred Heart Basilica, and these funny fire hydrants. One is painted to look like the Golden Dome at Notre Dame and the other is painted to look like a fighting Irishman. These are definitely fire hydrants that dogs are not allowed to urinate on!

Tica, Mark and Story

This past week Margaret and Brad went to San Francisco for a conference. Shown here are Tica and Aunt Margaret in their room at the Mark Hopkins Hotel before they went to dinner with Uncle Brad. The view is taken from their room at the Mark Hopkins, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year. The Mark Hopkins is built on the location of Mark Hopkins' estate on Nob Hill. The estate was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. The final picture is of the Executive Committee at dinner with the opening speaker for the conference, Story Musgrave (olive colored shirt), who has flown on all 5 of the space shuttles - has a very interesting story (no pun intended) to tell.


 

Old Fashion News... Sorta

As many of you know we do not subscribe to a newspaper since we really don't feel like we have time to read it. On top of that when you get the news paper in the morning the news could already be 8 hours old! That is totally unacceptable to me. I like up to the minute news because then I never feel like I am out of the loop for even a second. There is a compromise when it comes to "breaking" news and that is accuracy and thoroughness. It is for this reason that we do subscribe to TIME and NewsWeek. What about news being delivered in the way of moving pictures? I can't remember the last time I watched the 10:00 news and there are two reasons for that, commercials and inconvenience. What would happen if those two issues were to vanish? That question was answered this week when NBC decided to offer the Nightly News as a free download through iTunes. I actually watched the news! Since I have 3 huge exams in one week's time I was not able to watch the entire broadcast at once, but it since I control when I watch it and where that was not too much of an issue. It was also great to watch Brian Williams with NO COMMERCIALS! That cut the 30 min. show down to 20 min. Anyway I just thought I would share that with people. Go check it out on iTunes!

Who's that Spartan in my Teepee?

It's James and Megan!! Dan, Erin and Helen just returned from a wonderful weekend in the Midwest, visiting Ne at Loyola in Chicago and James and Megan in Lansing. As soon as we arrived in Chicago, we headed to Pizzeria Uno in downtown for dinner - yummy!! Later that evening as we were driving on the Indiana Toll Road, we were broadsided by a deer running across the interstate. Fortunately, we made it to our hotel and got a new rental car. The next day, we toured Notre Dame, St. Mary's College and drove through the Amish area of Indiana. Erin was excited to claim three new states (MI, IN, and OH). We enjoyed the warm hospitality from James and Megan in Lansing and even shared a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with them - thanks, Megan! The MSU football game was lots of fun, but also pretty cold. BRRR! It was nice to see where James and Ne attend their professional school - we are so proud of the work that they are doing! We hope you all get a chance to visit them in the future - just don't go during deer mating season!


 

Pizza Oven and Morro Bay

Larry and Susan just finished putting in the pizza oven at their house. We all went over for the trial run. . .and can't wait for more pizza from Chef Larry. Then this past weekend we went to the beach house at Morro Bay with the Fasanas and Susan. . .went kayaking and climbed Bishop's Peak. . .all very relaxing.