On our way home from Soda Springs we were stopped behind this SUV at the railroad tracks waiting for a train to pass. I noticed the bumper sticker … “Is it Sunday yet?” along with the license plate bracket which said the driver was from Montpelier, Idaho. A closer look at the sticker and I saw “NASCAR”. That’s the new religion in much of the US these days. My brother Perry and his wife Chris have gotten this fever as well. For at least the third year in a row, they’re headed next week to Las Vegas to a Nascar race. Hopefully this year he’ll take winter clothes with him! Last year they about froze….

The visit with dad and mother today was very nice. We got there about 11:30 and left to come back to Pocatello about 3:00. Dad was pretty perky this afternoon. Nina had made some cookies (three kinds: chocolate chip, molasseses, and Snickerdoodles) for him, so he was quite happy. Mother said he could have one … he managed to get two down before she put the cookies away. Dad has a growth on his neck that needs to come off as it’s starting to give him some pain. He’s meeting with the doctor on Monday to get everything set up. They’ll do the surgery in the operating room at the hospital, but he should be able to come home the same day.

Tonight we had tickets to a Season of Note performance titled Samarabalouf. This was an absolutely delightful performance. I took some video with my little Sony camera. It’s about two and a half minutes long and gives a taste of their music. We had a great time and would definitely go see this group again. They definitely had the whole crowd on their feet by the end of the concert and then they played a good ten-minute encore.  Well worth our time to have been there. A good day and a delightful evening for sure.

It’s kind of snowing outside. The snow cloud stalled overhead for a couple of hours and perhaps an inch of snow has fallen. With any luck we’ll get a bit more before this small storm moves to the southeast. It’s been a nice, quiet Friday evening here. After dinner we watched an episode of Monk, sitting in our recliners just like old folks. It was nice. Tomorrow we’ll go over to Soda Springs for a little while in the late morning. Tomorrow evening we’ll go to a concert from the “Season of Note” series at the Jensen Center. I’m looking forward to both events. Meanwhile, let it snow!

Nina came home from the hairdresser with a new hairdo this afternoon. I like it and pestered her with the camera until I got a picture that seemed to do the new do some justice.

While she was away at the hairdresser, I was at the dentist getting the remaining work on the root canal that was done before I went to Belgium. I think she had a whole lot more fun than I did. After filling my jaw up with anesthetic, the drilling and filing (that is the right word. They take these tiny files and run them up and down the nerve canal to open it up and clean out anything that might be there) began. It took almost an hour and a half to clean everything out and put in the permanent filling. One of our dental plan options is Willamette Dental which is a dental maintenance company. The good part about this plan is that they focus on maintenance so checkups and cleanings are scheduled as often as needed. The dentists are young and change occasionally. I go see whatever dentist is working that day. That works quite well for me.

The new kitchen table hobby for Nina is putting together these small 500 piece puzzles. She works on them whenever she is waiting for Bradica (the dog) to come back in from outside. The new look for the table is that I have to take all of my paper off the table and put it away somewhere every day. I kind of think that part of Nina’s goals for this year is to have an uncluttered table and an empty kitchen counter. Sometimes I do my part to help….

Sunday evenings are almost always pretty quiet around here. After a day in church we rather enjoy a quiet evening here at home. It’s also been a fairly uneventful week as well. We had a bit of weather on Thursday, but that went away without leaving any snow behind. This has been a strange winter with no snow. Our eight-horsepower super-delux snowblower hasn’t even been started this winter. Maybe that’s what is keeping the snow away.

Yesterday I needed to be at the temple in Idaho Falls at 5:15 to attend a temple session. Today was Ward Conference for the three wards that meet in the building on South Grant Street. The wards involved in Ward Conference along with the Stake leaders are invited to a special temple session the evening before conference, so Nina and I planned to spend some time in Idaho Falls ahead of the temple session.

The plan was fairly simple. There was an RV show in Idaho Falls so we decided that we would stop there first and look at the RV’s on display. That would take a couple of hours and then we’d go over to the new Olive Garden restaurant for a late lunch (or early dinner). Then a quick stop at Deseret Book for some pictures that Nina needed for the girls at the prison. We’d then go over to the temple about 4:45 p.m. for the 5:15 chapel session.

Lots of slips between cups and lips on this one. First, we were ready to go in good time, so we left about 10:30 to drive to Idaho Falls. We got to the RV Show about 11:30 a.m. Then that turned out to be a trailer show. There were only four RV’s on display and none of them were interesting to us. The show was all trailers, fifth-wheels, and toy haulers. In talking to one of the sales guys I learned that in Idaho Falls they don’t sell very many RV’s. People already have pickup trucks, so there’s a lot of business for fifth-wheel and regular trailers. Further, he told me, lots of folks have dirt bikes and ATV’s, so combination trailer / toy haulers are very popular. None of that is interesting to us, however.

By noon we were finished with the show. We would have left then, but as we were headed for the door we ran into a family that we knew when we were living in Chardon, Ohio. A couple of their kids are the same age as some of ours. We had a nice visit with them and learned that they have been living in Idaho Falls for several years now.

So then what to do? It was 12:30 p.m. and we had four hours to kill. We decided to do lunch. There is a new Olive Garden restaurant in Idaho Falls and we had a gift certificate. We got there to find a long line. We didn’t have anything else to do, so we waited. When we finished lunch about 2, the line was much longer. This is a very popular restaurant right now in Idaho Falls. We now had two hours and a half to kill. We went to Deseret Book and Nina picked up her items. Still two hours left.

We went to Barnes and Noble. I picked up a book I wanted and a couple of CD’s. More than an hour left. There’s a Best Buy close by the book store so I went over there and picked up a new iPod connector for my car. We finally had frittered away the afternoon and drove to the temple.

We had a delightful session. Some friends invited us to go for desert afterwards as he had a couple of computer questions. We went to Applebee’s in Idaho Falls to find that the wait was more than a half hour. Well, there’s an Applebee’s in Pocatello and we were sure there was no waiting in Pocatello, so we met in Pocatello and had some decadent desert and a nice visit. Some days go quite differently than planned!

I ran across a somewhat strange motor scooter in Idaho Falls. Three pictures are posted in the picture album.

It is very nice to be back home. The trip was very quick … I arrived in Belgium on Sunday morning and flew back to Pocatello on Friday. The week was full of meetings and dinners. The purpose of the trip is for our quarterly staff meeting. Each quarter all of my peers meet together with my boss for a day or so of training and then a couple of days of coordination meetings. This time the meetings were in Belgium. Next quarter we’ll meet in Pocatello, then in Manila. These meetings start early in the morning and go through dinner and late into the evening. There is almost no time for anything else during the week. I did take some video and put it together into a movie for a brief glimpse of Gent. It’s a large file (about 67 mb), so it’ll take a few minutes to download with a broadband connection.

The trip was quite uneventful. The flights were on time or early. My suitcase got completely unpacked and repacked by TSA on the return flight. That happens actually quite often and I think it’s because of the nasal CPAP machine that I need for sleeping in the suitcase. Most often the suitcase just gets opened and checked. This time it had been completely repacked. So, I’ve done my part for the security of our homeland.

I do enjoy Belgium. This trip didn’t allow time to do much other than a little bit of shopping. One item available there that isn’t available here (except by prescription) is cough syrup with codine. I got there with a fairly serious cold and a deep, hard cough. So upon arrival, I stopped at the pharmacy and picked up a bottle. Then I found that one of my collegues had just come down with a pretty serious cold, so I gave him the bottle. The next morning he was very happy with that decision as he was finally able to get a real night’s sleep. Before I left Belgium I had picked up two more bottles. Fortunately, those survived the suitcase inspection and repack. Both of the boxes had been opened as the seals were broken. But, the bottles were still there when the suitcase finally arrived at home (a day later that I got home … it spent the night in Salt Lake City because the connection time was too short).

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. It’s a day celebrated across much of the world. In Japan, the girls give guys chocolate on February 14th and the guys give girls chocolate on “White Day” which is the 14th of March. I think that custom is peculiar to Japan. But, I have a very special Valentine person in my life whom I love dearly. Happy Valentine’s Day to my dear wife and best friend Nina.

So far the flying has been OK. The flight from Pocatello to Salt Lake City was on time (and full). The flight from Salt Lake City to Atlanta was about twenty minutes early (and full). The flight from Atlanta to Brussels leaves in about ninety minutes. I’ve no idea if it is full or not, but there seem to be a lot of people here in the gate area already. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was full or close to it.

The weather here is cold! Temperatures are hovering around freezing in Atlanta which is abnormally cold for this part of the country. There are a lot of military troops in the airport either coming in from Iraq or headed back to Iraq. There are enough military here that there are Military Police also patrolling the terminal! I haven’t seen that since Vietnam days. I guess this must be a major transit point for troops.

My cold is just about over. There is still some residual cough and congestion, but I definitely feel much better. Maybe the serious lack of sleep last night made the difference. I’ve slept so much the past three days that last night my body simply didn’t want to sleep … just snooze and doze. It was a very long night. Oh well, I hope to be able to do the same as I wing my way across the ocean this evening. We had very good tail winds coming from Salt Lake City. Maybe they’ll continue across much of the ocean! I’d like to get in early.