A friend and colleague in the Philippines sent me this picture the other day after I had asked about the process of getting a hair cut over there. The place where one goes for a haircut in the Philippines is called a “parlor” where haircuts, pedicures, manicures, facials, and a variety of hair treatments are available — along with this treatment, whatever it might be! I wonder if she’s strapped down by that big orange band to make sure she doesn’t run away? Anyhow, the picture was too good to pass up without passing it along.

The Utah Jazz are in the process of loosing game 2 of the Western Conference Finals. I’ve got the game on TV in the computer room with the sound turned down low mostly for noise. It’s turned quite chilly and there’s a frost warning out for tonight. My boss complained today that she had put her tomato plants out too early and she needed to bring them back in tonight. We haven’t even bought the tomato plants, yet! But Nina has the garden bed all ready for them.

Last week we were in North Salt Lake and after Church on Sunday we’ll drive down to spend the night and the Monday Memorial holiday. We’ll go to the cemetery on Sunday afternoon to put some flowers on Trevor’s grave. The cemetery will be awash with flowers and remembrances. It’s worthy of some pictures. Maybe my little Sony point and shoot will be back from the repair center by then?? One can only hope.

The picture reminded me of the haircuts in Japan. I really enjoyed getting a haircut over there. The barbershop was not far from our house and over the three years we were in Japan, the barber got to know me fairly well. He spoke no English and my Japanese was limited, but that didn’t get in the way. The normal haircut included getting shaved (literally everywhere on my head and neck where hair was not supposed to be) preceded by several hot towels. Then came he haircut followed by a head and upper body massage, more hot towels, and lotions designed to sooth and smooth the skin. All this for about $50. I’d expect the same treatment here (if I could find it) would be significantly more expensive. So, I go to Great Cuts for Hair on senior citizen Wednesday so I can get my few remaining hairs cut for $6.00. No fancy stuff … just five minutes and I’m done and that’s good enough for me.

Sunday after church we drove over to Soda Springs to spend some time with mother and dad. Of course, the main reason was Mother’s Day, but there were several other reasons as well. Mother had a couple of small things needing to be fixed, all of which I was able to take care of. We also had a great dinner and lots of good visiting. Thanks, mother, for being such a special person.

The weekend was good. After several days of unseasonably warm temperatures, we got back to normal and I spent much of the day on Saturday doing things at the house. The garage is now clean. The RV is ready to go camping somewhere (Memorial Day weekend??). The motorcycle has been washed and waxed. Then it got cold enough that I didn’t want to ride by motorcycle to work on Monday! Tomorrow we’re headed to Layton for some things that need to get done before we leave on the cruise in about three weeks. I’m really looking forward to that vacation. Time is going by way too fast in many ways. I feel like it should still be February.

My favorite brother was born on Mother’s Day. I always thought that was kind of a special treat. My daughter Dawnmarie was born on Father’s Day and one of her children (Kate) was also born on Father’s Day, so the tradition continues. So, my brother Perry’s birthday is always somewhere around Mother’s Day. I do remember the birthdays of all our children … it’s Nina’s job to keep track of the grandchildren (and she does that very well). Everyone has the need to “store” information. It turns out that most people store information with other people. As I mature, storing information with other people (and particularly with Nina) has become increasingly important. I even store information in my blog! Let the cryptologist’s figure that one out….

Today is my favorite brother’s birthday. Congrats, Perry! While you’ll never catch up with me, you are aging well. There’s one good thing about birthdays … you’re another year closer to retirement. I hope you’ve had a nice day! Remember to start getting to bed a bit earlier. It comes with age, you know.

LeeAnn posted these questions on her blog. I don’t really have anything else to write about, so here goes:

• How tall are you barefoot? 5ft 9in
• Have you ever flown first-class? Yes … but only because of upgrades or on company business
• One of your favorite books when you were a child? The Hardy Boys
• A good restaurant in your city? We’re still waiting for it to happen
• What is your favorite small appliance? Microwave
• One person that never fails to make you laugh? I can’t come up with an answer for this one!
• What was the first music that you ever bought? Elvis Presley, You Ain’t Nothing But a Houndog
• Do you do push-ups? Rarely
• What was one of your favorite games as a child? Hide and Seek
• When you were twelve years old, what did you want to be when you grew up? A pathologist
• Your favorite Soup of the Day? Clam Chowder
• Have you ever met someone famous? Gilbert Grosvenor, Chairman of the Board of National Geographic. I few to Madrid on a TWA flight and played Gin with him for most of the trip upstairs in the First Class lounge back when the new 747’s had such a thing. He was a delightful traveling companion and I didn’t know who he was until he paid off his $17.29 debt for losing at Gin.
• Date Of Birth? March 19, 1945 (There are days I feel older than dirt….)
• From what news source do you receive the bulk of your news? internet
• Current worry? How much longer until I can retire
• Current hate? Early morning meetings … we often have meetings at 6 or 7 a.m. in the morning at work
• Favorite place to be? A cruise ship
• Least favorite place to be? In a 7 a.m. meeting
• Do you consider yourself well organized? No
• Do you believe in an afterlife? Absolutely
• Where do you think you will be in 10 Yrs? Probably still in Pocatello, Idaho
• Do you burn or tan? Burn
• Are you more optimistic or pessimistic about the future? Very optimistic. Lots of good things medically and technologically on the horizon
• What did you fear was going to get you at night as a kid? I was never afraid of the dark
• What’s in your pockets right now? Keys, wallet, handkerchief, cell phone, pocket knife, fingernail clippers, 2gb USB memory stick
• Last thing that made you laugh? The comic strip Zits in today’s newspaper
• Worst injury you’ve ever had? Haven’t ever been seriously injured
• How many TVs do you own? Six, but one is a computer monitor (currently tuned to the Utah Jazz game against the Golden State Warriors)
• Best compliment received? Compliments are hard to remember. I did get an email from a former colleague a couple of days ago telling me that I was still missed at my former company
• What leaves you speechless? Foul language when someone looses their cool at work
• What is your favorite book? Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series followed closely by The Lord of the Rings
• What were you doing at 12 midnight last night? Absolutely sound asleep
• Who do you tag? My brother, Perry….

I now have a new digital Single Lens Reflex camera. After a lot of looking and investigation, I finally decided to buy the Sony A100 digital SLR. The deciding factor was that the Sony takes the lenses I already have. About a year ago, Minolta sold their camera divisions to Sony. The A100 is Sony’s first camera using the Minolta technology plus their own technology. The three lenses I already have fit the camera very nicely and all work correctly. That meant I only needed to buy the camera body and the Sony had sufficient capability for what I use a digital SLR for. I checked several websites and then went downtown to the local Inkley’s store. They were willing to come within about $40 of what the online price was and having access to their support made the deal. I took a few test pictures, but this one is the first real picture taken with the new camera. It’s so nice to be back in the digital world again!

Union Pacific Railroad’s #844 Steam Engine came to Pocatello Friday evening on May 4th. This was one of those Big Deal events in a railroad town like Pocatello. The train was making it’s way from Cheyenne, Wyoming (home base for the engine) to Tacoma, Washington and back. It will be back in Pocatello on Sunday, May 27th and will be open for tours all day on the 28th. You can be sure that we will be there, along with a cast of thousands, to look, touch, take pictures, and buy souveniers.

I did take a bunch of pictures — four rolls of film in all — and picked out a bunch to put in the picture album. This was old technology work. My Minolta digital SLR was stolen and my Sony Cybershot camera is in the repair shop. So I reverted back to 35mm film using my Minolta Maxxum 9 SLR. It’s time to buy a new digital SLR. Since Minolta got out of the camera business and sold it all to Sony, I think I’ll buy a Canon camera to be compatible with Nina. Now it’s just a choice of finding the best deal either in town or on the Internet. When #844 comes back to Pocatello, I want to be taking digital pictures this time!

We have just returned from Soda Springs and spending some time with mother and dad. It’s been a fairly cold day and snow was coming down when we left Soda Springs to come back to Pocatello. Today was also Train Day. Union Pacific’s big 844 Steam Engine was coming through the area and would be spending the night in Pocatello. The train was supposed to arrive at 2:30 and the web site said that the train often ran early. But, wonders of technology, the train has a global positioning system onboard and the railroad has an interactive map that shows the location of the train. At 2 p.m. the train was still in Wyoming and was running at least 3 hours late. Since we were planning to drive to Soda Springs after watching the train, we decided to go first to Soda Springs and watch the train come through there instead. It worked out well. We arrived at mother’s house, checked the web site, and waited until the train was about twenty minutes away. We drove downtown and got (hopefully) some great pictures of the train coming into town.

Since it’s spending the night in Pocatello and leaving tomorrow morning, we decided to go find the train after we got back to Pocatello. We found we could drive right up to it and walk all around the train. That engine is absolutely massive. We took a few more pictures and will be there in the morning when the train leaves to take more. Since I don’t have a digital camera right now, I went back to my older Minolta Maxxum 9 SLR film camera. It’s been perhaps a couple of years since I’ve used that camera and I’ve now opened the body twice before the film rewound. It’s a good thing there’s still more opportunities to take pictures of the train!

I’ve finally gotten the rest of the pictures in the picture album from my trip to Manila as well as Stephanie’s birthday. In addition, I took a little bit of video from Danielle’s International Children’s Choir concert. It’s about 33mb large, which isn’t too bad. You can watch the video by clicking here.

The weekend was great. Nina and I along with Bradica (the dog) went to North Salt Lake last Friday afternoon. Several Very Important Events were going on, of which the most important was Stephanie’s eighteenth birthday on Saturday. About 11:30 p.m. on Friday night we were headed to bed when I discovered that I had left the hose and mask home from my CPAP breathing machine. For the uninitiated, sleeping is impossible without the machine, hose, and mask. So, it was drive back to Pocatello time. Ty volunteered to go with me, driving his Lexus (because it has a radar detector). It’s a two hour and twenty minute drive … the radar detector took off about ten minutes. We spent the night at the house in Pocatello and drove back to Heather’s house the next morning, with (almost) everything that we had forgotten. So much for “packing light”!

The first Major Event was Danielle’s soccer game. They played very well and won 2-1. The sun was bright and hot. That’s when I discovered that I didn’t bring a hat with me. Heather’s umbrella worked well and I was probably the only one in the group that didn’t get sunburned.

The second Major Event was dinner for the whole family at The Olive Garden. Stephanie and her boy friend Nate joined us for that event. Nate treated Stephanie to a massage and pedicure at a spa for her birthday present. The food was very good (I had Parmesan-crusted Talapia … delicious and memorable!) but we were a bit pressed for time.

Why? Because of the third Major Event! Danielle has been accepted as an Apprentice Level 1 in the International Children’s Choir. The choir was presenting a concert for parents and friends at the Libby Gardner Hall at the University of Utah. This is a very prestigious choir and Danielle has a lovely voice. The concert was excellent and featured on a couple of numbers with a twelve-year-old pianist who is one of the child prodigies that we sometimes hear about. He literally brought us to our feet with his performance. The concert was about an hour and ten minutes of delightful and well presented music. After a year in the choir, Danielle can move up to Apprentice Level 2. A year later, if she wishes and has put in the work, she can join the main choir, which tours all over the world.

Finally on Saturday night, we had the fourth and Main Event: ice cream cake celebrating Stephanie’s eighteenth birthday while she opened up her presents. She was very nicely gifted, including a to-die-for handbag from her aunt and a porcelain sculpture from her mother that brought tears. It doesn’t seem possible that Ty and Heather are old enough to have an eighteen-year-old daughter. I’m certainly not old enough to have a granddaughter that old! However, she’s made it to womanhood and she’s a delightful person anxious to get into the world and take it by storm. Congratulations, Stephanie!

When I mentioned to a friend from the Philippines about Stephanie’s eighteenth birthday, I learned that this is a Big Deal in that country! For instance, people rent hotel salons for this event where there will be dinner followed by ball-room dancing (a Cotillion de Honor). Eighteen candles given by eighteen important female family members and eighteen roses given by other friends and family with either the boyfriend or the father giving the eighteenth rose. While we don’t go that far, it is still a Very Important Birthday.

I did post a few pictures from a weekend trip to Tagaytay in the Philippines on my last trip there. I have a few more pictures to post sometime. I also put up a ten-minute video on YouTube of one of the malls near the hotel where I stay.