Chocolate Dipping - Thanksgiving time

As you can see, chocolate dipping is a family event. Greg, Michelle, Trisha and Kimberly were the dippers. Lori, Brandon, and Kram helped by tending the kids. Steve was our chocolate melter. It is a great bonding time.

While the neighborhood no longer exchanges gifts at Christmas (preferring to spend the money on humanitarian projects like sub for Santa), Kim, Michelle, and Trisha all dipped for their neighbors. Since Lori is allergic to chocolate, dipping holds little appeal for her. I think we dipped close to 30 pounds of chocolate (or 60 pounds of finished candy). We dipped peanut clusters, mints, caramel, Bavarian mints, English Toffee. We also made French Almond Nougat, but didn't dip it. Diet here I come!

This year I tried something new with the mints - after having half the batches go sugary. I tried dissolving the sugar (as best I could) by stirring it over low heat for a long while before bringing it to a boil. The one batch I did that way turned out perfect. Maybe I'll finally master it. I miss not being able to call Mom and say, "What am I doing wrong?" We used to have that conversation quite often. Usually the answer was, "I don't know. I don't have that problem."

Sunday Victoria: Church, Craigdarroch Castle, Museum

On Sunday, we went to church at the Victoria 1st Ward. It was amazing how similar the church looks to ones we see in the states. It was fun to be there, and I found myself wishing we could stay the whole block. We needed to check out of our hotel, so we had planned to return after sacrament meeting.

We went to the Royal BC Museum near our hotel. We saw glimpses of the first nations culture before the arrival of the British. Amazing how the story of Europeans coming to a country always results in the destruction of that native culture. We learned about Salish people - a subgroup of the Native American culture (in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon).

The natural history museum was really interesting, showing animals in their natural habitat. There was also a modern history gallery showing coal mining, logging, and quaint villages. It was amazing - well worth the time.

We also went to Craigdarroch castle (as it was closed the previous day). I was expecting a castle like we saw in Ireland (run down, cold, ancient, lots of old family portraits). This was quite different. It was build in 1890 by a coal tycoon, Robert Dunsmuir, (who actually died before the castle was finished). It really wasn't a military establishment, so I'm not quite sure why it is called a castle instead of just a mansion. It is over 20,000 square feet, 28 acres (originally) and four stories. The woodwork inside is gorgeous. It has been used for many movies (such as Little Women). Stained glass windows are everywhere and all the rooms are staged to look like they may have been when the Dunsmuirs lived there. In one of the upper rooms, a woman told a story to children. The story was about trolls and seemed to have been constructed just so she could use different voices, talk in a funny accent, sing, and pantomime - but it was fun.







Cherri asked, "Why Vancouver?" No real reason. Kimberly knew people who had been there - and none of us had been there before. It was fun, but going there during the summer would have been better for the gardens. We hadn't brought winter sports attire so ice skating, skiing, and snow boarding lost its appeal. It was about 38 degrees Fahrenheit, but it seemed much colder. I'm not sure why. Maybe because we were outside so much.

Things were super expensive. The ferry to Victoria was $240 (round trip) - so I was glad we stayed the night. Gas was high everywhere -$1.05 a liter (almost $4 a gallon). Kim got HP discounts on hotels and the rental car, so that was great.

We brought out passports, not really believing we would need them. Lucky we did, as border crossing was serious business and passports were strictly required.

Victoria Butchart Gardens

Butchart Gardens is beautiful - even in winter. For Christmas, they had the twelve days of Christmas enacted. Steve is being a partridge (in the pear tree behind him). The pictures of the ocean are on the ferry ride to Victoria.

The picture with the lights is of the capital in Victoria.

Santa in Vancouver

We had taken pictures with these guys before, but when we saw them in Santa hats we had to stop again. There were tons of other people doing the exact same things - mimicking the statues. What a hit!

Lynn Canyon Bridge

Christmas Day was Lynn Canyon Bridge. We worried that Steve wouldn't be able to handle the suspension bridge - as his fear of heights is legendary. But he made it. The park was officially closed, but the 300 other people that were there didn't seem to notice. It was a beautiful park! We had a great Christmas day.

Christmas Eve

These are from our hotel room. Note the lovely white towels adorning the TV.

Today we wandered around Granville Island. It had such fun little shops. Kimberly bought a notebook to jot down ideas for her book. She didn’t reveal the plot. Some of my favorite things were a hammock chair (at a store called Hang Ups) and a check-off diary. There was also a book of lists for you to make on various topics. Very creative!

It’s a Wonderful Life was really fun. The theatre is small and the acting great. It was interesting how they turned a well known movie into a play. Little ZuZu is only four. For the backdrop on scene changes, they used clips from the movie. It was very clever. We hit a Malaysian restaurant – the Banana Leaf. The food was good. Fried bananas and vanilla ice cream may become a Christmas Eve tradition.

We are priming ourselves for a family sauna in a few minutes. My feet are freezing, so I’m more than ready.

Art and Theatre

On Wednesday we talked to the Vancouver art gallery. The landscape scenes were really nice, but the top two floors were too abstract for me. Emily Carr had many of her paintings on display. They weren’t my favorite. One of the unique things was a sculpture by Brian Jungen of a whale, which was made entirely of white plastic lawn chairs. It hung from the ceiling in a large room. It was unique. Another item was a piece of cloth with lots of lipstick prints. It was all of the lip positions of someone singing the Canadian national anthem. There was also the wall of 67, showing 67 individual pictures of oriental Canadians posed in front of the same Canadian mountain scene. The display took the whole wall. On the adjacent wall was another set of 67 pictures showing the same people from the rear. The artist, Jin-me Yoon, was making a statement about cultural identity, but I needed more help understanding it.

The same artist produced Intersection II. The internet says it continues the artist's exploration of motherhood. Like Intersection, this second series is comprised of two staged studio photographs. In one the artist is seen lying on the floor with her day planner in a pool of spilt milk. In the second photograph the artist's child is seen seated and crying in a pool of milk. Both tableaus are shot against a brilliant violet background.

Last night we went to the theatre – Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Nothing is cheap here – and the theatre is no exception. The place was virtually sold out. The performance was good, but added some sexual content that made me uncomfortable. I never can figure out why people think that is so funny. It isn’t clever or plot-enhancing, just disgusting. Today we visit Granville Island to see It’s a Wonderful Life on stage. It should be great!

Christmas in Vancouver

This is definitely a different Christmas for us. For Thanksgiving, it was our year to have everyone at our house. The Christmas holiday this year is for the married kids to be with their in-laws. Steve and I, Kimberly and Greg took off for Vancouver a few days ago. It is a classy city, but COLD. We are lucky it hasn’t rained since we got here. I can’t imagine what we would do in the rain. While the Olympics will be held here in two months, we haven’t seen even a flake of snow, even at the base of Grouse Mountain. Since it was below freezing at the top, we didn’t ride the sky tram to the top.

Stanley Park is a beautiful wooded area not far from our hotel. We walked up on Tuesday, enjoying the Oceanside, birds, and fresh air. They have an amazing aquarium. The jellyfish were beautiful. I’m going to have to read more about them. There was a little marmoset that was sitting on a branch eating. The cutest thing was a little two year old who kept repeating, “It’s a marmoset!” The macaws were so noisy! There were hilarious.



Many things were closed for the season, so we walked a long while before we found a fitting place to eat. We decided just to grab the rental car and visit China town. After loading all of our spare change into the parking meter and walking to the Jade Dynasty, we decided to send Greg and Kim back to the car to move it into a regular underground parking lot. China town looks just like China – all the store fronts announcing their wares in Chinese. Lunch was great. We went to a famous Chinese park nearby. It must have been lovely in the summer, but not much to look at in December.



We visited a world class Indian restaurant – Vij’s. Kim had been told by a friend it was the best Indian restaurant in the West. We tried to get in the first night we were here, but there was an hour wait. On Tuesday, we got there twenty minutes before it opened, but there was already a line. After waiting until people had been seated, we were told we could come in for a drink or go elsewhere and come back. The restaurant was so small, there is no way they could handle all those who wanted to wait, so non-drinkers hit the road. When we returned an hour later, we stood at the back until a table was available. The food was really exceptional. They just assumed everyone would share their food, so it came family style. We later read that the restaurant was “going green” and offering a fare of insects which would require fewer resources to produce. Good thing I didn’t know about the trend before our visit, as I doubt I would have been willing to stand in line at a restaurant that was offering insects. I really didn’t see any insects in my food, but there were some flavors I didn’t recognize.

(Sorry about the random layout. I haven't figured out how to control where the pictures go...)

Do you have room?

I grabbed this from my sister-in-law. I really liked it.

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

On a regular basis, I have interaction with an individual who is so negative. I have listened to complaints, offered suggestions, and tried to smooth things over. At first I thought I was helping, but have come to realize that I’m not changing perceptions at all. This individual is going to have a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day” – no matter what I say or do. I’ll spare you the details.

I do think we are pretty much hard-wired to always want something more. I recall someone saying that being dissatisfied is actually a good thing, as otherwise, after we achieved our first big goal, we would sit back and say, “I got what I wanted. I don’t need to do anything more.” We would be in a self-satisfied plateau where we never looked for any improvement.

I guess we need to find a middle ground – everything isn’t perfect nor horrible. Yet, it takes no talent to find the negative. Finding the good – now that takes talent, and one that needs practice.

Welcome to my practice session.

I am grateful for Primary Sacrament Meeting programs. Look in the dictionary and you’ll find ours listed under perfection. It was amazing. Song leaders don’t come any better than Wendy Worley. Those kids just belted out every song. There was lots of variety – a mother and five year old son cello accompaniment. At other times, the singing was accompanied by wood blocks (for “I am a builder”), a flute, and the bells. It was so sweet.

I am grateful for members of the church. They are just wonderful people. They are fun to be with, uplifting, educated, loving, and good workers.

I love credit cards. I listen to people who say, “Rip them up. Pay for everything with cash.” BUT, I still love credit cards. You can check charges online, pay them off every week (which is what I choose to do), pay for online purchases, get cash advances while you are in Holland (and didn’t realize they don’t accept credit cards), let them go to bat for you if the computer you paid for by credit card never arrived, and get $500 a year in rewards (while not paying one cent in interest). I realize credit card companies are increasing their interest rate to ridiculous amounts, but since I never pay any interest, my love affair with credit cards is not affected.

I love sales. Smiths Marketplace is really making the game fun to play. They usually have 60% off clearance, regularly have megadeals (where you get five dollars off for every ten items you buy in special categories), give you a turkey for as little as $12 (regularly $25), and have $10 off if you spend $50. They make shopping fun. I went in Saturday knowing I wanted to buy a turkey, but needed as many other non-food items as I could find (to get my extra discount). I found nightlights (about time, don’t you think), slippers, little sacks for Christmas favors (we’re in charge of empty nesters), and even some of our favorite moisturizers. There is little joy in shopping, but they’ve found a way to make it enjoyable.

I love my bed. I’m not a great sleeper, but my bed is awesome. It is warm and comfortable. I just read the book The Glass Castle. (I need to make a disclaimer. There is more swearing than necessary and even an F-bomb, so be warned.) However, the book was such a wake up call. It is a story of a woman whose family was dysfunctional – living on the street, harvesting dinner from dumpsters. Yet, she loves her family. For a while they live in a tumble down house where their mattresses are cardboard. It makes you realize how great you have it – and especially makes you appreciate your bed.

I love my cell phone. AT&T needs to take some clues from Smiths Marketplace, as paying my AT&T bill is not fun at all, but I do love my cell phone. You can call anyone you want without paying a cent extra (as we have more minutes that I could possible use) and can summon help from a snow bank. What confidence as cell phone gives you! I forgot my cellphone when I took Grandma back home today and felt naked without it. (But, I didn’t get stopped, so no one knew.)

I love family – kids, grandkids, husband, parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, in-laws.

I love email. I love email. I LOVE EMAIL!!!!

Don't incite predatory instincts

At the university, I serve as an ombudsperson for tenure meetings. What is an ombudsperson, you ask?

Ombudspersons support effective communication, cooperation, equity, and civility in academic and work environments through coaching individuals, facilitating communication between persons and departments, mediation, providing information on university policy, and where needed, recommending appropriate institutional action or change.

But what I really do is listen to tenure meetings to insure policy is followed and the candidate is treated properly.

It is actually a great job, if you are a people watcher. You have no responsibility other than the obvious (and are supposed to say as little as possible), so you can just sit and observe - who speaks, how they make their points, the phraseology they use.

This week I heard a phrase that was so clever. A committee member was commenting on an opening paragraph to the self-assessment letter which read something like, "I have done such a great job that no one could think to deny me tenure." The candidate was advised to take a more modest approach so as not to "incite predatory instincts" of the higher ups. I thought it was a great line!

Are you smarter than a seventh grader...

As part of one of my grants, we had four area teachers come to campus for the summer to design instructional materials for their technology classes. We had a great time with them. One of the perks has been keeping in contact with them.

This week Megan (one of our RET teachers, who actually is Greg's age) asked me to come to her technology class and present an ILM to her seventh graders. We talked about graph coloring - a computer science abstraction for conflict resolution. (See csilm.usu.edu/Browse Resources/CSILM Activities/Graph Coloring). What darling kids! I had so much fun with them. Megan is an amazing teacher. It is great to watch her in action.

The challenge is this. Draw any kind of map that requires five colors to color such that areas which share a border (of more than one point) can't be the same color. After they had struggled a while, I told them that it was impossible. They would never be able to do it. Well, that didn't stop them. The whole hour I had kids handing me a map saying, "This one takes five colors. I know it does." Find a minimal coloring isn't always easy, so I would tell them, "I'm going to take home your map. If I can't color it in four colors, I'll come be a seventh grader and you can take my place teaching classes at the university - as you are obviously smarter than I am."

Wouldn't that be fun? I would love going back to the seventh grade for a week or so. Those were the good old days! I've often wished I could let someone take my place for a while.

My new favorite restaurant

We went out with friends for dinner tonight at the Texas Roadhouse. The mall parking lot has been crazy with cars ever since they opened. I could never figure out where all the people were as they surely couldn't all fit inside. All the tables were taken tonight, but arriving just before six, we had no wait at all. The food was great and reasonably priced. Yum!

Being special isn't all its cracked up to be...

They say tooth implants are successful 95 percent of the time. I'm so "special" that I fall into the 5% that doesn't work out. Infection takes over and contaminates the threads of the implant - making it impossible to get rid of.

I've had an implant for about five years (you can see I'm not good with dates). The last year or so I've noticed it was a bit sunken. Today was the day they went in to try to save it - cleaning it out and doing a bone graft. I would tell you the details, but Steve just turns green and walks away when I merely set the stage.

They tell you to stop them if it gets too painful. About half way through you realize they were just kidding. It is just going to hurt no matter how much anesthetic they give you.

I did get a great nap out of it once I got home. If its like the last oral surgery I had (a tissue graft to build up the gums), it is going to be a painful few weeks.

I always marvel that when things are going well, you don't even notice, but when something goes awry you can't believe how much pain it can cause. I guess you have to have bad health to appreciate how good you had it before.