Brianna Sings National Anthem at Hawks Game

Boise has a minor league baseball team affiliated with the Chicago Cubs, the Boise Hawks. Back on June 19th, Brianna and a friend, Dani Despres, sang the national anthem at one of their games. I was in Asia, of course, but Michelle took video, which we have now posted on YouTube. You can watch it, below, or click here.

This is an arrangement, by that way, that Brianna wrote, and she and Dani have sung this all over the place, from high school wrestling matches to baseball/softball tournaments.

Security in Tokyo

This past couple of weeks in Tokyo, I noticed all of these policemen armed to the teeth with their armbands (man those Tokyo cops are tough!!!) in the train stations. At first, I just thought they had beefed up their security because they heard that the lunatic John Goodale was in town, but then I saw this sign (pictured at right).

They're beefing up security in Tokyo for the G8 meetings coming up in Hokkaido next month. Hmmm... that's like saying, "We're holding government meetings in Portland, so we're beefing up security in Los Angeles..." (about the same distance as between Tokyo and Hokkaido). Oh well... I guess it never hurts to be too safe.

But... in spite of the extra security in Tokyo, I was able to stroll around the train stations with my thermonuclear device, my double-barreled shotgun, and my crossbow slung over my shoulders.

I'm sorry... that was just a silly joke; I don't even own a crossbow! :-)

Flicking Out in Shanghai

Tonight I flicked out. Went to a nearby mall movie theater and saw Dreamworks' and Pixar's "Kung Fu Panda." I haven't laughed that hard in a long time - what a funny movie!!! Especially in the part (I'm not giving anything away, if you haven't seen it) where the panda is being trained with food as a motivator, I thought I was going to die laughing!

Admission, by the way, cost 70 quai, or about $10. That's about the same as a movie theater in the U.S. My popcorn and soda, though, was only 28 quai, or about $4. That's a bargain in the U.S., although since the popcorn tasted very strongly of caramel, I would have gladly paid more for "normal" popcorn! :-)

I've now been to movies in the U.S. (countless states, as I like flicking out on biz trips), Japan, Korea, China, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K. In every place but the U.S., it's first-come, first-served, and you get to pick your assigned seat from whatever is available when you buy your ticket. Awesome!!!

Shanghai's Pearl Tower Disappearing

Though it was kind of a gross day with the clouds, rain and humidity, at night the cloud cover made for some interesting photo opps. Check out how the Pearl Tower disappears in to the nighttime cloud cover, and the glow in the clouds that the lights cause. I thought this looked cool.

As does the photo below, with my hotel in the foreground.

Ugly Day / Ugly Dewd in Shanghai

This afternoon, my associate and I took The Bund Sightseeing Tunnel, from the Pudong side of the Huangu River, to The Bund side. It was an interesting little sub-terranean/sub-river tram ride that was like a good acid trip minus the drugs. I took video of the return trip; I may post that in a subsequent posting.

But it's been kind of a gross day out. Thick cloud cover with periods of rain all day. This picture to the right is taken from The Bund, looking toward Pearl Tower. The cloud cover is so thick that you can't even see the top of Pearl Tower. As many times as I've been to Shanghai, I've never been to the top of that; with the cloud cover today, it wouldn't be a good day for it, either.

But not only was the DAY ugly, I discovered an ugly DEWD, as well. We went past a vendor in the museum area of The Bund Sightseeing Tunnel, that for 160 quai (about $23) would make a figurine of you out of clay. I went ahead and did this, just for the fun of it. Pictures below.

Here the vendor is sculpting me from clay, blue-and-white stripes on my shirt, and everything!

The finished product. Now... why oh WHY has somebody not had the heart to tell me I'm this ugly???!!!

Me standing by the Huangu River; that's our hotel (Oriental Riverside Hotel) directly behind me, with the globe-type things on either side of it.

Jazz in Shanghai

Tonight with a customer we went to a jazz club here in Shanghai. The place is called Jz Club (click on the link; their website is kind of fun), and we had a great time there!!! Though all things are relative, for Shanghai, this place was a bit expensive. They had a cover charge of 30 kuai (about $4.35), each ginger ale I ordered (do I know how to party, or what?!) cost 40 kuai ($5.81). :-)

The place was absolutely PACKED - a full house. However, after just about ten minutes of waiting, they showed us to a table that had cleared out, right at the front of the room. How lucky was that?! Tonight was Big Band night, and on this relatively small stage that had 15 players. For three of their songs, they even featured "Jasmine" - she had a gorgeous voice.

I have posted a video on YouTube (actually three videos combined in to one), which you can click below to view. The band/singing sounded great live in person, but I was actually a little too close to the band for the digital camera to pick up the sound very well. So even though the sound quality isn't that great, I hope you get the idea, anyway. We had a great time!

Boise in Shanghai

Friday night here in Shanghai I went out to dinner with the Christensens and some friends of theirs here. Trent (doing the traditional peace sign behind me) and Tami, and their son, Aaron, are out here from Boise on a two-year assignment from Hewlett Packard.

We went to this little hole-in-the-wall dumpling place that was REALLY good. Dumplings and wanton soup (beef and pig heart). The entire restaurant was about the size of our dining room at home - I don't know how the Christensens discovered this little jewel. Very VERY yummy, and CHEAP!!! By contrast, tonight I was at a Shanghai jazz club, and one ginger ale there cost one-half of what our entire meal for five cost last night!

But better than the food was the company (no... I didn't eat the company). It was fun hanging out with friends from home. But having been gone from Boise for nearly three weeks now, I must admit that it made me a bit homesick!!!

Hachiko / "Times Square" of Tokyo

Wow... what a nice, lazy Father's Day Sunday here in Japan. Didn't do much, but this evening, I took DB (my associate, David Brame) down to Shibuya, which is called by many the "Times Square" of Tokyo. There certainly are a bazillion people walking around down there!!! And with all the neon, it does indeed remind one of Times Square in NYC.

The Shibuya train station features a statue of "Hachiko" - the beloved, loyal dog that went to Shibuya station every day to look for his master (way back in the 1920s). It's a very cute story, supposedly very well-known in Japan; we even have a children's book about Hachiko at home (in English, of course). For the story of Hachiko, you can click here.

DB being a rather simple guy like me, I also thought he would appreciate a nice, simple American PIZZA meal!!! I knew there was a Shakeys Pizza Parlor in Shibuya, so we went there. DB and I were not disappointed - it tasted quite yummy! :-)

Though the pictures do NOT do Shibuya justice, below are a couple of photos I took in Shibuya this evening. Enjoy...

Andrew Playoffs

Hey everybody! This is Justin and Andrew with the first post by somebody other than Dad. Andrew's baseball team finished with the third best record in their league this season, and last week they started the double elimination playoff tournament. They eventually advanced to the semi-final game, which was played on Wednesday. This earned them a game against Andrew's team from last year, the second place Dodgers. Andrew's team jumped out to an early 7-2 lead before the Dodgers stormed back and made it 7-6. It was a tough battle, but the Mariners ended up coasting to a 10-6 victory behind Andrew's great play on both offense and defense. He reached base on all four at-bats, including 2 RBI singles. He also played great at first base.
On Friday, they went on to play the Indians in the championship. Andrew played first base once again and was an integral part of the Mariners impressive defensive effort. He also went 2-2 with an RBI double in the Mariners 4-2 win. This isn't the end, however. While the Mariners had lost one game in the tournament, this was the Indians first loss. The playoffs are double elimination, so the Mariners must beat them again Saturday afternoon to win the championship.

Rinsed Well

Ahhhh... now this certainly sounds just fine. I've taken a picture here in my Fukuoka (Japan) hotel room of a cup wrapped in plastic, right next to my incredibly high-tech in room phone. You can be absolutely positive that I feel completely comfortable taking a sip from this cup, because it has been "RINSED WELL." :-)

On a side-note, this same model phone I have seen in Japan hotel rooms since the late 1980s. They just don't make phones like they used to! :-)

An Inconvenient Remote Control

Check this out. I discovered that my TV remote control in my apartment in Tokyo has a "speed dial" button for CNN!!! :-)

(you may need to click on the picture to enlarge it, to see the button clearly)

Eatertainment: Inakaya

Last night we went to one of my favorite restaurants here in Tokyo, a place called "Inakaya." It's a robatayaki-style restaurant, and the customers sit around a giant U-shaped bar. You have all kinds of food laid out in front of you - beef, chicken, vegetables, fish, etc. etc. etc., and there are two guys on a raised platform in the center of the U. You tell the waiters around you what you want, and they yell it out to the two guys up front. They prepare it - cook it if necessary, and serve it up to you on a long wooden "paddle." It's a very fun, loud environment - best understood by watching the video, below (or on YouTube, here). I call it EATERTAINMENT.

By the way, in the second part of this clip, they're not beating some customer who didn't pay his bill, they're pounding rice in to submission, to turn it in to rice cakes.

Executive Chef, EGT

Tonight I received a short-lived promotion to Executive Chef, Emergent Game Technologies. Cooked spaghetti in my apartment for my two Emergent associates and myself. Now we're hanging out watching "Without a Trace" on Tokyo's Super Drama TV channel. Are we party animals this Saturday night in Tokyo, or what?! Actually... after eating out and entertaining night after night, it's nice to just sit around in my cozy apartment. Never fear, though... after my associates finish off their drinks, we're going to go totally crazy and have ice cream for dessert. Look out, Tokyo!!! :-)

By the way, I call the Executive Chef promotion short-lived because I accidentally undercooked the noodles and they were a bit tough. I guess I'll have to keep my day job!

I'll be accepting recipe submissions for our next wild, crazy night in Asia. :-)

Mark - A Presidential Scholar

This year, Mark enjoyed being king of the hill at his elementary school, and next year he gets to move on to middle school. He's done a great job this year, and I'm sure we'll see many great things from him next year, as well.

On Friday, Mark was presented with the President's Education Award. To the right is his certificate, and below you'll see the letter from President Bush (click either to enlarge).

Way to go, Mark!!!

Happy Memorial Day!!!

Happy Memorial Day, everybody!!! Even though the forecast called for thunderstorms today, we woke up to a bright and beautiful day. We had canceled plans for a pool party and BBQ, but with the change in weather, we went back to that plan.

Not before a great breakfast, though. Not having any obligations this morning, Dad took time to cook french toast and bacon. With our size family, consider this ingredients list:

• Two pounds of bacon.
• 23 eggs.
• 4 cups of milk (I'm guessing on that one).
• 3/4-cup cinnamon (guessing again - I don't use a recipe for my french toast batter).
• 1-1/2-cup sugar (yummy in the batter).
  
• 2 loaves of bread (and a little more).

Ahhh... the challenges of a big family and a favorite meal. Thank goodness for the griddle which can cook up to eight pieces of french toast at a time (I cooked 37 in total).

With the late breakfast (indeed - we slept in!), we skipped lunch and spent all afternoon in the pool. Had some friends over, too. I had planned on BBQ'ing hamburgers and hot dogs around 5pm, but around 4pm, we noticed clouds rolling in. So I started grilling up the food. Just in time, too - by 5pm we all were inside, while outside there was thunder, lightning, and rain. Not to mention the wind, and the fact that the temperature dropped by about 20 degrees. That's how quickly storms come up around here.

I was too busy swimming and/or BBQ'ing to take any pictures during the fun, but in this post is a photo of our pool under the cool, gray skies and rain. You'll notice that this year we got a solar blanket for the pool. It does a pretty good job of keeping the pool warm even overnight, so it seems like it's a good investment so far.

Steven's Silly Baseball Team

On the day formal pictures were taken for Steven's baseball team, they had a number of players missing. So after last night's game, I took several pictures of the team. Serious pictures, of course, but as I like to do, I had the team do a silly pose, too. I tell you... THIS Red Sox teams should strike fear in the hearts of the players of the Boston MLB franchise!!! :-)

Attacking Water

Our silly puppy!!! Whenever we're out doing anything with the garden hose, Shadow likes attacking the stream of water. Andrew shot video of our silly puppy doing this this evening. By this coming weekend, our pool should be ready for the season, too, and Shadow loves playing with us around the pool (but he won't dare jump in!). That'll be fun!!!

Prom Time

Fancy dresses. Spiffy tuxedos. Beautiful flowers. Delicious dinners. Gorgeous hairdos. Fun dancing. Scrumdidlicious desserts. No... nobody got married; it's prom time! Christopher asked Norah Ashby, and you'll have to ask him how he asked her, and how she replied.

Here in Idaho, you don't just pop up with, "Hey... do you want to go to prom with me?" It must be a creative event. And the date gets creative, as well. Proms here are a day-long affair, and this morning Christopher and Norah and two other couples went hiking and did a picnic. Two of those three couples gathered for pictures this evening (one couple was running late), and the three couples are then tripling for the evening. Even as I post this entry, the six of them are at "The Melting Pot," a restaurant that serves appetizers, entrees, and desserts as fondues.

Christopher and Norah are pictured at the right, and I've posted more on Flickr, please click here. There are some really cute pictures posted there of the dates standing back-to-back, and of the girls dancing.

Andrew Baseball

Tonight Andrew's baseball team had a game. Though he pitches frequently, today he played mostly second base, and also center field. The coach loves him because he's a utility player and can play just about anywhere. We his parents love him because he's such an awesome kid (and because he's a good utility player). :-)

Unfortunately, his team lost 4-3; our bats just wouldn't come alive. The team got only four hits; Andrew got this first team hit to lead-off the bottom of the third inning, and he later scored that inning. You see (top right portion of frame) the ball ascending here off his bat; it dropped in to shallow right field for a hit.

You also see Andrew here at third base, just before he scored that same inning. A Mariners uniform!!! It's bad enough this die-hard Angels fan has to wear the uniform of intra division rival the Mariners, but at least it's not as bad as last year, when he had to wear the uniform of cross-town rivals the Dodgers!

Steven Sports

Below are the kinds of videos that grandmothers just love. So these are for you, Grandma Nancy! There is a short video of Steven bowling, and one of him batting. He swung at a low pitch, but hit it for a single. :-)

Brianna Piano Composition

Back on April 25th, Brianna participated in a talent show at her high school. She played her own (untitled) piano composition, written in F# minor. She placed fifth overall. Of course, I was in Asia, but Michelle took a video of the performance. You can view it below, or click here to jump to YouTube to view it there.

Dinner Table Hilarity: Satanic Chicken

Now... I don't mean to get off on a rant here, but it really would be nice if they didn't allow babies in business class! On my business class flight from Tokyo to San Francisco yesterday, there was a baby right across the aisle from me, and he screamed the entire flight. So much for a nice, peaceful overnight (sleeping) flight!

So last night at dinner table, I said "Holy COW am I tired!!!" Then Christopher piped up with, "Why not satanic chicken?" After a chorus of Huh???'s from around the table, Christopher goes, "You know... it's always 'holy cow.' Why not 'satanic chicken'?".

The affects of tiredness really hitting me, I thought I was going to fall off my chair, I was laughing so hard.

Ahhhhhhhhh... it's good to be home!!! :-)

Silly Sign

This happens to be one of my favorite signs in Tokyo. I like it in part because this is a new ordinance almost everywhere, and it's nice to walk down the street smelling only car exhaust. :-)

These signs are all over the sidewalks in Japan. This one is on a brick-covered sidewalk in Ueno.

But I do think the sign is absolutely ridiculous in one respect: anybody with half-a-brain knows that walking cigarettes do not have pockets in their pants! :-)

Grocery Shopping in Tokyo

This (Saturday) morning I went to a section of Tokyo where most foreign countries have their embassies. Walking around down there, I haven't seen so many white people in... oh... a little more than two weeks! I also found a foreigner's grocery shopping paradise.

Near my apartment, I've been doing all of my grocery shopping in a small grocery store called "Yoshiike." There is almost nothing there that is a familiar brand from the U.S. I've been living as the Japanese live, going to the grocery store about every two days, because it's impossible to carry a lot of groceries back and forth between home and the store. Each time I go grocery shopping, I bring home two bags of stuff, and it costs $20 to $30 (yen equivalent).

No wonder it's expensive for foreigners to live here!!! This store I found today in Hiroo, called "National," has imported U.S. brands, and it has things like cold cereal, frozen microwavable dishes, etc. - all things my local store does not stock. I got a few things, mainly so I could do quick meals, and two bags later, instead of $20 to $30, it was $50! I'm glad the place is far away, and that I won't be shopping there very often!

I also found something pretty funny there. Check out the picture for this posting. Have you ever wondered why most Japanese kids you see are all polite and nice? Apparently, it's because they cook the brats!!! :-)

Good Train Manners in Tokyo

So... the subway system has this big "manners" campaign going on here. Be nice to your fellow passengers, keep things clean, don't talk on your cell phone, don't beebop to the headphones from your MP3 player, etc.

As with nearly all advertising campaigns here in Tokyo, this one, too, engenders some pretty interesting signs. I thought this one was pretty funny. Apparently, if you're gonna be a slob, taking up lots of space, looking at girly magazines, you better do it at home.

For all the pictures I've posted from this trip to Japan, click here.

It's been a long week; I'm looking forward to a slower weekend, so I can catch my sanity before it slips away...

How Do I Look in Pink?

Haha... the title of this posting made you look. No, I'm not wearing pink; I'm surrounding by pink cherry blossoms in the background. On either side of me are associates from Emergent Game Technologies. Kohei is our "TAM" (Technical Account Manager) in Japan, and Val is our Global TAM (based in France), overseeing all of our TAMs worldwide.

Cherry blossom season is over in Japan, but there's this one place that has a special kind of cheery tree that triggers late, and these were in full bloom.

This picture was taken down in Kyoto, where we had meetings on Tuesday. As this is Val's first trip to Japan, he obviously had never been to Kyoto, but neither had Kohei (but I've been there at least half-a-dozen times).

I haven't had time to post much on this trip; each of the past two days were 16-hour days. I have been interpreting nonstop for the past three days, as well, and I forgot what tiring work that is! Plus, my neck is having a hard time supporting this head (inside joke). G'night, everyone!

Cold and Rainy in Tokyo

Greetings from Tokyo, everyone. I arrived last night, and am staying at the same apartments where I stayed at when I was here in February. It's so nice staying in an apartment and being able to do my own grocery shopping, etc. I still need to go to a good yasai-ya (literally "vegetable market," but they have all kinds of yummy fruits, as well), but hopefully mama would be proud of what's filling my fridge: strawberries, yogurt, cheeses, bread, eggs, ham, bacon, milk, water and juices. :-)

So on the flight here yesterday, I watched two in-flight movies: "Golden Compass" and "P.S. I Love You." So... I remember all of the fuss that "Golden Compass" was anti-Christian and all that, but I didn't sense that; it was just an awful movie!!! Not even Nicole Kidman could save it (in fact, she might have been the worst part of it!). And then, "P.S. I Love You"??? What a major chick-flick that was!!! Not even if I knew I was about to get my ticket punched, I don't know if I could coordinate letters to my wife after I was gone. But I sure would love to be able to post to the blog from the other side! :-)

Oh... and last night while walking around, I saw four random black cats here in Tokyo. I rarely see stray cats wandering around here, so it was weird. Hopefully none of them crossed my path! :-)

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Where Did Spring Go???

What a surprise it was to wake up this morning and find this outside. Apparently Jack Frost missed the memo that it's Spring.

College Tour - By the Numbers

I'm sorry that I didn't have time to post more while Christopher and I were on our college tour. To the right here is a photo of Christopher standing next to our car, which is parked right on the sand at the beach in Daytona Beach, FL. For all of the posted photos from our trip, please click here.

We had a GREAT time together, and were just too busy driving/touring to do many postings. Christopher commented that he was grateful for our relationship, because he didn't think he knew too many guys his age who would be excited to spend a week with his dad in a car. I was quick to point out to Christopher that that is probably due to the fact that I never matured beyond 16 years old, myself. He agreed, as I'm sure my readers will. :-)

I've always liked numbers, so here is a numerical summary of our trip:

• 9: Number of days traveling.
• 5,964: Total number of miles driven.
• 1,705: Total number of miles driven by Christopher.
• 645: The most miles driven by Christopher in a single day (the last day of our trip).
• 1,194: The most miles we drove in any given day (the first full day of our trip).
• $3.099: The cheapest gas (per gallon) we found on the trip. In Newton, Iowa. It's amazing what difference state taxes can make on gas prices. Forget big oil companies - it's the government that really profits from gasoline!!!
• $3.679: The most expensive gas we found on the trip. In Daytona Beach, Florida. Gas prices in Nebraska ran a close second in the most expensive gas category, followed by Georgia.
• 12: Number of states visited/passed through on our trip: ID, UT, WY, NE, IA, KS, MO, IL, KY, TN, GA, FL.
• 3: Number of states that Christopher had never been to prior this trip: KS, KY, TN.
• 1: Number of states that John have never been to prior this trip: KY.
• 8: Number of states in which Christopher had driven past a particular speed he had in mind (nothing not allowable by law, that's for sure - wink wink).
• 0: Number of speeding tickets (nor moving violations of any kind) on the trip.
• 1: Only one near accident, caused by a hapless truck driver. Christopher was driving at the time.
  
• 21: The number of miles left in our journey before said hapless truck driver nearly drove us off the road.
• 32,496: Estimated number of times son laughed at father's corny jokes.
• <3: Number of times those laughs were genuine.
• 98.4: The percentage of my readers who will feel that the stat listed directly above this is a number far too high.
  

Iraq: "We're Making a Difference"

Christopher and I have driven more than 3,500 miles since Saturday, and more than 1,200 miles just in the last 36 hours. Greetings again from Chattanooga, Tennessee; we're on our way back up north for more school visits. Not much time to write today, but I just wanted to relate something special from today.

Today we visited Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. We did a general campus tour there, and also met individually with ROTC detachments from the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Major Jones and Captain Robinson from the Army ROTC were both really awesome. Major Jones in particular was a very inspirational, eloquent speaker, and he related a story that we found very touching.

Christopher asked Major Jones what the difference was between the Army, Navy and Air Force ROTC programs, and how the benefits of each branch of service differ. Major Jones indicated that that really depended on what you wanted out of it, and he listed some examples which I may post later, but I will relate this one experience he told...

Referring to Christopher's earlier comment that he wanted to actually DO something and make a difference, Major Jones told of his most recent deployment to Iraq. About 18 months ago, he was patrolling a neighborhood and a 4, 5, or 6-year-old little girl came up to him, was tugging on his shirt, and said, "I love you." And this is an experience that repeats itself often. Major Jones went on to say that the Army IS making a difference in Iraq, and many Iraqis have told him that they have opportunities now that they would have never had under Saddam. You could tell that he was starting to well up a little bit, and he told us that, even married with four children, he is volunteering to go back to Iraq again this summer.

The Trek East

Sorry I don't have much time to post today; gotta hit the road. Since the last posting, we've spent most of our time driving east...

• Day One: From Salt Lake City, UT to St. Joseph, MO. 1,040 miles.
• Day Two: From St. Joseph, MO to Chattanooga, TN. 760 miles.
  

Today we'll finish our drive to Daytona Beach, FL - over 500 miles.

Unfortunately, having a destination to get to, we haven't had opportunity to do much other than just drive. We did stop in St. Louis yesterday, though, and rode the tram to the top of the Gateway Arch. Cool place! The two photos below best depict our trek west. For all the posted photos, though, please click here.

We though this sign was hilarious. After driving for HOURS and not seeing anything but desert for hundreds of miles, we stopped to get gas, and this sign was on the front of the convenience store: "YOU ARE NOWHERE." How fitting!!! :-)

Christopher by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO.

College Tour Kickoff

A tradition that we started two years ago with Justin is now continuing with Christopher. For each of our kids' Spring breaks during their junior year in high school, we'll go check out colleges and universities. Justin checked out DePauw (Indiana), Michigan State and University of Michigan, and Brianna says in two years she wants to go check out music conservatories in Europe - FAT CHANCE!!! Christopher flew down and met Andrew and I in Salt Lake, where today he and I started a cross-country trek to check out universities with strong aviation programs. Christopher first and foremost would like to be a pilot, but he also loves working with his hands and fixing things, so he's also checking out aircraft maintenance programs.

Today we checked out Utah State University (USU) in Logan, about 90 miles north of Salt Lake City. We also topped off the night by me introducing Christopher to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. He said it is the best steak he's ever had. And MAN was it yummy!!! In the photo here you can see Christopher about to dig in to a fillet, and he's sporting a USU sweatshirt. Some interesting things we learned about USU today:

• USU has a very strong engineering program, of which Aeronautics/Aviation is a part. They get $250 million in research money every year, among the highest in the nation.
• USU sends more research projects in to space via NASA than any other university in the world. Posters can be seen around the place saying, "Send your homework in to space!"
• Christopher found out that his USU index for his GPA and ACT score is a 126, allowing for a "Deans" scholarship that covers full tuition for all four years. He needs just a 131 to get all tuition and fees covered through a "Presidents" scholarship, so he's all of a sudden much more motivated to do JUST a little bit better in school.
• USU's "Professional Pilot" concentration has just 140 students in it, with less than 50 accepted in to the program each year.
• USU's "Aircraft Maintenance" has less than 50 students in it, with just 7 accepted for next year.
• There is a tradition at USU where you can become a "True Aggie." Essentially for a guy, you have to take a willing young lady to kiss her on the "A" located next to the university's huge quad area, on a full moon or on homecoming. Fun stuff.
• We met with an engineering student advisor who spent about two hours with us - she was nice and very helpful. We told her of the tour we were embarking on, and asked her to compare USU's aviation program with that of the other schools we are visiting. She was actually quite down on Embry Riddle Aeronautical University - said they have not been impressed with students transferring in from there to USU (maybe because they've only had ERAU's dropouts???).
• University of Utah was founded as Agriculture College of Utah and still has strong agricultural roots. As such, the university makes it's own "Aggie Ice Cream" of which we got free samples. Perhaps not the #1 reason to attend USU, but this is certainly a big plus. VERY yummy!!! :-)
  

Christopher really liked USU, so we'll see how the rest of our trip compares. Tomorrow we set off to drive toward Daytona Beach, 2300 miles away, which we can cover in two-and-a-half days. Tomorrow we hope to make it to close to Kansas City, MO, just over 1,000 miles away.

At ERAU, as Christopher is seriously considering a military path, in addition to our tour we also have meetings with ROTC reps from the Air Force, Navy and Army. After ERAU in Daytona Beach, on our way back we will visit Middle Tennessee State University and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, two other schools with strong aviation programs.

Go Lakers!!!

Living in SoCal for most of our lives, we are big Lakers fans, and one of Andrew's Christmas presents was two tickets to a Lakers game. So yesterday Andrew and I drove down to Salt Lake City where the Lakers faced the Utah Jazz. We weren't expecting much because the Jazz had won 19 straight at home, but the Lakers came out and just OWNED the game. I like this picture I took just before tipoff (this plus 12 more photos posted here - please click), with all the players hugging and being all nice. Although... Derek Fisher here I think is hesitant to hug his former teammates on the Utah squad. :-) The picture here is about as friendly as they got all night, and the Lakers had opened up a 20-point lead by the end of the first quarter. They never looked back, and won 106-95. The Goodales (some or all of them) had previously seen two "away" Lakers games, both in Atlanta, where the horrific Hawks team BEAT the Lakers. We were beginning to think the Goodales were cursing away games for the Lakers, so it was good to reverse that trend! :-)

Most of all, I just LOVE the energy that you feel at professional sporting events. It's so much fun to be there and feel it. Whether your team wins or loses, it's just fun because of the energy of the place. I once went to a Braves-Phillies game at Turner Field in Atlanta - two teams I don't even care about. But it was fun just to be there and feel the energy.

Andrew loved his Christmas present, and I put him on a plane to head home this morning. His three older siblings have all flown alone, so this was sort of a rite of passage for Andrew, getting to fly alone. He loved that, too!

Christopher has taken his place, though, and we started our college tour today. More on that through additional posts...

Cave Camping

This weekend our Boy Scouts went camping out in caves near Twin Falls (about a two-hour drive from Boise). The Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmaster (the two leaders) went, a half-dozen of the boys went, and I also tagged along. These caves were very hard to get to and to navigate in once you got there. The main (paved) road ended, and then there was a two-and-a-half-mile dirt road to the caves. This dirt road was full of ruts and in pretty bad shape. My poor Acura MDX, even with 4WD, didn't make it all the way. We decided to park it en route, and the occupants/stuff in my car got transferred to "The Beast" (the scoutmasters old Chevy Silverado appropriately named), and went the rest of the way that way. Snow fell overnight, and leaving was even more difficult the next morning!

Once there, we entered the caves (through quite a steep, narrow, boulder-strewn passageway), which was actually one really long cave with a couple of offshoots. The entire length of the cave is probably half-a-mile; we set up camp in a fairly wide, tall part of the cave about a quarter-mile in. While getting there, though, in some sections of the cave the roof was no more than 3-4 feet from the floor - it made for quite the hike. Not a good place if you're claustrophobic! In spite of the cold and snow outside the caves, inside it was a nice, cozy 52 degrees (where it stays all year, so we hear). The roof of the cave sweats and is constantly dripping, which made for sleeping in there interesting.

Quite a unique, interesting experience, and it was FUN!!! :-) Pictured here is a shot of most of the group, with Andrew in the middle in gray, in the smaller section of the cave (near the entrance) where we cooked and ate. To see all 19 photos from the campout, please click here.

Australia: Flicking Out, Beaches, etc.

I forgot to mention it, but Monday night after our Blue Mountains tour, we flicked out. While walking back to our hotel, we passed a cinema and went in and saw "Jumper." Not sure we liked it - it certainly didn't live up to the hype. Expensive ticket prices, too! $16 ASD each - that's about $15 USD each! At least that got us assigned seats. I've been to movies in the U.K., Japan, Korea and New Zealand, and in each of those countries they assign seats - I have never seen that at a U.S. movie theater. And we had the option of seeing the movie in their "gold class" theater, which would have given us larger recliner seats and in-theater food service (servers in the theater - but you still have to pay for the food). We figured that wasn't worth the $30 ASD they charge, so we got the "cheap" seats!

Meanwhile, on with the summary...

Tuesday, March 4th:

• Bondi Beach. Lots of people told us we MUST visit two beaches here in Sydney, and we hit the first one Tuesday. Bondi Beach really was quite pretty (pictured herein), and the water was very warm and clear. This did make us realize how much we took the beach for granted when we lived in SoCal - Bondi Beach seemed no more cool than some of our old stomping grounds like Corona Del Mar, Laguna Beach, and so on.
• Sydney Wildlife World. Right next door to the Aquarium we visited earlier this week is Sydney Wildlife World, a quaint little zoo featuring a lot of animals that are native to Australia. It was cool, but honestly I think the smaller, less-publicized Featherdale Park we saw on Monday was cooler. Check out the way cute Koala, though.
• We're Gonna Go Batty!!! Last night while we were walking back to our hotel, we happened to glance up and see HUNDREDS of bats flying above the city!!! I had heard rumors of these, but hadn't noticed previously. Fortunately they tend to stay up really high so you never really notice them unless you're looking for them. But even so... they're kinda creapy!!!

Wednesday, March 5th:

• Taronga Zoo. We took the ferry (ferries are great here!!!) over to the other side of Sydney Harbor, to Taronga Zoo. This has got to be the coolest zoo I've ever been to! It's huge, and very diverse. Here is one of my favorite pictures - a picture of two giraffes with the Sydney skyline in the background. They also had the CUTEST meerkats there!!! I've posted these cute little guys on our Flickr site, so go have a look. I guarantee you'll go "Awwwww..."
• Temple. It was very nice to visit the Sydney Temple of our church Wednesday evening. A nice, peaceful contrast to the craziness we've been enjoying all week. :-)

Wow... running out of time again, so will have to put up more later. There are more pictures (up to 181 now) on the Flickr site, though, including pictures from today's visit to Manly Beach. Please click here.

Busy & Fun Time in Australia

Have been so busy and having so much fun in Australia that I haven't had a chance to do a blog posting in several days - sorry. Here's a brief recap, though.

Sunday, March 2nd:

• Church. We started the day by going to church. Learned of the Hyde Park Branch of the church that met on the second floor of a commercial building not even a five-minute walk from where we're staying in downtown Sydney. When we walked in somebody said, "It looks like we have more visitors..." and they asked where we were from. When we replied "Boise, Idaho in the U.S." they start to chuckle, just due to the irony: the branch had some 30 visitors from Idaho! There was a large group of retired farmers from southeast Idaho (Pocatello and surrounding areas) on an "Ag Tour" of Australia. The Hyde Park Branch is a small branch, and there were more visitors from Idaho than there were local members. Funny.
• Sydney Opera House Tour. We checked out the schedule of events this week at the Sydney Opera House, but there was nothing really that we wanted to see. So we took a guided tour, and it was actually very interesting. Quite the structure! But I guess it should be. Projected to cost $5 million over 5 years to build, it ended up costing more than $100 million over something like 15 years. Crazy. Included herein is a picture of the Sydney Harbor Bridge with the Opera House in the background.
• Cockle Bay Wharf. This has become one of our favorite places here in Sydney. At the end of Darling Harbor, this cute little wharf has a beautiful boardwalk area, tons of shops, and a lot of nice restaurants. And while most of Sydney (except for the many bars) shuts down at 6pm, shops/restaurants here are open late!
  
• Sweet!!! Quite literally. Located on the boardwalk mentioned above is the only Lindt Chocolate restaurant in the world. We indulged in a yummy dessert here (see photo on Flickr site).
• Aussie Beef! I've found Aussie beef to be quite yummy, so we ate dinner at a restaurant on the boardwalk, a place called I'm Angus Steakhouse. Very yummy!!! Michelle had a yummy filet, but I had a 600g (about 18 ounces) New York strip in my sons' honor! :-)

Monday, March 3rd:

This was the day we did a tour of the Blue Mountains, a very beautiful area about 60 miles inland from Sydney. We booked a tour with a tour company, and there were 21 of us that toured in a small bus throughout the day. The bus picked us up just after 7am, and we got back after 7pm. Our tour guide ("Bob") was great, and we made several stops to and from the Blue Mountains:

• Featherdale Wildlife Park. Our first stop en route to the Blue Mountains was this cute little park. What a great selection of Australian animals they had! We're pictured here with a koala that we had a chance to pet. These little guys are SOOOO cute, but they smell rotten! They have a very low-energy diet, so they sleep something like 20 hours a day (now Brianna is officially jealous!). :-) We also enjoyed their petting zoo, where we got to interact with kangaroos. Have never seen that in a petting zoo in the U.S.!
• Boomerangs. After Featherdale Park, we drove to an open area where we were offered "morning tea" and were taught how to throw a boomerang. We discovered that I rock at throwing a boomerang (stated with all appropriate humility, of course). I threw the thing quite far, and it actually came back to me (or at least got pretty close). We bought a boomerang, and I look forward to practicing at home (and seeing how many people I can injure / things I can break in the process)! :-)
• Blue Mountains. Our pre-lunch stop was at an overlook point where we got to see most of the Blue Mountains from up top. Picture a mini Grand Canyon, but covered in deep vegetation. The bulk of that vegetation is eucalyptus trees, and secreted oil from all of these trees is picked up in the sunlight and reflects blue (hence the name).
• Country Club Lunch. After all that we had done that morning, we were quite ready for lunch, and we had lunch in a clubhouse at a country club there in the Blue Mountains.
• Three Sisters. There is a prominent rock formation (pictured herein) in the Blue Mountains. The best view of this formation is from the bottom of the valley, and getting there and back was half the fun. We descended on the steepest cable car skyway in the world, and ascended back up on the steepest train in the world (52 degrees!).
• Sydney Olympic Park. On the way back to the city, we drove through the Sydney Olympic Park. It seems like the 2000 Summer Olympic games in Sydney was just yesterday!
• River Cat Ride. From the Olympic Park, we took a "River cat" river cruise back to Circular Quay (pronounced "key"), the main passenger wharfs in Sydney Harbor, right near the Sydney Opera House. Saw some beautiful riverside homes en route!

Well... that's all I have time for now; will have to summarize Tuesday and Wednesday later. It's Thursday morning here, and we're gonna get ready to go spend a good chunk of the day at Manly Beach. I've posted more photos (134 in total now) covering through Tuesday. To see the photos, please click here.

Greetings from Down Under

Day One from Australia: Hello from Sydney. Michelle and I have arrived safely, and we're having a great time. Have been in country a little less than 24 hours now, and here a few highlights.

• Long LONG Trip to Australia. No... I'm not necessarily referring to the 13.5-hour flight from SFO to SYD (photo from plane at right), although that was a long flight! But what I'm referring to is the fact that, yet again, like in Tokyo, I've been stuck here in Sydney. At SFO, I had Australian visa problems because according to Australian government records, I never left here when I was here in November. So the Australian government was confused as to why I was trying to board a flight to Sydney when I was already here! Fortunately my passport has a "departed" stamp from November 18, 2007, so we got it all straightened out and I was able to board the flight, but I thought it was pretty funny. Stuck in Tokyo for six weeks (as previously posted), and now stuck in Australia for more than three months! Apparently there's been three of me running around (frightening!!!). :-)
• Sydney Tower. Feeling somewhat jetlagged (having landed at 7:30am after spending all of "leap day" in the air), our first day was pretty low key. Walked around downtown Sydney, and went to the top of Sydney Tower. Here you see a picture of Michelle from the tower, with the famous Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House far below us, in the background. The Sydney Tower is as tall as the Eiffel Tower - I hadn't realized it was that tall. The views of the city were gorgeous, and it was a beautiful, sunny day (very windy which sometimes made it cold, but temps in the high 60s - quite cool for an Australian "summer").
• St. Mary's Cathedral. Here you see a picture of a Catholic cathedral that I took from the Sydney Tower. What a beautiful structure! It reminded Michelle of all the beautiful cathedrals she saw while living in France, so after the tower we strolled down there and were able to go inside. If you take a look at the several photos I've posted online, you'll see a few pictures of both inside and outside the cathedral. Note the beautiful stained glass windows! Pretty stuff. This cathedral is also right in the midst of Hyde Park, sort of a "Central Park" of Sydney.
• Diversity on Display. So... I didn't know this when we planned this trip, but yesterday happened to be Marti Gras here in Sydney. And it so happened that it was sponsored by gay and lesbian groups. The streets of downtown Sydney were absolutely PACKED, especially during the parade in the evening (Michelle and I saw the floats lining up to start, but we were too tired to stay). There was quite a diverse group of people on hand for the event, both participants and observers. Just as a bit of flavor for what the crowds were like, these two "nurses" pictured here are indeed men.

That's it for today. I've posted 34 photos so far on our Flickr site, including more Mardi Gras photos, views from the Sydney Tower, and even a cool car that Christopher and Brianna will enjoy. To view, please click here.

Deadly Deodarant

I've been in San Francisco all week for the annual Game Developers Conference (photo of our booth on the right). Lots of meetings, and it was a good show.

But today I ran out of deodorant, and not wanting to stink out my fellow passengers on the plane tomorrow, I went to a Walgreens not too far from the hotel. Crazy San Francisco... you know what I learned? At least at this Walgreens, the deodorant is behind locked cabinets!!! I had to ask for a worker to unlock the cabinet so I could get some deodorant. I half expected them to have me fill out forms and undergo a ten-day waiting period, or something. Weird. Maybe it's just not hit the national press yet, but has San Francisco undergone a recent rash of crimes committed with deodorant??? :-)

Snow Camping!!!

Andrew went snow camping while I was in Japan, and MAN am I ever sad that I missed out on that experience. You see a picture of Andrew here in a snow cave, where he actually SLEPT, but for more details, I'll point you to a blog posting that a friends of ours put up. More pictures and witty commentary can be found here.