May 2005 Archives

What a day! At Liberty Park, we had a picnic with some Little Caesar's pizza and breadsticks which was followed by feeding the gulls and geese the remainder of our breadsticks and pizza crust. That was a lot of fun.

Then we went through the Tracy Aviary where we saw lots of bird exhibits and a bird show. Unfortunately, they weren't doing the exhibit where you can go in and feed apple pieces to the the smaller parrots. I think we were too late for it.

The kids then got into their swimsuits and played in the Seven Canyons Fountain. Eli wasn't being too good about this and kepting wanting to run off, so we didn't there stay too long. Our next stop was the awesome playground installed at Liberty Park as part of the improvements related to the 2002 Olympics. This includes a water activity area that amazed Maya with how wet it got her so quickly.

I realized today I could eject the SD card from my Treo smartphone and stick it in the bottom of our Samsung DV camcorder and store still photos on it. The photo quality is far better than the camera built into my Treo, but still pales in comparison to our Canon Powershot. It is adequate, however, for website images.

Lucy and Eli watch construction equipment working on a new exhibit at Tracy Aviary.

Eli watching kids play in the water at the Liberty Park playground.

Some of the playground equipment at Liberty Park.

It was about 5:00 in the afternoon when we left the park and went to Del Taco in Midvale for dinner.

After dinner, we visited the PetCo near Del Taco and talked about getting a couple kittens.

We decided to shelf that idea and head over to Jordan Landing. Eli had slept through dinner, so we stopped at the Sonic Drive-In and got him some popcorn chicken and some ice cream for the rest of us.

Christine's boss Skip is in a rock cover band and they played at Jordan Landing tonight, so we stopped over and watched them play for about 30 minutes. Then we went to WalMart to get some shopping done.

I'm posting this while sitting under a tree at Brickyard Plaza. Christine and Maya are in Mervyns getting a new swimsuit for Maya.

We are going to Liberty Park today. Then, we are probably going to go see Christine's boss's band play at Jordan Landing.

Tomorrow, my family is getting together for a barbeque and to celebrate my brother's birthday. Those are always fun!

I'm moving a client's mail service from one server to another- so while I'm waiting for all these files to transfer over the network, I thought I'd post something.

The most recent issue of "Diabetes E-News Now" has a link to a very interesting article: "Patient-Specific Stem Cells Cloned".

In a nutshell, South Korean research scientists have successfully created embryonic stem cells from nuclear transfer processes (as opposed to actually creating and harvesting human embryos). This bears very good news for type-1 diabetics like myself because it means medical science is a big leap closer to being able to create custom-tailored insulin producing pancreatic cells that the body won't reject.

The next step in curing type-1 diabetes altogether is stopping the body's immune system from attacking the islet cells.

Well, hello. I haven't talked to you for a long time. I'll bet you weren't expecting to read anything from me since it's been so long since I had anything to say!

There's too much, of course, to say in one posting, so I'll leave a lot of stuff out. The business has been terribly busy. Fortunately, I seem to making some necessary progress toward becoming a manager.

Summer is upon us, so the yard and garden are becoming fixtures in our routines. A 6-foot vinyl privacy fence is due to be installed on the east and west sides of our house separating the front and back yards so the kids can play out back with more safely. That should finally happen at the end of this week or early next week.

Temple stuff

Christine and I went to two temple sealings last weekend. It was the first time I'd been in a temple in years - probably about seven years. It was cool. I renewed my temple recommend a couple months ago and was looking forward to using it or needing it.

Friday, the 20th, was Christine's brother Jay's wedding to his fiancé Jenniann at the Salt Lake Temple which was followed by a wedding dinner at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

Jenniann's family seems very nice.

While at Temple Square, my brother-in-law (and occassional co-Linux-guru) Adam took a handful of pictures of Christine and I.

Sitting by the reflecting pool

Power supply tester. Don't leave home without it.

Adam had ordered an extra power supply tester for me and gave it to me the day of the wedding. It gave me a chance to pose with some geeky hardware.

Saturday, Christine, the kids, and I went to Logan for the temple sealing of my neice Alyssa Peterson to her husband Matt and their son Parker.

The temple ceremony on Saturday was leaps and bounds more touching than the one the day before. This was partly because of Gary Clawson -- the sealer who conducted the ceremony. Christine observed that might also have been because the ceremony represented them reaching a sought-after goal (getting sealed in the temple) versus a new beginning (like Jay and Jenniann's wedding).

After the Peterson sealing, we joined other family members at The Coppermill for lunch. Then we went to Christine's grandparents' house in Hyrum and visited with them for a while before heading home.

I got a new car today.

Well, actually, no. But, it sure feels like it!

I got the front struts on the Subaru replaced along with new brake pads. Driving the car is an entirely different experience than it was before. It really feels like a different car.

I was so anxious before to get a new vehicle because the struts were so shot every nuance of the road was transfered directly through the steering column to my hands and the brakes felt like they were made of small, igneous rocks. Every time I braked I wondered if I should yell, “Excuse me!” to the other drivers on the road near me.

Braking is quiet now. Bumps in the road are properly absorbed. I’m happy with my car.

I’m even thinking about doing some minor upgrades to the sound system.