THANKFUL FOR MY BLESSINGS AT CHRISTMAS

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep... you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace... you are among the top 8% of the worlds wealthy.

If you woke up this morning with good health you are more fortunate than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle unfolding all around you, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation... you are ahead 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church meeting without fear of persecution, harassment, arrest, torture, or death... you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If your parents are still alive and still married...you are very rare, even in the United States.

If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.

ELEPHANT STEW

I found this great recipe I thought everyone would like.

Ingredients

1 Elephant
10 Warthog
100 lbs. tomatoes
half ton potatoes
10 lbs. salt
1 wheelbarrow onions (heaped)
10 quarts vinegar
20 quarts chutney
4 whole chickens

Hunt the elephant, warthog and chickens. Cut elephant into edible chunks, (will take about a month). Boil the warthog with other ingredients (except chickens) till nice and juicy. Now boil elephant chunks over high flames till tender. (will take about 4 weeks) and add everything together. Boil for another 5 to 7 days.

Serve over your favorite rice.

about 3,523 servings

Note: If extra guests arrive unexpectedly you can toss in a couple of rabbits, but be careful with this one because a lot of people do not like hare in their stew.

BE POSITIVE.....

I need to blog something just so Creed's goofy face is not the first thing you see when you log on...

DON'T TRY TO CHEER ME UP. . . . . .
IT IS ONLY MY STRONG NEGATIVE ATTITUDE THAT KEEPS ME GOING!

Ashleigh Brilliant

CREED

I think one of the funniest characters on the office is Creed. Maybe I relate to him because he thinks he is and old hippie. Well it turns out he is, and he just plays himself. His real name is Creed.

Creed Bratton first found fame more than 40 years ago as a member of the 1960s rock group The Grass Roots, known best for the hit "Midnight Confessions." While with the band, Creed had a reputation for mischief making, whether fishing for sharks from a Seattle hotel window, dropping acid on the stage of the legendary Fillmore Theater or regularly running in the nude alongside the band's tour bus, according to his official Web site, www.CreedBratton.com.

Creed Thoughts

"There’s been a lot of bad mojo going on at work lately because of computers. Some kid’s been coming around saying how he wants to replace everyone with robots and calculators and little pieces of fruit. The Bossman listens to him, too, even though the kid’s real scrawny and has a horse face. Don’t get me wrong, I like computers as much as the next Joe, but when they start messing with me, I’m not just going to sit there and take it. I’ve seen the movies. If you want to fight back against a machine, you’ve got to chuck it in acid.

Acid. Oh man. Just writing that word brings back some memories. Not really memories. Flashbacks. Scary ones. I get them all the time. The other day I turned on the TV and everyone on the screen was a caveman. Freaked my bean, man."

And what do we know about him so far?
1. Made love to lots of women outdoors in the mud & rain...possibly a guy could have slipped in.
2. Likes to steal things
3. Had his own radio show called Wacky Weed Creed (deleted scene)
4. Never owned a refrigerator
5. Only has 4 toes on one of his feet.
6. Likes to sprout mung beans on a damp paper towel. They smell like death.
7. Plays a mean electric guitar.
8. Thinks a big pile of crap on Michael's carpet smells like soup.
9. Was adopted by an asian couple.
10. Not only knows what weed looks like, but can name the type ("northern lights premium cannibus" or something like that)
11. Was in an iron lung as a child
12. Was in the band The Grass Roots.
13. Regifts old shirts for Christmas presents.
And much more to come...........

GEOCACHING

A while back I got a small GPS device for the car, it made going on vacation a lot easier since my wife can not read a map to save her, so she makes a terrible navigator. I tried doing some geocaching with it but it would only work if the cache was close to a recognized road. So I splurged and bought a small handheld GPS. It has been kind of fun to go "caching". This past Saturday I took some of the grand kids out to introduce them to the world of geocaching. They had a blast and would get so excited each time we found one. And as you can see in the pictures, sometimes you discover things that you don't expect, like "there are actually cacti in the foothills above Stansbury Park". Next time the girls come up we are going to hide our own cache. Fun!

THE OFFICE

Taken out of context this is not even funny, but I thought I would split a gut. Pam said:
"I saw where it ended, but I didn't see where it started."

CARTHAGE

There is not much I can say that this picture does not tell.
On June 27 1844 the prophet Joseph Smith Jr and his brother Hyrum were killed in the upper room of the Carthage Jail, while awaiting trial.
This picture is taken through the bullet hole that is still in the door, and looks at the window that the prophet fell through as he was shot.
"He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people......and sealed his mission with his own blood" (D&C 135:3)

I spent all this week in Chicago attending the Graph Expo print show. So why the pictures of Nauvoo? Well we arrived on Saturday and then drove 5 hours to Nauvoo, spent Saturday night there, went to church and then looked around Nauvoo for a couple of hours and then drove all the way back to Chicago.
It has been years since I was last in Nauvoo and things have changed a lot. Of course the biggest change is the reconstruction of the temple. What a thrill to see it in person. Across and in front of the temple is a statue of Joseph and Hyrum. The story is that when the two of them left to go to Carthage they stopped at the temple site for the last time and talked about the importance of the temple, and then they rode on to Carthage never to return.
I also found a great model for church meetings. We went to the sacrament meeting they hold for the Nauvoo missionaries. Sacrament meeting ONLY and each week they have a couple speak that is about to leave the mission. I told my colleagues "what could be better? Sacrament meeting only and every Sunday is a missionary farewell.

Grandsons

So, someone complained that I have not made an entry for a while. So life is crazy.
"Grandchildren are God's way of compensating us for growing old."
How true, how true. We started life as grandparents almost 13 years ago. First with 3 beautiful granddaughters. Then I guess all the girl genes got used up, because the last 5 have been grandsons. The last two here (above) Matthew and Zane. I think you can tell who is the oldest of the two, yes?

Last weekend we had them all here for dinner on Saturday. I have said before that there is nothing I love more then spending time with family. Even though it is crazy at times with a house full, after they are gone I always feel a little more empty. Just to be able to set and hold a new born or talk with a four year old about trains, brings a great deal of joy to my life.

So keep 'em coming, at least some of you.

I REALLY HATE MY JOB!!!

Today, I really hate my job!!
I wonder how much money those guys make that suck out the poop from the outhouse. It is starting to look like a job that would be very rewarding. A job that you really feel you are making a difference in the life of someone who needs to go.

YOUTH CONFERENCE

Just got home, after spending three days with the greatest bunch of kids ever.
It was our ward's youth conference. Aug 2-4. We went to Emery county in central Utah
We arrived on Thursday afternoon, had a great meal of hamburgers and hot dogs. Thursday evening we took the group to the Castle Valley pageant, it was very well done and all the youth thought it was good.
On Friday we had a fantastic breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausage etc.. We then had a series of activities: started with a marshmallow war (fun stuff) Karen thought it was the most fun of the whole conference. We then walked the youth out into the "wilderness" to give them a lesson on murmuring.
They all went to "Gillies" store and bought post cards to write their testimonies in, we are going to mail them all to our ward missionary. We then took the group to the city cemetery in Ferron, Utah. The young women's president has an ancestor that is buried there, he was one of the first to bring his family to the area and settle, she talked about our pioneer heritage and how important it is to appreciate what they did for us and for what they believed in.
We ate lunch at the park in Ferron and then spent the rest of the day at a small reservoir. The youth all loved the chance to relax and play in the water and the mud.
Friday evening we had a great meal of chicken and ribs, and then had a fireside with a speaker that had been one of Quinton Selin's youth leaders. We then had a testimony meeting and all but 2 of our youth took the opportunity to bare testimony of the gospel. It was so neat to hear from some that under "normal" circumstances would never do that kind of thing.
Saturday morning we cleaned up and headed home. We stopped at the city park in Price, Ut. and had pizza for lunch, again no complaints about the food

The child
I used to be
is still very much alive,
somewhere
very deep inside me.....

LOST AND FOUND

I wonder if there is ever a tube of Carmex that gets used until it is actually empty.
Mom cleaned the house the other day and kept finding partial tubes of the stuff, I think we have 5 or 6 now. And then just to be a comedian she bought another one at the store today. You know you gotta have it, so if you can't find it you just buy a new one. After all it is cheap stuff, at 1.39 a tube it won't break you.
However it is not really cheap; at the price of 1.39 per .35oz that adds up to about $508.00 per gallon. So go ahead and buy another tube, they'll just make more. And the main ingredient is petroleum, so every time you loose a tube that's .35 oz of petroleum that is not going into the tank of your car.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

A man's true ideals are those he lives by, not always those he talks about.

RU SCOTTISH 2

Today, I am thankful for my Scottish heritage.....

And I wish I could wear kilts!


But.... I think I would try to be careful were I walked and how I sat.

FIRES MAKE BEAUTIFUL SUNSETS

With all the fires burning around the state of Utah there has been a lot of smoke in the air. Well in the evening the sun shining through the smoke makes for some fantastic sunsets. We went out to the Great Salt Lake tonight and took a few pictures.
Again reminding us that what looks great does not always smell great. We were at the Utah State Marina and it did not have a pleasent smell. But the sunset was worth the stink. Karen does not think so.

LUCK?

I sometimes wonder where all the good luck is stored,
and why its release and distribution are so irregular.

FAMILY DAY CAMP

So was there anyone driving back into the hot valley on Saturday evening that was not wishing they were still sitting around the campground enjoying the somewhat cooler temps of the high Unitas?

Thanks to everybody for coming up, we had a wonderful time

I can honestly say there isn't anything that I enjoy more than spending time with family.

So I hope nobody got to many "scamito" bites and lets all do it again, maybe even before the summers over?

GUINESS RECORD?

So what do you do when you get really bored over the summer? Maddison decided (with a joking prod) to go for the worlds record boondoggle. Yea that's right, the worlds record boondoggle. So what is the current world record for boondoggle? Well apparently there isn't one. So that makes it all the easier. First: buy two 100 yard rolls of the stuff and start doggling as fast as you can go.
current length is about 10 inches or so, but hey she is just getting started, and there is still a lot of summer ahead of us.
So go for it Maddison. I am cheering for you.
And where on earth did the word boondoggle come from?

Thought for TODAY

Today is not just another day. . .
it's the only one you will have all the way until tomorrow.

WHAT'S IN A NAME, OR A LOGO?

Once upon a time in a law office somewhere a bunch of monkeys in 3 piece suits decided they needed more money.

It all began in 1968 when the Beatles formed the "Apple Corporation" a holding company for all their business interests, the only one of which that ever made any money was the record label (big surprise).

In 1978 Apple Corps. filed a law suit against Macintosh for stealing there name when they introduced the Apple computer. The suit settled in 1981 with an undisclosed amount being paid to Apple Corps. This amount had been estimated to be $50–$200 million, but was later revealed to be $80,000. As a condition of the settlement, Apple Computer agreed not to enter the music business.

In 2002 Apple Computers introduced iTunes. So another law suit. It seems that the Apple Computer giant had now entered the "music business"

On May 8, 2006 the court ruled in favor of Apple Computer, with Justice Mann holding that "I find no breach of the trademark agreement has been demonstrated.

So I wonder who paid who a pile of money this time. Just this week I notice that Paul McCartney's music catalog is now on iTunes. But still the Beatles are no where to be found, as are none of the other of the original "fab four". Paul McCartney has also made a cheesy advertisement video for iTunes. I have posted a link

Where ever would this world be without law suits and lawyers.

And by the way. iTunes is now the third largest seller of music in this country right behind Sam Goody and Virgin Records

Paul McCartney - Apple iPod + iTunes TV Ad

Some people will do anything for money. But when your worth about a billion I guess you can do anything you want to. And you can wear dorky shoes too.

Thought for the day:

"I like to do all the talking myself. It saves time and prevents arguments."
Oscar Wilde

ROCK 'N ROLL AND JUNK

Two things I love; Good old rock n roll and taking pictures of old junk.
Here is a combination of both. The car and truck pictures I took last year in Colorado, I found the Logos on the Internet and layered them onto the doors. Then I distorted the images so that they looked like they were actually on the door, blured them a little and then erased the logos so that the grass would show through and have the appearance of being in front of the logo. If you click on the pictures it will show the full size image.
Wow boring stuff. But if you have a blog you have to put something on it, right?

WOMEN IN ART

This is way to cool. I know it is a simple morfing program, but it is very interesting to watch.

ONE OF THOSE DAYS?

Do you ever have one of those days? One of those days when no matter what you try to do it goes bad. The elements of the entire earth seem to be against you. Yea I had one of those yesterday. Enough said.

FUNNY LITTLE CHILDREN

A couple of weeks ago at church one of the children came up and gave me a picture she had made for me. She had colored the page and then written her name on it. Her dad pointed out to me that she had written her name very small (at least for a 4 year old) she told him that she wrote her name small because the bishop had glasses so he would be able to see it. A simple thing but it made me laugh.

THE TRAVELING WILBURYS

I have been re-introduced to the Traveling Wilburys. One of the "super" groups of the 1980's
The band was started out of a conversation between George Harrison and Jeff Lynne (of ELO). By the time they finally got to the studio to record, the final line up was: George Harrison, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan.
They only made two albums and they have been remastered and released as one set. Great stuff to listen to. And if you download it from iTunes it comes with a couple of great music videos circa 80's.