SOME RANDOM PICS

Three princesses


Jon finds a soul-mate?


Cool candles at San Juan Capistrano (Julia took the pic)

A HELPFUL TIP

to many in Utah (too bad this sign was in California)

OFF TO KOREA

Wish me luck!

Trip to Zion Park

REMINDERS OF MORTALITY

I wonder how many of these figures dad knows? I don't recognize many of them.

NOW THAT'S A SNOWMAN

Meet Snowzilla!

OH MY

Please tell me that this memorable production was self-financed! Please, please, please ...



Otherwise I am left with the impossible conclusion that someone with money actually thought this was a good idea?

OK, here's an explanation of sorts (thanks Tara).

SWEET!

Unless you are BYU fan (but sweet nonetheless)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Of all the things to be thankful for, and there are many, one has to be that I'm not having Thanksgiving dinner on the space shuttle:

COOL

and a bit scary: Meteor over Canada

THE REAL REASON I WAS HIRED

at BYU was so I could lend my height to the faculty side of the semi-annual History student-faculty basketball game. Luckily, we won a hard-fought 82-80 game so balance is restored to the force and all is well with the world.

THE VIEW

from our yard. Pretty hard to beat.

GLAD IT'S OVER

Congratulations to our new President. Whether you voted for him or not, I think most will agree that this is a significant moment. Now I just want to take a long break from politics.

First big snow of the season here.

JUST VOTED

for Obama if anyone was wondering.

Utah uses a newfangled electronic voting machine. After checking my name off a list (but not asking for ID or any other form of verification) they gave me a plastic card, the same size and shape as a credit card, that they had run through a small machine to indicate which precinct I should vote in (two separate precincts voted at the same location--Jon's school). I took the card to a machine and followed the instructions to insert the card into the machine. Upon which I was informed that my card had already voted. I took it back to the nice people at the desk, they swiped it again and it worked the second time around. No one was watching or questioning. I could have very easily used the card to vote, taken it back to the desk and told them that the machine said the card had already voted (which wouldn't have even been a lie), and then taken it back to vote again. An extra vote in Utah probably wouldn't have made any difference but recent experience shows that only a few hundred votes in key areas can make all the difference in the world. And there would be absolutely no way to verify, double-check or othwerwise invalidate my double-voting. I don't like this at all. Nor do I like the fact that there is, apparently, no hard copy of my ballot (the machine asked if I wanted to print my ballot; of course I said yes and heard the machine's innards whirring and clicking, but I saw no proof that anything printed or that the print was accurate etc.).

I hope I am simply being too paranoid and anxious after a long, difficult political season.

WOW!

After all of the political craziness of the last weeks/months/years, we need more impressive frivolity like this: